-The New Indian Express At a time when millions of people are being pushed into poverty by health care costs, there is good news from Karnataka. The state, a pioneer in government-led health assurance, launched another innovative programme on Tuesday. The Rajiv Arogya Bhagya scheme for uninsured people above the poverty line covers tertiary treatment, including 449 surgical procedures, in seven specialties: cardiology, neurology, urology, oncology, burns, polytrauma and paediatrics. Each...

-Tehelka Why is India struggling to feed its girls and women, who are in desperate need of nutrition, asks Ruhi Kandhari One out of three women or adolescent girls who come through that door are anaemic," says Dr Savita Agarwal, who runs a charitable clinic at a slum in north Delhi, pointing at the door of her clinic. "They cannot afford to eat meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables that provide iron." Fifty percent...

-PTI Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government has signed a pact with the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) to provide assistance in making agriculture sustainable and profitable. "The agreement with ICRISAT is part of the State Government's plans to increase productivity of agriculture and allied sectors," the state government said. The Memorandum of Agreement was signed yesterday in the presence of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu by Special Chief Secretary...

-The Hindu India's small farmers have been struggling for centuries now and they need social and governmental action to change their future Of India's 121 million agricultural holdings, 99 million are with small and marginal farmers, with a land share of just 44 per cent and a farmer population share of 87 per cent. With multiple cropping prevalent, such farmers account for 70 per cent of all vegetables and 52 per cent...

-The Indian Express Lucknow: Indiscriminate extraction of groundwater is continuing unabated in Uttar Pradesh with the number of blocks over-exploiting the natural resource registering three-fold hike in seven years. Number of such blocks is now pegged at 111, as per the latest data compiled by the Uttar Pradesh Ground Water Department for 2011. The groundwater data is compiled by the department every two years and analysed, before being released. As per...