-The New Indian Express Hyderabad (Telengana): People of the Dakkali caste are one of the 193 communities that are categorised as Denotified Tribes or (DNTs). They are forced to beg exclusively from the Madiga Community, one of the Scheduled Castes. Banala Mangesh, a Dakkali shares how his community is discriminated against, not just by the privileged but also, the Madigas who have been subject to atrocities for centuries. “We are not eligible...

-Hindustan Times Ranchi: Kitchen waste and heap of vegetables dumped at wholesale markets will no longer be the food for stray animals in the city. The wastes will now be processed and converted into organic fertilizer under Swachh Bharat Mission. Taking a cue from Hyderabad, Ranchi civic body has installed low-cost fertilizer manufacturing units at Khadgara vegetable market on Tuesday to convert the wastes into organic fertilizer. The initiative was started as trial...

-TheHansIndia.com Driven by conservation concerns about the huge pressure on the water resources in the country, there is a growing debate in India about the feasibility of cultivating paddy crops. Such apprehensions are based on the premise that paddy consumes huge quantum of water and consequently it is proving to be a drain on depleting water resources in India. On an average, 2,500 liters of water is required for producing one kg...

-The Times of India In the finely balanced but lucrative economy of vegetable and fruit trade, demonetisation has had a bizarre effect. In distant rural areas, local vegetable prices — both wholesale and retail — have crashed as the oxygen of currency has been suddenly sucked out. Since the whole economy depended on cash, from transport to mandis to purchase prices, this is unsurprising. But in cities, where there is more liquidity,...

-The Economic Times Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants India to go cashless. And it seems that automated teller machines, or ATMs, have been taking the lead ever since the demonetisation drive began. They are absolutely what PM wants the economy to be — cashless. The result: people's frustration is building up because ATMs are either getting emptied faster than they are refilled, or they are just not working. ET reports from commercial hubs...