-Article-14.com Even as landslides increased 2900% over five years in a fragile Himalayan state ravaged by deforestation and construction, the government of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami lifted environmental safeguards and made mining easier, two months before state elections. The High Court has demanded the government explain the changes, rushed through in 15 days in a state where mining companies are major funders of political parties. New Delhi: Two months before elections...

-Down to Earth The state is considering rolling out its own insurance programme for farmers Maharashtra may follow several other big states and opt out Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the Narendra Modi government’s much-vaunted crop insurance scheme. India’s second-most populous state may replace the central scheme with its own — a step already adopted by states like West Bengal. Farmer groups have already flagged irregularities in PMFBY at a February 1,...

-The Hindu It focuses on security, law and order&NBSp; The Union Government has approved the continuation of a police modernisation scheme for five years up to 2025-26 with a financial outlay of ₹26,275 crore. The Union Home Ministry said the scheme includes security-related expenditure in Jammu and Kashmir, northeastern States and Maoist-affected areas, for raising new battalions, developing high-tech forensic laboratories and other investigation tools. The scheme has been approved for the period from...

-The Telegraph The report by Citizens for Justice and Peace implies that the excess casualties between January 2020 and August 2021 were all caused by the virus A non-government human rights group has estimated that between January 2020 and August 2021, Uttar Pradesh witnessed nearly 1.4 million excess deaths or nearly 60 times the state’s official Covid-19 death toll of 23,382 till Saturday. Excess deaths means deaths over and above the figures expected...

-Deccan Herald Poor pandemic management has added 10 million youth to the ranks of the unemployed in the country India’s GDP growth rate has been slowing consistently since 2016, thanks to consistent economic policy mistakes made by the Union government, starting with demonetisation. It hurt the non-farm unorganised sector MSMEs, as it hurt agriculture (third year running, after two years of drought in 2014 and 2015). Between them, these sectors are responsible for...