-TheLeaflet.in As India celebrates an increase in its total number of Ramsar sites to 75, this brings into sharp relief the deteriorating state of natural wetlands across the country, especially in urban areas. —– Why were wetlands in the news recently? EVERYONE is careful about consuming clean and pure water to protect their kidneys from malfunctioning. But what about the earth’s kidneys, the wetlands? According to the Press Information Bureau, on August 13, India...

-Down to Earth Telangana Chief Minister said cloudbursts may be a 'foreign conspiracy' during his visit to flood-hid Bhadrachalam India, especially its Himalayan states Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, are devastated by cloudbursts several times moslty during the monsoon season. Flash floods caused by a cloudburst in Uttarakhand in 2013, killing thousands of people, is one of the worst natural disasters the country recorded since the 2004 tsunami.  Climate change has been making these...

-The Telegraph The media’s culpability is damaging India’s interests Media culpability can damage a country’s interests. Two recent instances will suffice to illustrate the point. The media’s role in recent events triggered by a Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson’s remarks on Prophet Mohammed has received less attention than it deserves. The focus has been on the offending spokesperson. There was mayhem across the land on account of a television news show. The tally...

Every year in the month of either February or March, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) announces the notified MGNREGA wage rates (i.e., notified daily wage rates for MGNREGA workers) for various states and Union Territories (UTs) for the upcoming financial year. The MGNREGA rates are notified every year based on the increase in Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL). Like the previous years, in 2021 too, experts and civil...

-The Hindu Extension of procurement season to benefit farmers, it says The Centre has asked wheat-producing States and union territories (UTs), whose procurement closing dates were expiring early, to keep procuring wheat till May 31, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said in a statement on May 15. The extension of the wheat procurement season was “expected to benefit farmers”, the Ministry said. The Ministry had also directed the Food...