-The Telegraph Dozens of forest fires are raging across Uttarakhand, forest and tourist industry officials said. The fires have injected smoke into the mountain air and disappointed tourists at spots where the haze has obstructed scenic views, some of the officials added. The Uttarakhand forest department has recorded more than 70 fires scattered across the state on Thursday evening. Forest officials say most fires appear to be agricultural fires that have run out...

Nagpur orange’s survival hinges precariously on its return to sustainable cultivation. Farmers have woken up to this, but will the government? A beaming Uday Wath hugs the trunk of his sturdy, disease-free Nagpur orange tree. All around him are trees drooping with the fruit, large and healthy. The tree trunks are singularly free of both telltale gummosis wounds and bluish white bordeaux paste, the chemical meant to prevent them. Not more than...

There is no case whatsoever to construct a single poverty line based on a calorie or expenditure norm; all such lines are arbitrary and do not take into account the different dimensions of poverty. It is far better to focus on disaggregated information on a variety of parameters – education, housing, clothing, health, etc – which can give us unambiguous information about the different facets of poverty over the course...

-The Telegraph Trinamul leaders in Singur today urged party MPs and MLAs to donate a month’s salary to help raise a fund for farmers who lost their land to the Tata Nano factory. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has time and again said that the 400 acres for which the farmers have refused to accept compensation would be returned to them but the government is engaged in legal tangle with Tata Motors since...

The second green revolution found a mention in the Union Budget as a big achievement for the government. But, while paddy production went up manifold in eastern India, did it help its producers? In Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s home state of West Bengal, there was agony everywhere in the last few months, as paddy and potatoes were selling cheap and pauperised Cultivators were killing themselves. The government was nowhere to procure...