-The Hindu This year, India can, it seems, look forward to good rains. Last year's monsoon could easily have slipped into a full-scale drought but was saved by exceptionally heavy rains in September. Even so, almost one-third of the country received far too little rain and has been left parched, with water resources running low. A good monsoon now is essential for agriculture and for the replenishment of reservoirs and aquifers....

-The Hindu Business Line The IMD should be conferred autonomous status so that it functions along professional lines, without worrying about political correctness. Given how awry its forecasts in the last couple of years had gone, one can be forgiven for being cynical about the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) prognosis of a ‘normal' South-West monsoon this time. The country's official weather agency has predicted nationwide rainfall during the four-month monsoon season...

-The Hindu Moscow: Ahead of a key government-level interaction with Russia here on Monday, India has sought to assure Russia that it is not deliberately delaying the startup of the Kudankulam plant with the motive of thrashing out liability issues in that project and others proposed elsewhere in the country. To show its sincerity, India is dispatching a key Nuclear Power Corporation of India LIMited (NPCIL) official M. I. Joy from...

-The Telegraph Calcutta: Mamata Banerjee's zeal for a new anti-fraud bill could delay action against Saradha for months but has only a few differences with the old Left-sponsored bill her government has withdrawn, officials said today. "Except for three provisions and a few other minor changes, the language of the two bills is identical," a law department official said. A senior Writers' bureaucrat said the legislative steps that the new bill must...

-The Telegraph A parliamentary panel has recommended that the Union government dissolve the ministry of development of north eastern region (DoNER) and put it under the Prime Minister's Office. The reason for the ministry's dissolution has been attributed to the plummeting efficiency levels and achievement rate in its planned schemes. "The committee, therefore, strongly recommends that the government should consider the handicaps of the DoNER ministry in a very serious manner. It should...