-PTI   The report said conditions in displacement camps remain dire across the country The United Nations: India at the end of last year had about 526,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), uprooted from their homes due to communal violence and armed conflict, according to a new UN-backed report.   "India continued to experience new and protracted displacement during 2013 as a result of communal violence and armed conflict with a total of at least 526,000...

-Financial Chronicle   Forecasts on possible monsoon behaviour are not very encouraging. There is a possibility of El Nino factors causing further problems. More recently, our farmers in parts of north and central India experienced the fury of hailstorms and heavy rains. Climate change further complicates the possibility of providing accurate advance estimates of monsoon behaviour. This is not only true in our country, but also around the world. California, for example,...

-The Indian Express   According to the I&B ministry, DD and AIR were paid Rs 45.67 crore for advertisements and advertorials run under the campaign.   As a last push to help the UPA wade through the elections, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting employed the entire media machinery at its disposal, including Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR), to tom-tom the government's welfare and development initiatives.   Besides paying for direct advertising spots and...

-The Hindu   Forest cover loss has occurred at a period when area under jhum cultivation is declining, suggesting that the land use policy has been counterproductive to forests Two spectacular bamboo dances, one celebrated, the other reviled, enliven the mountains of Mizoram. In the colourful Cheraw, Mizo girls dance as boys clap bamboo culms at their feet during the annual Chapchar Kut festival. The festival itself is linked to the other dance:...

-The Times of India   Prem Das Rai, an MP from Sikkim, knew that development indicators from his state were exceptional. But his office didn't know how to showcase them. He reached out to Swaniti, a Delhi-based not-for-profit organization that has been working "consulting style" with parliamentarians. Their portal called Jigyasa aims to answer questions like Rai's. Rwitwika Bhattacharya, Swaniti's founder-CEO, was surprised at what they uncovered. "I always thought that the...