-Livemint.com We do need reforms to make farming remunerative again but it will take a truly participatory effort On 19 November, in a sudden announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of three contentious farm laws passed by Parliament last September. And they were repealed on the very first day that the House convened for its winter session. Like the way they were passed last year, the repeal was also done...

-Scroll.in Unplanned urbanisation, changing rainfall patterns and delayed preventive measures have created perfect conditions for mosquitoes to thrive. When Dr Shaukat Kalam visited Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh in August, he saw signs of a deadly dengue outbreak everywhere. “We found mosquito breeding in every second house, in the garbage, on the roadside, in articles where water was accumulating,” said the entomologist, an expert on insects, who currently works with the central government’s...

-The Hindu Shankar Lingala of Rythu Mitra has been spearheading a silent movement to run sustainable farms applying the science of the soil Ongole bulls, native cows, the intermittent fights of country chickens, sunshine yellow butterflies and the peaty smell of fresh dung... that’s Shankar and Padma Lingala’s farm for you. Shankar, despite being a city boy is an integral part of the Rythu Mitra group, where a team of farmers is bringing...

-The Hindu Nutrition indicators recorded in real-time are not in the public domain The Ministry of Women and Child Development has spent over ₹1,000 crore on its Poshan or Nutrition Tracker, which records real-time data on malnourished and ‘severe acute malnourished’ children in each anganwadi. But four years since its launch, the Government is yet to make the data public. The Government has spent ₹1,053 crore on the Poshan Tracker or Information Communication...

-GaonConnection.com At least ten districts of Bihar have reported high levels of uranium in their groundwater, the primary source of drinking water in rural areas, which far exceeds the tolerable limit prescribed by the World Health Organization. Millions in Bihar are already facing a high disease burden due to elevated levels of arsenic, fluoride and iron in their water. Presence of uranium has multiplied their worries manifold. The state government is...