-Economic and Political Weekly While insufficient sanitation facilities often get represented in statistics and are reported in the literature on urban infrastructure planning and contested urban spaces, what is often left out is the everyday practice and experience of going to dysfunctional toilets, particularly by women. By analysing the practices and problems associated with toilet use from a phenomenological perspective, this article aims to situate the issue in the everyday lives...

-Livemint.com The two weather agencies have had different forecasts for this year’s monsoon since April For once, the state-run forecaster India Meteorological Department (IMD) and private weather forecaster Skymet Weather Services Pvt. Ltd are on the same page: Rainfall in August will be below normal. The two weather agencies have had different forecasts for this year’s monsoon since April. Recently in August, while IMD reiterated that monsoon this year will be deficient,...

-The Financial Express Seasonal showers declined 6% from the long-period average up to August 6 For the first time since the current monsoon season started in June, the country’s water storage has dropped from both the level a year before and the normal benchmark average, thanks to a slowdown in monsoon rains since early July. Seasonal showers declined 6% from the long-period average (LPA) up to August 6, worsening from a deficit of...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: The lack of monsoon rains is spelling doom for Telangana on three fronts: First, a drastic drop in paddy cultivation is set to trigger a massive shortage in rice production; second, with their crops more or less destroyed and the prospect of rains in the near future bleak, farmers are resorting to suicides; and thirdly, plummeting water levels at Nagarjunsagar Dam is threatening to disrupt the...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: Telangana appears to be heading towards a drought. Half of the monsoon season is over and apart from the initial days of rainfall, the state has had a dry spell. Water levels in reservoirs are dropping rapidly and many towns are facing a drinking water crisis. In rural areas, the crisis is in the form of dying crops and a looming threat of fodder shortage. In fact,...