-The Times of India Chennai: Voicing concern about closures of government primary schools in Tamil Nadu, members of the Samakalvi Iyakkam, a child rights movement, urged the state government not to close or merge schools citing poor strength. They also demanded for the reopening the schools that were closed or merged in the last 10 years. Quoting RTI replies, members of the NGO, in a press meet here on Tuesday, said as...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: India has sought the cooperation of fellow BRICS members — Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa — to help meet the country’s production shortfall in pulses and oilseeds. Agriculture Ministers from BRICS countries have agreed to promote production of pulses in their respective countries and raise awareness about its nutritional aspects, according to the joint declaration adopted at the end of their meeting in New Delhi,...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government's big plan to fight drought will be unveiled on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday on October 2, with three ministries on directions of the Prime Minister, joining hands to converge their schemes to 'drought-proof' vulnerable districts using technology. Narendra Modi, during meetings with the chief ministers of droughtaffected states earlier this year, had asked for a massive effort to be launched for water conservation and storage...

-Deccan Herald Patna: It’s a double whammy for Bihar. While 11 districts face the threat of floods due to a surge in the Ganga, the remaining 27 districts, out of 38, are on the verge of being declared drought-hit. The data procured from the Met department shows that Bihar has witnessed abysmally low rainfall this monsoon. Against a normal average rainfall of 803 mm, Bihar has received only 635.9 mm rainfall since...

-The Telegraph Cuttack: The threat of extinction looms large over the state's natural fish stocks in rivers and lakes because of unregulated inland fishing during the breeding season. The impact of unrestricted fishing is already being felt in the state's rivers, especially in the Mahanadi. There has reportedly been a drastic downslide in fish catch. The annual freshwater fish production in the state is around three lakh tonnes. While 87 per cent fishes...