-The Hindu Business Line Distracted by elections, the country’s alarming water crisis has been overlooked As India’s water crisis gets visibly worse with every passing summer, it is clear that the bureaucracy and policymakers are not working to find immediate and long-term solutions. This time, the apathy seems to have worsened due to the ongoing elections. In Maharashtra and Kerala, for instance, the administrations have taken refuge in the ‘model code of...

-TheWire.in Aquifers at all levels are being depleted. There is thus an urgent need to review and enact the long-pending model groundwater bill. As winter tips into summer, the next round of water struggles will begin. By February, hand pumps across rural India will start going dry. People in urban centres, mostly small towns living off small stores of groundwater, will start getting increasingly erratic supply. The government will once again initiate...

-The Hindu Business Line Many regions saw rain deficits; Maharashtra, Karnataka have already declared a drought New Delhi: Even though many States have declared a drought-like situation in some pockets of their respective territories, agricultural input companies are putting up a brave fight saying the situation is not all that bad and hoping it would have little impact on their bottomlines. While the Met department, in its end-of-season report, said the country as...

-The Hindu It's time we stopped neglecting urban ecosystems Countless poets and lovers have declaimed over the ages that Venice is not just a city; it’s a living dream. By that same measure, irreverent others would hold that during the monsoons in India, its cities are more than just cities; they are lived nightmares. Venice’s waterways are celebrated the world over and hordes of tourists descend on the city every year. In...

-The Economic Times The monsoon’s progress in June has been rapid but erratic, falling 5% below average in the first month of the season and obstructing the planting of kharif, or summer sown crops, particularly pulses and oilseeds. The southwest monsoon arrived with a bang and drenched southern India and western states such as Maharashtra with heavy rain, after which it took a nearly two-week break before swiftly advancing towards the north...