-Livemint.com State seeks Rs300 crore more for drinking water supply and Rs750 crore for waiving off interest payments on loans New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh has declared 35 out of 51 districts in the state as drought affected and sought an initial central assistance of Rs.2,400 crore, indicating deepening rural distress. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha have already declared parts of their state as drought affected. Madhya Pradesh finance minister Jayant Malaiya and agriculture minister...

-Hindustan Times Amisha Paswan, an otherwise quiet and shy girl, is pretty articulate when she spells out her career plans. “I want to become a doctor and cure poor people,” she says in fluent English. Amisha loves to read fairy tales but her own life is the tale of a girl trying to succeed despite the many disadvantages that comes with being born into extreme poverty. As we speak to her on...

-The Times of India Dr David Berger, director of the British Medical Journal group and a general physician practising in Australia, is better known in India for an article he wrote in the BMJ in May last year titled 'Corruption ruins the doctor-patient relationship in India' based on his experiences of working in India. The article sparked a public debate on the widespread corruption in India's healthcare sector. Here now on...

-Business Standard Sixteen states and Union territories implemented the Act's provisions in all districts or some The Centre has decided not to extend the Wednesday deadline for states to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA). "Those states who have not adopted the NFSA will continue to get grains under old public distribution system rates, but they must realise it is not in their own interest to keep away from the Act for...

-Business Standard India’s growth in agriculture and allied activities has struggled to reach the targeted four per cent average a year in the first three years of the 12th five-year Plan because of a host of factors. The below-average farm growth is widely expected to deepen the crisis in the farm sector. In an interview with Sanjeeb Mukherjee, newly-appointed member of NITI Aayog and eminent agriculture economist Ramesh Chand  said over-reliance...