-The Hindu The programme needs to retain the momentum of a movement than that of a litter-cleaning project "Slum districts... consisted of poorly built houses, a deficiency of ventilation and toilets, unpaved narrow streets, mud, and stomach-turning stenches due to the presence of decaying refuse and sewerage. In such conditions, ill health was observably endemic." This is not a description of Indian cities today (though it may well be), but of Britain around...

-The Hindustan Times The country is ostensibly in the throes of a great social movement for sanitation. Gandhi's name is evoked, Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads from the front, ministers lift brooms for cameras, and officers, college and school children take oaths against littering and to clean their surroundings. Earlier the PM pledges in his Independence Day speech toilets for girls and boys in all schools. It appears that the squalor of...

-The Times of India A Reserve Bank of India paper says that the UPA flagship MGNREGA or the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, under which a household is assured of 100 days of wages per year in return for working on various rural development, has not actually contributed to the rise in food inflation as generally perceived. Incidently, the Reserve Bank was among the first to point that the...

-The Third Pole Cities and villages in India will soon run out of potable water if current trends continue, warns senior water official India's groundwater tables are plunging at an alarming rate with reserves in some states dwindling to critical levels, according to the latest report from the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) - the apex body under the Ministry of Water Resources. Over 16% of the country's groundwater resources are ‘over-exploited' -...

-The Indian Express The Indian meteorological department (IMD) website states that Kautilya's Arthashastra contains records of rainfall and its impact on revenue, as well as details about relief work. Similarly, Kalidasa's Meghdoot, written around the seventh century, mentions the date of the onset of the monsoon and traces the path of monsoon clouds. Till today, forecasts are made on the same broad lines. Farmers like me still look towards indigenous knowledge for...