-PTI Prime Minister Narendra Modi today directed setting up of a task force to study the economic impact of drip irrigation in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra on parameters like water saving and productivity. Reviewing the drought situation in Andhra Pradesh with its Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here, Modi also asked the NITI Aayog to set up a task force that could come up with a model on how to use...

-The Hindu Business Line In Sirsa, Haryana’s westernmost district, the fight to end female foeticide includes tip-offs, thrilling chases and decoys “Chhori hai ! Kal marna tha , aaj mar gayi” (It’s a girl! She’ll have to die tomorrow, she died today). Deputy civil surgeon Viresh Bhushan’s face twists into a grimace as he recalls the incident at Sirsa’s Civil Hospital four years ago. A grandmother in her fifties had strangled to...

-Livemint.com The perception of a farmer as a ‘dumb peasant’ in public policy lies at the core of the agrarian crisis Last month, the agriculture ministry informed Parliament that 2,806 farmers committed suicide in 2015 due to “agrarian reasons”. The data further showed that the highest number of suicides were recorded in Maharashtra (1,841), followed by Punjab (449), Telangana (342), Karnataka (107) and Andhra Pradesh (58), among others. What is common to...

-Hindustan Times Mumbai: In a step to reduce the weight of school bags, the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research ( Balbharti), which creates textbooks for schools that follow the state education board curriculum, is coming up with an application. The app will let students read textbooks on their mobiles. But there is no word on semester-wise textbooks and other initiatives promised by the government as part of...

-The Telegraph Bangalore: A Mobile app that enables donors to save blood for future use by maintaining accounts was launched today by an ad agency that has joined hands with the Indian Red Cross Society's Karnataka branch. Possibly the world's first such project, an app called Blood Banking on iOS and Android platforms was launched with an eye on the younger generation that is more attuned to smart technologies for anything from...