-The Indian Express Ramendra Singh tells five stories of Bundelkhand’s daily battles The first month of 2016 had top politicians, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, make a beeline for Bundelkhand. But stuck between photo-OPS and political blamegame are lives stifled by recurring droughts, crop failures, and lack of jobs. Ramendra Singh tells five stories of Bundelkhand’s daily battles Please click here to read more. ...

-The Hindu City fetes Jadav Payeng and Abdul Kareem — men who built forests from scratch. Mumbai: Leaders of nations the world over devote a large part of their time, money and policy framework to the growth of the economy. But if they held their breath for a minute, they would realise it is life-sustaining oxygen that needs their urgent attention. At the recently-concluded Paris climate change conference, Jadav “Molai” Payeng, 52, known...

-LiveMint.com Under the Modi government there have been unprecedented attacks across the spectrum of social security rights With a broom in hand, the Narendra Modi government has been quietly carrying out sweeping changes. Away from the photo OPS of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, there has been unprecedented watering down of social security rights. Apart from the severe cuts expected in the next budget, three big-ticket assaults are underway-on the rights to land,...

-The New Indian Express At a time when millions of people are being pushed into poverty by health care costs, there is good news from Karnataka. The state, a pioneer in government-led health assurance, launched another innovative programme on Tuesday. The Rajiv Arogya Bhagya scheme for uninsured people above the poverty line covers tertiary treatment, including 449 surgical procedures, in seven specialties: cardiology, neurology, urology, oncology, burns, polytrauma and paediatrics. Each...

-The Hindustan Times The urban leg of Swachh Bharat Mission could be going to the cleaners as the Centre and the states have yet to clean up their act on the funding pattern to sustain the Rs. 62,009 crore programme. The mission launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than two months ago to encourage cleanliness in cities and to build loos to discourage defecation in the open in urban India is...