-Hindustan Times India’s back-to-back drought is likely to end in winter with the weather department predicting higher-than-normal rainfall between October and December in the southern part of the country and normal rains in the rest, boosting prospects of the winter harvest. The rabi, or winter-sown, season is vital since it accounts for nearly half the country’s total food output. The forecast eases worries about water shortages in the nation’s 89 nationally important...

-Hindustan Times Each year, an adult on average catches viral infections two to three times a year. Young children get them more often, falling ill between four and six times a year, with symptoms in both young and old ranging widely from mild sniffles and a sore throat to a hacking cough, high fever and acute diarrhoea, all of which appear to be leading to more and more hospitalisations each year. Over...

-Livemint.com The destruction of almost two-thirds of the state’s cotton crop by the whitefly has forced 15 farmers to commit suicide, pushed hundreds of others into debt An insect has ravaged the cotton crop across Punjab’s Malwa region. The destruction of almost two-thirds of the state’s cotton crop by the whitefly has forced as many as 15 farmers to commit suicide and pushed hundreds of others into debt. A Times of India report...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India has pledged to generate 40 per cent of all its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 as part of its efforts to curb its earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions. In its submission to the UN climate change agency tonight, the Indian government has also announced plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from the 2005 level. India is among...

-Hindustan Times Mumbai: Maharashtra government is finally waking up to the effects of climate change. Reeling under crippling water scarcity, it has decided to set up Maharahstra’s first climate change study centre. The idea of a centre was prompted by the successive weather eccentricities that the state has suffered in consecutive years --- drought, excess rainfall, hailstorms and drought again. The centre will set up in Aurangabad, the heart of the state’s driest and...