-Business Standard Drop in wheat acreage evidence of stress in agriculture Chandigarh: Two consecutive drought years have led to rural distress in the food bowl states. At some places, this has become even worse due to the attack of the white pest. Sahiblal Shukla, a farmer in Chitrakut in Uttar Pradesh , who has spent his lifetime in ploughing fields says that, “farmers in Bundelkhand area of the state may soon pack their...

  Seven journalists from English and Hindi media from Delhi, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh have been selected for the prestigious Inclusive Media-UNDP Fellowships 2015. The fellows will take time off from routine journalism to spend time with rural/ marginalized communities to highlight their anxieties and concerns that require wider coverage and public attention. The fellowships cover costs of news gathering, logistics and incidental expenses up to Rs 150,000. The...

-FirstPost.com More than a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet Swachh Bharat campaign was launched across the country, statistics appear to be making it increasingly clear that the focus of the campaign needs to be more than merely constructing toilets. A survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has revealed that not even half the toilets built as part of the campaign are being used, according to a...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Nearly 55% of Maharashtra's population lives in its rural belt compared to 45% in its urban areas. Yet its cities and metros get almost five times more drinking water as its villages from the state's dams, notified rivers and select lakes. The data which reveals the stark rural-urban divide in the allocation of drinking water has been compiled by the state's water resources department. In urban areas,...

-The Hindu What happened at Shishubhawan is symptomatic of how deep the rot is in India's crumbling public health infrastructure. It has been two months since news and reports of the deaths of 40 infants at Shishubhawan, the largest paediatric care centre in eastern India, broke. The facility is for critically-ill children from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. By the end of September, 56 deaths were reported in a span on 12 days. Even...