-TheWire.in The manifestoes of major political parties in the fray in all five states promise both great infrastructure development and greater environmental safeguards. Kochi: In February and March, people in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur will vote to elect their next chief ministers and ruling parties. If not at any other time of the year, the public consciousness of environmental issues is heightened in these states today, as both the...

-Down to Earth The state is considering rolling out its own insurance programme for farmers Maharashtra may follow several other big states and opt out Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the Narendra Modi government’s much-vaunted crop insurance scheme. India’s second-most populous state may replace the central scheme with its own — a step already adopted by states like West Bengal. Farmer groups have already flagged irregularities in PMFBY at a February 1,...

-The Hindu It focuses on security, law and order  The Union Government has approved the continuation of a police modernisation scheme for five years up to 2025-26 with a financial outlay of ₹26,275 crore. The Union Home Ministry said the scheme includes security-related expenditure in Jammu and Kashmir, Northeastern States and Maoist-affected areas, for raising new battalions, developing high-tech forensic laboratories and other investigation tools. The scheme has been approved for the period from...

-The Telegraph A Truth Commission for the Northeast This essay is a letter to my fellow Indians. It’s a prayer, a plea, a proposal for a project, a moral experiment. It was triggered by the emptiness of Independence Day, when a majoritarian, mediocre India confronted the vacuity of its political self. These feelings increased upon reading reports on December 4 of the massacre of several civilians in Nagaland. They were waiting at...

-TheThirdPole.net As climate change increases the incidence of flooding, women in the Northeast Indian state of Bihar are becoming more vulnerable to violence and trafficking After devastating floods struck the Northeastern Indian state of Bihar in August 2017, the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, conducted an aerial survey of the affected areas. At the time, nearly 3,000 square kilometres of the state were under water – an area twice the size of...