-India Today West Bengal: "Kerosene is sold at Rs 40 per litre in the market. Now the money will be saved, thanks to the solar lamps. We are really grateful to the solar aid," said Kasinath Mahata, one of the villagers. It was celebration time for the people of Pandri, a village in the Purulia district of West Bengal, illuminated with lightening after years of hassle. The excitement doubled when the village...

-Hindustan Times Kota: Concerned over the rising number of students committing suicides, the Kota district administration and the city’s coaching institutes have begun taking corrective measures in an attempt to de-stress the students and instil positivity in them. The district administration has chalked out a strategy to reduce the pressure that students undergo, issuing several guidelines to coaching institutes including starting weekly offs for students, augmenting the number of counsellors, providing fees...

-Livemint.com According to the Environment ministry data, 391 people and 39 elephants died in 2014-15 across India, as a result of the man-elephant conflict New Delhi: As many as 391 people died in 2014-15 due to human-elephant conflicts, triggered mainly by factors like habitat loss and shrinkage and degradation of their range. But the good news is that compared with the last two years, the number of deaths of both elephants and...

-DNA The report said it will ease the exit of those farmers who find farming unattractive or non-viable and economically strengthen those farmers who want to stay and raise the scale of operational holdings. Opening farmland for 'liberalised leasing' through government-run 'Land Banks' can be a 'win-win reform' in the Indian farm sector, stated the latest report of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog taskforce on agricultural development. The report...

-Hindustan Times The Chennai floods have thrown up some fundamental flaws in our system of urban planning. Across India, city after city has experienced floods, while some others live with the fear of impending disasters. In Mumbai, flooding was caused by wrong developments at the Bandra estuary and negligence along the Mithi river, and in Uttarakhand the disaster was caused by unplanned regional development and the unholy nexus between the land...