Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh battled the fury of continued torrential rains and surging floodwaters Saturday, which claimed 194 lives and indundated vast swathes of land, rendering lakhs of people homeless. Rescue efforts were intensified, with troops backed by Indian Air Force helicopters shifting marooned people in both states to safer areas. While 161 people perished in the heavy rains that battered 15 districts of Karnataka, 33 people were killed in neighbouring Andhra...

This is a statement sent in by V.R. Krishna Iyer, a former Judge of the Supreme Court, who is based in Kochi: Some of the provisions of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that India recently signed with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will weaken India’s, and specifically Kerala’s, rubber sector because Malaysia and a few other countries that are a part of the ASEAN will flood the...

The procurement of rice for distribution under the proposed Right to Food scheme has renewed the fears of irreversible depletion of water table in India’s grain producing regions. It is feared that unless more scientific and progressive methods of rice cultivation are used, the otherwise welcome scheme would lead to more sowing of summer paddy leading to more injudicious water use and further soil degradation. Many rural NGOs and agricultural...

Over 25 million more children will suffer from malnourishment by 2050 due to effects of climate change and India will be one of the worst affected in the Asian region, a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute said on Wednesday. However, the study finds that the scenario of lower yields, higher prices, and increased child malnutrition can be averted with $7 billion additional annual investments in rural development...

It came as no big surprise to anyone at all that US President Barack Obama made a speech filled with noble intentions, but very little concrete action, on the issue of climate change at the Climate Change Summit, which just concluded in New York. Environment activist had great hopes that the US President would think "out of the box" and take the lead in ensuring that the US, one of...