-The Times of India LUCKNOW: VIP districts getting 24X7 Power Supply in Uttar Pradesh are also among places with maximum power theft. And two districts on top of this dubious list are Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's Azamgarh constituencies. In fact, both have seen a huge jump in line losses. In Varanasi, the line loss has gone up from 43.18% to 50.13% while in Azamagarh, it...

-The Times of India PATNA: With election round the corner, politicians are making promises. One such promise has been made by CM Nitish Kumar: If voted to power, he would ensure piped water reaches every household in Bihar. Sceptics ask how come as basic a human need as safe drinking water was not made available to the people of Bihar by their successive government in 68 years since independence. Piped water connection...

-The Hindu Business Line Recently, the Telangana Agricultural Advisory Forum, consisting of a few university professors and scientists, deliberated on the causes and consequences of the drought and farmer ‘suicides’ in the State. The unofficial number of suicides attributed to farm families is 1,152. An inquiry into some of the recent suicides reveals an interesting picture. The farmers were not indebted to cooperative credit societies or commercial banks. The case of a...

-The Times of India KOLKATA: Consumers could face long power outages in the coming days as a deficient monsoon and sweltering heat in most parts of the country have raised electricity demand while state run power generators are threatening to cut off supplies to distribution companies (discoms) unless they pay up Rs 20,000-crore outstanding bills. As nearly 80 per cent of the dues are owed by northern and eastern utilities, states like...

-The Indian Express It needs to restructure its agriculture, develop sustainable cropping patterns. Laxman Singh Rathore and his entire team in the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) need to be complimented for giving us sufficient warning, well in advance, about the likelihood of yet another year of deficit rainfall. Although it was not good news, the messenger kept its honesty and boldness in speaking the bitter truth. On April 22, in its...