-DNA Even as the Modi government promises to increase the green cover, here are the challenges it is facing. Meet Ashish Arora, resort owner in Uttarakhand who lives next to a forest. It is not just the chirping birds, clean air and wild animals that surround him. He also has to grapple with forest fires every year. For the people in Uttarakhand like any other forest-rich state, forest fires are a way...

-The Times of India When Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi asked students of Bengaluru's Mount Carmel if the Modi government's Swachh Bharat Mission was working, he got a mixed response. An analysis of the campaign, well over a year now, shows the progress report is mixed too. Last year, on October 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission, promising to provide toilets to Indian households that still...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A home ministry helpline offering information on quake-hit Nepal has been swamped by Indian farmers airing their distress, embarrassing a government already under the Opposition's cosh for its "anti-farmer" policies. Compounding the discomfiture, most of the callers are demanding the Rs 15 lakh that Narendra Modi had, during last year's election campaign, promised to deposit in every bank account after retrieving black money from abroad, ministry officials said. "We...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Agriculture The Central Government has asked State Level Bankers' Committees to facilitate timely restructuring of crop loans. With restructuring, the loan repayment period would be extended. The Home Ministry has also written to states to keep 10% of SDRF fund reserved for "local disasters" such as heavy rain which are to be declared at par with national disasters and use this money for distressed farmers. This...

-The Hindu Though studies point to an increase in the pace of glacier wastage in the western Himalayas, long-term monitoring is required to study glacier evolution and its relation to the climate At dawn, Mohd Soheb begins an arduous trek to the high camp at Chhota Shigri glacier in the Pir Panjal range in Spiti valley, Himachal Pradesh. From the PWD guesthouse at Chota Dara, he walks down to the Chandra river...