-Livemint.com Panel on doubling farm incomes proposes shifting from supply-led to demand-led production system New Delhi: The government should undertake a radical overhaul of the agriculture ecosystem by moving from a supply-push production system to a demand-led one, according to a committee set up by the centre to recommend strategies to double farmer incomes by 2022. The agriculture ministry should also set up an “empowered committee” to operationalize and monitor progress of doubling...

-The Indian Express Why assembly election verdicts should occasion a rethink on loan waivers, MSP raises The results of the elections to state assemblies should be a humbling experience for the BJP. Political pundits have started analysing the verdict, since the reasons for the BJP’s defeat have important implications for the parliamentary election of 2019. One factor that is being flagged by analysts is farm distress. Farmers across the country are not...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: For a long time the perils of dumping untreated faecal sludge into our rivers has been ignored in our government policies. Today, this neglect has manifested to become one our gravest public health threats. And now research has found the highest concentration of highly antibiotic resistant E.coli bacteria just besides Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram on the riverfront. It is exactly here that the Chandrabhaga drainage spews out...

-The Hindu Urge parties to frame policies to preserve MUNDRI: For southern Rajasthan’s tribals, the Assembly elections are an opportunity to press their demand with the contesting political parties for framing policies that ensure food security, even while helping them preserve indigenous practices, and assist in forming new linkages with the local health and financial services. The region’s tribal population wants political representatives to make interventions to help the community improve resource management...

-India Spend/ Scroll.in In August, the CAG found that the National Rural Drinking Water Programme had failed to meet its targets. More than 163 million Indians – higher than the population of Russia – do not have access to safe drinking water, and the National Rural Drinking Water Programme, despite spending 90% of Rs 89,956 crore budget over five years to 2017, has “failed” its targets, according to an August 2018 report...