-The Telegraph   Ranchi: Jharkhand has started to digitise its public distribution system (PDS) as a part of the National Informatics Centre's (NIC) pan-India initiative to monitor foodgrain theft, but for now only on a pilot basis across six blocks of as many districts. Part of the larger Rs 160-crore central project, Jharkhand is starting with distributing tablets and hand-held computers to 200 of the state's 22,500 PDS dealers in blocks of Ormanjhi...

-The Hindu   Rice, a major crop in Andhra Pradesh, is cultivated using water from borewells, tanks or open wells. Since the crop grows in standing water ground water depletion is usually high especially during summer. In addition to the water shortage, non-availability of labour on time is also increasing the cost of production, forcing farmers to give up rice cultivation citing low productivity and high labour costs as reasons. Different approach A different look...

-Live Mint   The cost of pollution will determine effective implementation of standards It has long been suspected but never established as a comparable fact. New Delhi is a city with one of the poorest air quality in the world. New data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that in 2013 the city had a very high concentration of particulate matter of size 2.5 microns (153 micrograms/cubic metre). Thirteen of the...

-Down to Earth   All safe motherhood programmes of the government are focused on institutional deliveries, but health centres are in disarray. Experts suggest ways to reduce deaths during delivery Lal Mohan, a daily wage labourer, has no clue what took his wife's life. Sarita Devi, 25, was expecting her third child, and was on way to a good hospital at Bhagalpur district in Bihar. "She was normal all through the nine months...

-Thomson Reuters Foundation The lastest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report not only provides new evidence but also sounds an alarm over the impact climate change is having on compounding hunger and significantly disrupting food grain production. Apart from leaving the world hungry and hot, the changing climate will also offset gains against poverty and hunger, especially among the marginalized communities. The new report makes unequivocal projections for India being one...