-Hindustan Times A garden can provide a context to students for understanding seasonality and life cycles of food; it can provide an opportunity to work cooperatively on real tasks; students can learn about where food comes from; and they can observe all of the principles of ecology in practice The Union human resource development (MHRD) ministry recently asked all schools (rural and urban) in the country to set up kitchen gardens. The...

-Hindustan Times Studies show that natural disasters tend to lower life expectancy more in women than in men. The recent Bihar floods and flood alert warnings in Kerala are just the latest in a long line of natural disasters that periodically strike in India, leaving behind a TRAIl of devastation. The focus afterwards is on assessing the loss of lives and economic cost and, of course, rehabilitation. But though it is...

-The Indian Express Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, provides unskilled manual work for 100 days to eligible rural households. Facing criticism over rising unemployment and rural distress, the Union government plans to launch a new project under which a stipend of up to Rs 20,000 will be given to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) labourers who undergo TRAIning in skills such as masonry or carpentry. The...

-The Telegraph It will be available free to below-poverty-line patients and at a cost to the rest The Union health ministry has decided to provide peritoneal dialysis, a home-based alternative to haemodialysis that typically requires thrice weekly hospital visits, to patients with end-stage kidney disease across India under the National Dialysis Programme. It will be available free to below-poverty-line patients and at a cost to the rest, just as haemodialysis is under the...

-Down to Earth blog Overburdened drainage, frenzied and unregulated construction, no regard to the natural topography and hydro-geomorphology all make urban floods a man-made disaster The recent floods in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh have taken by surprise both governments and people. In Patna, severe water logging has brought the city to a halt, with hospitals and residential areas filled with waist-deep water. Transport services have been disrupted, with many TRAIns cancelled. There is...