-PTI Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government has declared another 468 villages of parched Saurashtra and Kutch region as 'partially scarcity-hit', taking the total number of such villages reeling under acute water crisis, to nearly 1,000. In addition to the 526 villages which has been put in the red zone in beginning of the month, the state government has added 468 villages in the list through an official notification issued yesterday, taking the total...

-The Times of India Gandhinagar: The delayed implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) by the Gujarat government from April 1 has thrown up a rather unappetizing truth. More than 1.58 lakh people with permanent government jobs, four wheelers, five or more acres of land, monthly income of Rs 10,000 and paying income-tax -- were feeding off wheat and rice at Rs 2 per kg and highly subsidized sugar and kerosene...

-The Hindu Hyderabad: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has said that there were no instances of suicide by farmers in areas where the bank supported watershed programmes. Addressing a press conference highlighting the performance of Andhra Pradesh regional office of the bank on Monday, its chief general manager Hairsh Java said the bank released a grant of Rs.175 crore for 166 watershed projects in AP last year and 154...

-Hindustan Times About 330 million people are affected by drought in 10 states as 256 districts reel from severe water shortages and poor farmers suffer crop losses. The current dry spell is partly because of two back-to-back years of bad monsoons. Policy makers have no control over fickle weather whims. As credit rating and research agency Crisil points out, the rising frequency of weather shocks amid higher vulnerabilities has compounded agrarian...

-Livemint.com/ AP Hundreds of millions of people in at least 13 states are reeling from severe drought, a situation that is expected to worsen in the coming months Shahapur: Shantabai Babulkar’s day begins before dawn with a 5 kilometer trek across barren fields and dusty scrubland to fetch water from a distant well for her family. The two metal pots of muddy water that Babulkar, 58, balances on her head and a...