-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Monsoon rainfall continued to lash fields across India, prompting farmers to rapidly plant rice, lentils and other crops as the crucial weather system is maintaining the momentum after a sluggish start. Rice planting galloped to cover two and a half times the area sown last week, and caught up with last year's level even though sowing of crops began more than two weeks late. Planting of pulses...

-Business Standard Integrates climate change concerns and promotes private investment and role in forestry The NDA government has made public its draft National Forest Policy to replace the one that was crafted in 1988. Incorporating consequences of climate change but entirely ignoring one of the three forest related laws, the Forest Rights Act, the policy brings new focus to plantations, growing trees outside the forest lands  and wood industry. While the policy continues...

-Livemint.com A significant share of women in the country get married without even the most basic forms of Communication with their to-be-spouses before their wedding day Indian women may be shedding their clichéd demure image, but when it comes to matters of choosing life partners they still opt for the traditional, conventional ways. According to the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), 2011-12, a significant share of women in the country continue to...

-The Hindu 66 vans will go to 657 districts and cover 13 lakh km by March 2017 The government will roll out a new campaign on Monday under which 66 digital vans, equipped with Internet and audio-visual facilities, will go to 657 districts by March 2017 to increase awareness about various e-governance services in rural and semi-urban areas. “The aim is to reach out to more than 10 lakh citizens and register over 1.5...

-Press release from Aruna Roy   Civil society activists working on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act from different parts of the country have written to the Finance Minister and Rural Development Minister urging for immediate compliance with the Supreme Court judgment in the Swaraj Abhiyan drought case. Please click here to access the letter to the Finance Minister regarding Supreme Court Judgement on Drought.   Please click here to access...