-The Hindu Except the Narmada, all other waterbodies and dams have negligible water: Chief Minister With rising mercury levels and severe heatwave, Gujarat is facing a massive water crisis. The scarcity is particularly acute in the Saurashtra region, Kutch, North Gujarat and parts of tribal pockets in central and South Gujarat. More than 20 districts are severely affected as towns and villages hardly get water twice a week. In more than 500...

-The Hindu Villagers run out of supplies they had stocked ahead of the cyclone BHUBANESWAR: Three days after the extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani hit Odisha coast, the State government on Monday reached several villages blocked by uprooted trees and collapsed electrical poles for the first time to find people in dire need of water, food and polythene sheets. The famed marine drive road between Konark and Puri was cleared on Monday. When...

-Frontline.in Interview with Aruna Roy. ARUNA ROY is a well-known social and political activist. A former Indian Administrative Service officer, she resigned from the IAS in 1975 and has since worked with the most oppressed in society. Aruna Roy’s observation on government service is indicative of her future concerns: “Everyone calls it an elite service; I always felt the discourse should be a bit better than what it was. I was shocked...

-The Hindu They will soon become more than just a political liability The BJP’s poor performance in the recent Assembly elections underscores the extent of India’s agrarian distress and the political cost of failing to address it. The root cause of the Indian farmer’s woes is water shortage. Yet, barring policy interventions, this problem will only worsen — to the point that it will become far more serious than a mere political...

-Livemint.com India’s weather office has forecast a normal monsoon. Bountiful rains in the June-to-September period are critical for about 800 million Indians who depend directly or indirectly on farming New Delhi: Gangabhishan Thaware, a 53-year-old farmer from the drought-prone Marathwada region of Maharashtra, took an unusual step in July last year. Thaware and his fellow villagers had toiled on their fields and spent thousands of rupees on seeds and fertilizers, hopeful...