-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government is infusing fresh urgency into implementation of the Swachh Bharat Rural scheme after a detailed review by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month triggered concerns that at its current pace the flagship cleanliness programme could miss its deadline of 2019. Barely 11 per cent of India's 6.38 lakh villages have turned open defecation free so far, with only 17 of the 683 districts declared ODF...

-The Financial Express The government’s move to roll out the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) from the ongoing kharif season has got a boost with 18 agriculturally critical states, including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and Maharashtra, having floated tenders to identify insurers who will offer the scheme to farmers. According to agriculture ministry data, Rajasthan has completed the bidding process for identifying insurance companies...

-Livemint.com Tiliya, one of many villages in Bundelkhand region, has been emptied of its young people as they have migrated to the cities to find work, usually menial jobs Jhansi/ New Delhi: Adjacent to the Pahuj river, surrounded by small rocky hills in Jalaun district of Uttar pradesh lies Tiliya, a village of 42 households. Most villagers are farmers but, strangely, almost all the farmers are elderly. They put it down to ‘Palaayaan’...

-The Hindu Data from Gujarat show such atrocities impossibly make up 163% of the total number of crimes. Uttar pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar lead the country in the number of cases registered of crimes against the Scheduled Castes, official data pertaining to 2013, 2014 and 2015 show. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) counts these States among those deserving special attention. While U.P. has witnessed a political war of words over an expelled...

-The Hindu India must convert its young population to a competitive advantage, and nutrition and health are foundational to that outcome. The “Global Nutrition Report 2016” once again demonstrates India’s slow overall progress in addressing chronic malnutrition, manifest in stunting (low weight for age), wasting (low weight for height), micronutrient deficiencies and over-weight. Our track record in reducing the proportion of undernourished children over the past decade has been modest at best,...