Groundwater, which irrigates half of Indian agriculture and provides 85% of rural drinking consumption, is an increasingly scarce resource. There is a growing understanding that it must be approached as a common property resource for collective benefit. It is best understood and managed by those who live near them and use them rather than agencies who visit sporadically - that is the central premise of efforts around participatory groundwater management....

-The Hindu Department of Public Instruction seeks higher allocations from Centre Mysore: The soaring prices of food commodities, particularly rice and vegetables, have escalated the cost of cooking food for schoolchildren under the midday meal scheme, Akshara Dasoha, in the State. As rice is the staple diet under the popular scheme which has addressed the issue of school dropout, the sharp rise in the prices of rice and vegetables have only increased the...

-The Times of India BARASAT: Mamata Banerjee has again failed Kamduni, where a college girl was gang-raped and brutally murdered on the night of June 7. Even 15 days after the crime, the CID has failed to file the chargesheet as promised by the chief minister when she visited the victim's family on June 17, ten days after the ghastly crime. Mamata's self-imposed deadline passed on Saturday. "We have the postmortem report...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: Sebi has barred Alchemist Infra Realty Ltd from continuing its collective investment scheme and ordered that investors, several of whom are said to be in Bengal, be refunded within three months. The capital market watchdog's order said the company had denied it had anything to do with Alchemist Group, which is run by the family of K.D. Singh, a Rajya Sabha member from the Trinamul Congress. Some party leaders...

-The Times of India Of the five million odd graduates that India produces annually, only a little over half are employable in any sector of the knowledge economy. Inadequate English and computer skills are key factors holding back students, especially those from smaller towns. The National Employability Report by Aspiring Minds, an employability solutions company, revealed this, based on the computer adaptive test on 60,000 Indian graduates. The students were tested communication...