-The Indian Express Poorly designed policies are largely to blame for farm distress Successive governments have transformed an unevenly prosperous rural society to one which is evenly distressed. Small and marginal farmers now feel worse off than the landless. Most suicides have taken place in the families of such farmers, especially those with no source of non-farm income. For the sense of desperation that now pervades rural India, all political parties are...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court will tomorrow examine two National Green Tribunal orders that slapped "environmental compensation" fees on diesel and petrol tourist vehicles travelling between Manali and Rohtang and restricted the number of tourist vehicles to 1,000 a day in this Himachal stretch. Besides the fees - Rs 2,500 on diesel vehicles and Rs 1,000 on those that run on petrol - the tribunal had also imposed an additional...

-Mid Day Mumbai: He has literally made waste fruitful. Kamlakar Sukhad Urhade, a tribal youth from Girgaon Bhujad Pada village in Talasari taluka has made a water pump out of discarded waste material. Urhade lost his father soon after he completed his education, and the responsibility of looking after his mother and two brothers fell on him. The family’s 5-6 acres of land yields rice, but only during the rainy season....

-Outlook Bhubaneswar: A day after laying foundation for a new medical college in tribal dominated Mayurbhanj district, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said a special scheme will be launched to reduce MMR and IMR in Odisha. "A special initiative for reduction of IMR and MMR in difficult areas of the state will be rolled out with budget of Rs 50 crore annually," Patnaik told reporters after chairing the annual meeting of the...

-New York Times Blog There’s poor, and then there’s ultrapoor. The ultrapoor are almost always women and largely found in Africa, South Asia and to a lesser extent, parts of Latin America. They are most often rural. They work as maids or field laborers, often paid not with wages but in food scraps. They might have just one dress or sari, and must wash a part of it at a time...