-HuffingtonPost.com NEW DELHI: Severe drought conditions prevail at the moment in at least 10 states in India. Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana are all staring at a bleak summer, already experiencing severe water shortage, with at least two months to go for the monsoons. But Droughts are not unique to India. Rich and poor nations across the world are hit by all sorts of calamities, every year,...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Rains may break 2-yr El Nino jinx
-Business Standard After a hotter than usual summer, a better monsoon would boost agriculture, rural demand Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan's hopes of a normal monsoon this year - after two back-to-back Droughts - to boost rural demand could be fulfilled. Though the summer is expected to be hotter than usual, global and domestic forecasts point to good rains this year. Officials of both the weather department and private forecasters said the...
More »In drought-hit western Maharashtra, children forced to live as orphans -Debashish Panigrahi
-Hindustan Times Eleven-year-old Kavita and Sunil, a year younger, last saw their father Mahadev four months ago, when he returned briefly to the village to attend the wedding of a relative. When leaving home again, a day after Diwali, Mahadev gave Kavita Rs350 for her and Sunil to live on for the next three months. He had no option but to leave them to fend for themselves. Not enough rainfall had turned the...
More »Farmers' conference demands law for guaranteed income -Vineet Kumar
-Down to Earth Participants voice concern on drought, farmers' suicide and water conservation, among other issues The three-day long Kisan Swaraj Sammelan held in Hyderabad (April 1 to 3) urged for the enactment of a Farmers’ Income Guarantee Act to ensure dignified earning levels for agricultural households among a host of other things. Organised by the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, a group comprising 400 diverse organisations from across India, the...
More »In fact: There is a drought in many parts of India. Why hasn’t it been noticed? -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express Because this time, it’s only rural producers, not urban consumers, who are feeling the heat This time’s drought has been a most unusual one. Even with three consecutive bad crops (kharif 2014, rabi 2015, and kharif 2015) and a fourth not-so-great one (thankfully, there’s been no big damage from the unseasonal rain and hail unlike in March 2015), annual consumer food price inflation is only 5.3 per cent. In the...
More »