-The Hindu For the population as a whole, non-communicable diseases including cancers and digestive disease are bigger killers while infant mortality and diarrhoeal disease are reducing in impact, the data shows. Suicide and road accidents are the leading cause of death among young women and men respectively, new data from the Registrar General of India shows. For the population as a whole, non-communicable diseases including cancers and digestive disease are bigger killers...

-Hindustan Times India witnessed an impressive surge in the number of women owning or managing agricultural land in 2001-11 with landholdings under them registering a faster growth in this period than the ones controlled by men, shows a World Bank-backed study that points to improved gender equity in land rights. Though the amount of farmland controlled by women in the country is still marginal at 10% of the total, the number of...

-Business Standard Looking at economics behind agricultural households, a survey notes that 68.3% of such households still relied on agriculture as primary source of income Rural distress is a known story but a survey by NSSO has revealed the alarming level of fragmentation in farmland and unavailability of jobs. As many as 69 per cent agricultural households own less than a hectare of farmland each, making farming unviable and forcing migration to...

-The Indian Express Open agricultural burning, a common practice in north and northwest India, releases black carbon due to insufficient combustion. The burning of agricultural waste around Delhi that is causing air pollution in the capital is also contributing significantly to the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, a new study has suggested. Open agricultural burning, a common practice in north and northwest India, releases black carbon due to insufficient combustion. These...

-The Hindu 2015’s El Niño on course to being the strongest ever. The highest daily rainfall in a century. Freak weather conditions on one day. The hottest-ever Indian Ocean. The strongest-ever El Niño. The hottest year on record. The bad news is that a perfect storm of meteorological conditions combined to create Chennai’s worst-ever deluge last week, exacerbated in no small part by civic infrastructure pushed to its limit and systemic dysfunction. The...