-HardNewsMedia.com The CAG’s latest performance audit of flood control schemes and flood forecasting shows how little is done to manage flood-induced disasters Of India’s total geographical area of 329 milion hectares, about 45.64 million hectares are stated to be flood-prone, according to estimates in 1980. The Working Group for the Flood Management Programme for the 11th Five Year Plan (December 2006) estimated that, on average, 7.55 million hectares get affected, 1,560 lives...

-Scroll.in But study of the pilot scheme also finds that 67% of respondents now prefer cash transfers. In three Union territories where the government is running an experimental project to distribute cash instead of subsidised foodgrains, a third of beneficiaries surveyed said they either had not received any money at all (with or without proof) or did not know if they had received it. This despite government claims that 99% of...

When more than 30 children died in Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College due to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) between 10th and 12th of August this year, it became a sensational news item for the Indian media. However, one cannot assume that the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath did not know that several districts of his state, including Gorakhpur were among the JE/ AES...

-The Hindu Business Line A recent book shows how a cocktail of indebtedness, masculinity and consumerism acts as a trigger. For those who have wondered whether indebtedness can be the sole factor driving farmers to take their lives, here is a book that introduces much needed nuance and complexity to the debate. Nilotpal Kumar’s book, based on a study of 22 suicide cases in Ananthapur district (accompanied by a fascinating ethnographic study...

-The Hindu Fifty years since the Green Revolution, the architect of the reform highlights the crisis facing Indian agriculture today It is 11 years since agronomist M.S. Swaminathan handed over his recommendations for improving the state of agriculture in India to the former United Progressive Alliance government, at the height of the Vidarbha farmer suicides crisis, but they are still to be implemented. To address the agrarian crisis and farmers’ unrest across...