-The Hindu Army columns, boats deployed to rescue those stranded Very heavy rain returned to Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, battering the already-ravaged coastal areas and bringing life to a grinding halt in Puducherry and Chennai. Heavy rain in the catchment areas of the Chembarambakkam reservoir (25 centimetres between 8.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday) forced the authorities to discharge water at the rate of 20,000 cubic feet per second into the Adyar...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Even as the Narendra Modi government is trying to formulate a politically acceptable Land Acquisition Bill, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has asked all state governments to submit their land acquisition legislations to check if they have built in adequate safeguards for Scheduled Tribes. The move comes after BJP-ruled Rajasthan government's legislation irked the commission. NCST has served a notice to Rajasthan government for deviating from...

-The Hindu Telengana: Empowered by disciplined thrift activity for close to two decades now, a group of enterprising women members of the Self Help Groups (SHGs) are charting a new course by entering male dominated domain of marketing agriculture produce directly to the processors. The effort has paid off with the farmers in at least 10 mandals of Nizamabad and Adilabad district benefiting a lot. Thanks to the encouragement by Gram Abhyudaya...

-Economic and Political Weekly The importance of hand-washing in personal and public hygiene has evolved over the centuries. While the market with its countless number of soaps and hand-wash products for personal hygiene with the accompanying advertising has created a false sense of security, it is community hygiene implemented through public health measures that is really effective in the battle against disease. Lekha D Bhat (lekhabhatd@gmail.com) teaches at the Department of Social...

Agricultural insurance is supposed to protect farmers from financial hardships and risks when crop losses and damage takes place due to extreme weather events such as drought, cyclone, hailstorms, flood etc. However, in reality this does not hold true in India. Due to the failure of crop insurance schemes in India, there has been a deepening of agrarian crisis and rural distress in the recent times, particularly in the backdrop of...