-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday cited a 2004 UPA decision on foreign assistance to turn down offers of Kerala flood aid from various countries although the National Disaster Management Plan 2016 allows the Centre to accept such help. The move triggered allegations of "policy confusion" from the CPM that heads the state government. Breaking its silence on such offers after Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced on Tuesday...

-The Times of India Nagpur (Maharashtra): With 505 snake bite cases reported by the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College & Hospital (IGGMCH) in the last 2.5 years, on an average 26 people suffer from injuries in a month. The number of cases may be even more if details from GMCH are received, says snake friend (sarpa mitra) Swapnil Bodhane, who had sought information under the RTI Act from both the government hospitals....

-The Hindu Business Line Eleven years since its inception, the State’s farmer’s debt relief commission has quietly eased the burden of debt on poor farmers, and grown to be a model worth emulating Earlier this week 35,000 debt-ridden farmers coursed through Maharashtra, walking 180 km on blistered soles, to converge at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan demanding freedom from debt and fair compensation for their produce. As the government scrounged for solutions, it could’ve...

-Livemint.com To stabilize crop prices and make them remunerative, the Swaminathan Commission proposed significant improvements in the implementation of MSPs Across the country, farmers are furious—and rightfully so. Four years ago, they helped bring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power, believing Narendra Modi’s claims that they would no longer suffer official neglect. But since then, conditions in agriculture have got worse. Earlier problems have worsened as farm incomes have been squeezed...

-The Times of India PALANPUR: Tragedy struck Khariya village in Gujarat's Banaskantha on Wednesday when 18 bodies — all close relatives — were recovered from a river bank, taking the flood related death toll since the beginning of monsoon to 119. The toll may go up as rescue operations are on. Villagers in Khariya watched in disbelief as the bodies were found one after another from the slush and placed in a...