-Hindustan Times Hyderabad/ Bhubaneswar/ New Delhi: A blazing sun baked large parts of India on Friday with a searing heat wave claiming dozens of lives this summer in a budding El Nino year, while the weather office predicted worse days ahead. The oppressive conditions have killed at least 21 people in the southern state of Telangana as the meteorological department said the mercury would likely shoot up further and advised people to...

-Down to Earth Season after season of failed crops is pushing farmers to the BRInk of desperation, while the inaction of the Maharashtra government is allowing agriculture to slip into a steep decline In Talavada village in Beed district of Maharashtra, farmer Sahibrao Athole made one last attempt to call for help. Lying alone in his field on the night of June 12, 2014, Athole was gasping for breath. He had consumed...

The fifth CMS VATAVARAN Young Environmental Journalism Awards is now inviting entries from journalists representing print, broadcast and online media. The last date for receiving the entries is July 31st 2015. The fifth CMS VATAVARAN Young Environmental Journalism Awards is now inviting entries from journalists representing print, broadcast and online media. The CMS VATAVARAN Young Environmental Journalism Awards aim to recognise and reward excellence in environmental journalism by young journalists...

-Hindustan Times A dominant feature of the first year of Narendra Modi's leadership is the quiet dismantling of India's imperfectly realised framework of welfare and rights, covertly, by stealth.   A declared pro-corporate agenda, such as the land acquisition ordinance, proved politically messy and costly. Therefore, the government resorted instead for an enfeebling of the welfare architecture of the country through a combination of fiscal withdrawals, ignoring even legally mandated obligations.   But this attracted...

-DNA India's agriculture sector is thriving and can provide livelihood to millions more. False pictures form the main plank of the political debate on India's agriculture. One is that of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the other of the Congress. The two big political parties in the country agree with each other in believing that farmers and the landless folk in the villages are at the end of the tether, and...