-The Indian Express IMD, Thiruvananthapuram, director S Sudevan said the state has received hardly any rain since the beginning of this month. Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): An unusual dry spell coupled with the reported fall in the groundwater level in flood-hit areas of Kerala has emerged as a cause of concern. IMD, Thiruvananthapuram, director S Sudevan said the state has received hardly any rain since the beginning of this month. Weekly rainfall for the whole...

-Hindustan Times Kannan Gopinathan, a 2012 batch IAS officer serving as district collector in the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, had arrived in Kerala on August 26 as the state battled devastation from deadly floods. Thiruvananthapuram: For eight days, Kannan Gopinathan worked at relief camps in flood-ravaged Kerala, spending two of those carrying large packages on his head while offloading relief material from trucks in the port city of Kochi....

-Firstpost.com India's two Northeastern states, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, have been put on a flood high alert after upper riparian state China alerted India on Thursday about the rising water levels in Tsangpo river. Tsangpo, which enters India through Arunachal Pradesh is known as the Siang river in the state. Further downstream, Siang river joins Lohit and Dibang rivers to form the Brahmaputra in Assam. Thus, a spate in the Chinese river...

-Scroll.in Raghav Chandra, secretary of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, says displaced Adivasis should not only be compensated with money but land as well. The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has been quite proactive in the last few months. It has prevailed upon the central government to withdraw orders that it thought “diluted” tribal rights, asked states to return “unfairly acquired tribal lands”, and reminded governors of their powers to...

-Livemint.com Rural development secretary Amarjeet Sinha on how MGNREGS has evolved since 2006 to result in income, acreage, water tables, productivity and fodder availability Agrarian distress and rural distress are terms used interchangeably, but the rural economy today is very different from what it was many years ago, given the diversification of rural incomes and hence incorrect to think one means the other, says Amarjeet Sinha, secretary, ministry of rural development. In...