-The Hindu A new regulatory regime for groundwater, that provides for equitable use, is urgently needed The water crisis India faces is of such a magnitude that urgent measures are necessary to address it. Yet, while the crisis is often discussed, law and policy measures to address it remain insufficient. This is partly due to the fact that the primary source of domestic water and irrigation is groundwater but the media and...

-The Indian Express The failure of populist rural credit schemes stems primarily from poor understanding of farm indebtedness in the first place. From the 1970s, a lot of private investment in tube-well irrigation, farm mechanisation and allied agricultural activities took place with bank credit support. After the establishment of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in 1982, institutional credit flows not only accelerated, but also exhibited diversification to fund livestock...

-Hindustan Times None of the states had 100% Access to toilets. Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar was in a spot on Tuesday when he claimed that rural areas in five states had become Open Defecation Free (ODF). But the findings of Swachh Survekshan, commissioned by the Union Drinking Water and Sanitation ministry, that he released, belied his claims. The survey conducted by the Quality Council of India (QCI) with 1.4 lakh households in 4626...

-Hindustan Times The government Sarvodaya co-ed senior secondary school in Rohini Sector 21, which was opened on April 1, boasts of a swanky building with 69 rooms, including yoga room, music room, mathematics laboratory, and science laboratory. Dressed in a blue shirt, navy blue pants and a matching tie, Class 11 student Harsh Rawat feels no different studying at a government school than what he used to at a nearby private school...

-The Times of India A group of girls, almost all in shorts, are dancing after a wonderful strike that fetched them a goal. The goal wouldn't count much, in fact it doesn't count at all during a coaching camp. But for these girls, it's much more than just the sight of the ball crashing into the net that brings delight. For years, these girls from Mumbra have braved odds just to be...