-The Telegraph Jharkhand: Teeming arsenic and fluoride devils will no longer hold a thirsty Jharkhand to ransom. The state drinking water and sanitation department has made its first move to set up plants that can purge the contaminants before groundwater reaches households in several affected districts, including Ranchi. Special apparatus will be launched in the capital district and Sahebganj, where areas like Pathalkudwa and Rajmahal have high arsenic concentration in water - around...

-BBC Unseasonal rains and hailstorms have destroyed crops in several parts of northern and western India. Small farmers are suffering the most in this crisis. Some of the affected farmers in northern Uttar Pradesh state tell their stories to BBC Monitoring's Vikas Pandey. Ram Singh of Pratapgarh looks nervous and unsure about the future as he shows me the destroyed wheat crop in his farm. He is one among many farmers in the...

-The Hindu With the Land Acquisition Bill in the limelight, nobody is talking about the real reforms that farmers need. A major survey finds that almost half the respondents don't want to continue with agriculture. The unseasonal rains over the last few weeks have resulted in enormous loss of crop output across many States of North India. This has shifted attention from the issue of land acquisition to other important problems faced...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: It doesn't get bigger than this, in size, scale and rigour - scientists from one of India's top cancer institutes tracked 11,000 schoolchildren in Delhi for three years. They were drawn from 36 schools, each within 3 km of a pollution-tracking station. This unprecedented study, by the Kolkata-based Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI), found that key indicators of respiratory health, lung function to palpitation, vision to blood...

-The Telegraph The 2015-16 budget was presented to the Lok Sabha by the finance minister on February 28, 2015. The first half of the 2015 budget session of both Houses of Parliament has just ended. The highlight was the passing of a number of bills and the budget debate. The debate on the budget in the Rajya Sabha was a long one, lasting over 10 hours. Several speakers participated, drawn from...