Expanding irrigation network in the country is considered as essential to raise agricultural production in the face of increased frequency of droughts. However, a newly released report from the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare shows that there has actually been a fall in the growth rate of net irrigated area during the recent two decades. The report entitled State of Indian Agriculture 2015-16 reveals that the growth rate in...

-IANS New Delhi: With current availability of water per person per year in India placed at roughly 1,745 cubic metres, experts have called for trans-boundary water governance to tackle the water-stressed situation and, keeping climate change in mind, creation of a water infrastructure. India in 2016 faced one of its worst droughts in decades which affected almost 330 million people. "As per studies conducted two years back, 1,745 cubic metre per person...

-TheWire.in Swayam Shikshan Prayog, a Maharashtra-based non-profit, is helping women become clean energy pioneers, in an initiative that has earned them a UN climate award. Varsha Pawar of Osmanabad district in Maharashtra was like any other housewife till she started selling solar cook stoves and lamps in her neighbourhood a little over a year ago. Life was never the same again. Today, she is the sarpanch (village council chief) of Tirth Khurd,...

-The Indian Express Swachh Bharat completes two years, but eliminating open defecation is a distant goal. October 2 marks the second anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Announcing a goal of eliminating open defecation by 2019 was a great idea, but now that we are 40 per cent through India’s flagship sanitation campaign, it is a good time to assess how much progress the SBM has made. Unfortunately, it is impossible...

-Down to Earth Lack of access to sanitation wiped off US $106.7 billion from India's GDP in 2015. It is almost half of the total global losses A report—True cost of sanitation—was published jointly by the LIXIL Group Corporation, Water Aid and Oxford Economics recently. Oxford Economics mainly works on economic forecasting and modelling. It says that in 2015 lack of access to sanitation cost the global economy around US $ 222.9...