-PTI NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has sought responses of the Centre and the AAP government on a plea seeking directions to them to take steps to address issues related to starvation deaths, especially of children, in the national capital and also in other parts of the country. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice VK Rao issued notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Delhi government...

-The Hindu What happened? At the end of October, the Maharashtra government declared drought in 151 taluks in 26 of 36 districts, mostly in the Marathwada region and in the north. Experts said rainfall had been below par in large swathes of the State and faulty water conservation methods had added to the problem. How serious is it? The total number of villages affected by the drought — though the government has not shared...

-The Indian Express One-fourth of the urban population lives in these small towns (20,000 to 1,00,000 population). These 7 crore people need amenities to match up to their ‘urban’ status. Many of these towns may not be in the vicinity of big cities. Small towns in India are something of an oxymoron. They are far removed from cities in character and appearance and are constantly struggling to establish their “urbanness”. A...

-The Hindu We won’t allow anyone to cut our trees, say the women of Balarampur village For three generations now, and spanning 40 years, Chaturi Sahu, 70, has been unfailingly sending one male member from her family to patrol the nearby Jhinkargadi forest to ensure that its trees and shrubs are untouched. Year after year, her father-in-law, husband and son, who are part of the foot soldiers of Balarampur, a nondescript village in...

-Scroll.in The PMO has a ‘moral, constitutional and political duty’ to reveal to citizens who are the defaulters and what action has been taken against them, it said. The Central Information Commission has directed the Reserve Bank of India and the Prime Minister’s Office to disclose the list of wilful defaulters as well as a letter on bad loans written by the former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan to the Centre, PTI reported...