-The Indian Express In steel city Rourkela, a massive drinking water crisis is unfolding in the Rourkela Steel Plant Township due to the drying up of the river Koel which provides water to the city. With no let-up in intense heatwave conditions in Odisha and over 59 sunstroke deaths being reported across the state, the government yesterday asked all schools in the state to extend their closure till April 26. Early this...

-The Hindu Surveys conducted by activists estimate that there are over 1.2 million manual scavengers in India As numbers become data and move from being just a random rearrangement of 0-9, they speak volumes about peoples, nations, and their objectives. They form the basis of government policies, and have the intrinsic potential to change lives, correct historical wrongs and national trajectories. The last election results, we were told, were a message from ‘Aspirational...

-Livemint.com/ AP Hundreds of millions of people in at least 13 states are reeling from severe drought, a situation that is expected to worsen in the coming months Shahapur: Shantabai Babulkar’s day begins before dawn with a 5 kilometer trek across barren fields and dusty scrubland to fetch water from a distant well for her family. The two metal pots of muddy water that Babulkar, 58, balances on her head and a...

-FirstPost.com Aurangabad/Latur: In recent times, the drought in Marathwada has been reported, discussed and debated, but all from a safe distance. News reports, television debates, social media commentary and even judicial pronouncements have been made regarding the situation. Firstpost reporters spent a fortnight travelling through the arid region and witnessed the devastating social, political and ecological impact of three years of drought. It’s not just the local economy, agriculture and rural structures...

Amidst the prevailing gloominess over agrarian crisis, a recently released report says that the growth rate of agricultural output in both India and China were the same during 2008-2013. The agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) of both these countries on an average grew at 3.3 percent per annum during that period. The latest available data from the 2016 Global Food Policy Report, however, indicates that the neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka...