-NDTV Sikkim, the small north eastern hill state, is the cleanest in India, with Kerala coming in a close second, according to a Swachhta (cleanliness) survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) on the condition of sanitation in rural areas of 26 states. Chhattisgarh and neighbouring Jharkhand placed last in the survey, which was carried out last year. “A survey on Swachhta status was conducted by NSSO during May-June 2015 covering...

-The Hindu Of the 147 cases registered in 2015, 63 were from the region; Assam recorded the highest number. Kolkata: The seven States of the northeast account for about 42 per cent of the total ‘offences against State’ registered in the country in 2015 according to the latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NRCB). Across the country, 147 cases were registered in 2015 of which 63 are from the seven northeast...

Rising prices of dal: How to deal with it? The 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. In India, however, ordinary citizens are under enormous duress due to the skyrocketing prices of dal/ lentils since the last one year. The website of Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs shows that dal prices varied across places. For example, the...

-Earth Island Journal It’s too early to hail Sikkim’s transition to chemicals-free agriculture an outright success, say observers Sikkim, the picturesque northeastern Indian state in the eastern Himalayas, announced in January that it had transitioned completely to organic agriculture — the first state in the South Asian nation to do so. The process of shifting to organic agriculture was initiated by the state government 13 years ago when it launched the Sikkim Organic...

-The Economic Times For Latak in Assam's Dhemaji district, floods are a living reality. But this remote village of about 300 houses has found a novel cost-effective way to connect flood-affected areas — a bridge made out of neatly stacked bamboo. It may not sound like a big success story but, for the village panchayat, it is a cause for much celebration. The panchayat planned the project after deliberations with villagers...