-The Times of India KENDRAPADA (Odisha): The recent floods damaged standing paddy crops in Rajkanika, Aul, Garadapur, Marsaghai and Mahakalapada blocks in Kendrapada district. "Floods caused extensive damage to paddy saplings. How will we repay the bank loan?" asked Sarat Jena of Ratanapur village. The floods also severely damaged large tracts of green gram, black gram and vegetable crops in the district. Deputy director of agriculture (Kendrapada) Prafulla Chandra Mishra said paddy crops...

-The Hindustan Times Pragati Abhiyan and a member of the National Consortium of CSOs working on MGNREGA India is a vast country and every year either the quantity or the distribution of rainfall is deviant in one part or the other. Moreover, Indian farming is still predominantly rain-fed. In such a scenario, the MGNREGA can do two very important jobs: Drought relief and drought mitigation. Recently, the NDA discussed the MGNREGA in Parliament....

-The Times of India KOZHIKODE: Endosulfan concentration in Kasaragod villages is declining, a study has revealed. What more, the combined toxic residue of endosulfan in soil samples collected from affected areas is persistent only for 1.5 to 2 years, before naturally degrading. The study, which comes as a relief to many, was jointly conducted by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) and the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The emphasis on use of digital technologies to bridge the "rural-urban gap" in the union budget is limited to high talk and minimal allocations. The need for a more comprehensive and peoples' participation-oriented rural action plan should have been the focus while setting sectoral allocations, but that is not to be in this mid-year budget. Vipul Mudgal (vipulmudgal@gmail.com) heads the Inclusive Media for Change project at the Centre...

-The Tribune The UPA's flagship programme MGNREGS changed the employment scene for the rural poor. While 100-day job guarantee was a novel step, loopholes and poor implementation rendered it a liability. The Modi govt hopes to gradually reinvent the scheme, if not entirely scrap it. Midway through the Congress-led UPA's second tenure - believed to be largely the courtesy of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) -...