-The Times of India NEW DELHI: As the monsoon prepares to recede, India faces a mammoth recovery task from the worst floods in a decade. Over 3.4 crore people across 280 districts have been affected by floods that left more than 1,000 dead. Very preliminary estimates indicate that over 3 lakh hectares of crops, mainly paddy, have been destroyed. Over 8 lakh homes, mostly kachcha units have been damaged or destroyed. An...

-Huffington Post blog A result of dysfunctional municipal planning and governance. The flooding woes of Indian cities have hit the headlines yet again, with Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Agartala being among the worst affected. As for the response to these crises—there is enough evidence to indicate that the patchwork solutions that have been employed will work like steroid shots that might mitigate the issue temporarily, but worsen it in the future. Planning in...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Bihar is among the states with the poorest progress towards open-defecation-free (ODF) targets with some districts requiring 500 toilets every day to meet 2019 goals, according to a report from the non-government Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) released today. The report said Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand, accounting for 60 per cent of open defecation, would need to accelerate efforts for India to reach its ODF...

-Down to Earth In a major digression from the current discourse on GM crops, the report claimed that the farmers in India have “enthusiastically embraced” GM seeds For the first time since the five-year plans were scrapped, the NITI Aayog presented the three-year action plan last week. The report, which draws on recommendations made by the Task Force on Agricultural Development and a group of secretaries appointed by PM Modi at...

-The Hindu Suburban train services on all three lines suspended, to be resumed in phases Mumbai: Heavy and incessant rain in Mumbai, which began in the early hours of Tuesday and continued unabated throughout the day, brought the city to a virtual standstill, with lakhs of people stranded across the city as transport systems collapsed. According to the India Meteorological Department, the city had recorded 297 mm of rain. The BMC, the Mumbai...