-The Indian express The I&B Ministry has asked all ministries to furnish success stories from states over the last one year in the flagship schemes implemented by them. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly trashed it, and Union minister Nitin Gadkari slammed it in an internal note, the Rural Development Ministry is learnt to have included the “success stories” of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in the list of...

-The Hindu Gajendra Singh Rajput from Dausa. Hargovind Harane from Vidarbha . Gosai Patra from Bardhaman. Why did these farmers take their own lives? In the light of the burning issue of farmer suicides across the country, A.R. Vasavi looks at the plight of the marginalised cultivator. Basamma and her ailing husband have carried and spread their five sacks of ragi (finger millet) from their half-acre plot to the local tar road...

A recent press release from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that the area affected by recent rains and hailstorms is estimated to be 189.81 lakh hectares (on 24 April 2015), which is nearly double the total area affected that was earlier estimated on 16 April 2015. (See the link below). Experts argue that such extreme weather events may severely damage food economy of the nation, apart from breaking the spirit...

-The Hindu The Environment Minister insists on clearing all hydro projects, even when the government itself earlier agreed that the Himalayas must be avoided for development work. A battle of epic proportions between the hydroelectric power companies and the people of Uttarakhand has now culminated with the struggle shifting to the office of the Prime Minister of India. It began with the extraordinary and far-sighted 2014 decision of the Supreme Court in...

-The Hindu "At least 50 deaths of farmers either by suicide or cardiac arrest have been reported and government has done nothing about it." Brown, damaged wheat fields is all one gets to see in Sonepat district of Haryana. In at least six villages The Hindu surveyed, deaths of farmers, either by suicide or cardiac arrest, have occurred following the shock of crop loss due to unseasonal rain. Yet, last week in...