-The Hindu Business Line Hounded for her Documentary on the horrors of manual scavenging, filmmaker Divya Bharathi holds up a mirror to social indifference A conspiracy of silence — that’s how filmmaker Divya Bharathi describes the uneasy quiet that shrouds the death of men and children in sewage tanks. Earlier this month, when six men choked to death in Delhi, the reaction was on expected lines — nothing beyond knee-jerk moves, she...

-TheWire.in With no cylinders sanctioned, traditional cooking techniques are still used. The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, the flagship programme under the aegis of the Central government and promoted as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative, is a much celebrated policy. It garnered praise in the WHO pollution report just last month, and a National Geographic Documentary – chronicling the impact of the yojana on the lives of four women across India – is...

-Bangalore Mirror In Hassan, Kalyanis are being rejuvenated to get water for the parched district When she saw that her district, Hassan, was listed among the 16 permanent drought-prone districts of the state by the Central drought study committee, writer and social worker Rupa Hassan was dismayed. Rupa, who hails from Mysuru and settled in Hassan post-marriage, could not fathom how a green district that has Sakaleshpur of the Western Ghats as...

-Livemint.com The APMC legislation has in effect created fragmented markets—small trading zones that can quite easily be captured by trader cartels Makeshift markets have sprung up in several cities in Maharashtra over the past few weeks, after the state government led by Devendra Fadnavis allowed farmers to sell vegetables and fruit directly to consumers. They are now allowed to bring their produce directly to cities rather than sell them in markets...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh -- traditionally tagged as 'Bimaru' states -- have made major progress in urban municipal reforms in recent years, while Delhi has not submitted any claim of reforms. States such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, which have always performed better, lead from the front again in the assessment by the urban development ministry. The assessment is based...