-India Water Portal The time for quick fixes is over; a comprehensive policy overhaul is urgently needed to impede the juggernaut of Punjab's groundwater depletion. Punjab, a small state in northwest India, derives its name from the Persian words panj (five) and āb (water), meaning the "land of five rivers". Ironically, this state is now regularly in the news for its rapidly depleting groundwater levels. The most recent government report on Punjab's...

-The Hindu Forecasting model from IITM, Pune, says heat waves likely to be three or four times higher India’s first ever national forecast on the impact of global warming on the subcontinent in the coming century, expects annual rainfall to increase, along with more severe cyclones and — paradoxically — more droughts. These projections, based on a climate forecasting model developed at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, will be part...

-Business Standard Govt likely to issue clarification to add more borrowers under ECLGS Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday held a review meeting with private banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to seek feedback to improve the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan economic package to deal with the impact of Covid-19. The private lenders asked the government to revisit some provisions in the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), under which 100 per cent guarantee...

-The Indian Express Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said UP now accounts for 18 per cent of the total workers employed under MGNREGA in the country and has generated 7.93 crore man-days. Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday said that it has engaged 57.13 lakh workers under the MGNREGS, thereby emerging as the top state in the country to give employment under the rural employment guarantee scheme. Briefing mediapersons here,...

-The Hindu The rush to deliver essential supplies reveals unusual vignettes from isolated yet unforgotten islands of the archipelago Kumirmari (Sunderbans): Nearly a month after cyclone Amphan battered the Sunderbans, the archipelago appeared to be healing — its clay embankments were being repaired and connectivity had been restored. But a visit to one of its most isolated areas, which has braved the cyclone and lockdown, threw up interesting sights. Please click here to...