-Economic and Political Weekly The relationship between depleting water levels and school dropout rates is poorly studied. As chronic water shortages begin to affect more regions of the country, this trend will begin to appear more forcefully. Kishore Jha (kishor.delhi6@gmail.com) is working on child rights with Terre des Homes, Germany. Devender, a 14-year-old boy from Kheeda village in Almora district in Uttarakhand State, studies in Class 8. He spends at least three hours...

-The Business Standard According to the department of agriculture, there were chances of an agriculture drought in about 35 districts across the country The southwest monsoon is continuing its weak run. For the week ended Thursday, it was 25 per cent below normal. This was a consecutive week when rains have been below-normal. A few parts of north India, however, recorded floods due to heavy rain in the Himalayas. According to a real-time assessment...

-The Hindustan Times The entire framework for monitoring environmental compliance is being dismantled systematically. This is a process that actually began with the UPA government, which replaced the feisty environment minister Jairam Ramesh with the more pliant Jayanthi Natarajan. With industry lobbies still crying wolf, she too made way for Veerappa Moily, the petroleum and natural gas minister, without the UPA seeing anything contradictory in someone holding both those responsibilities. In just a month,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to set up a specialized agency to chart the resettlement and rehabilitation plan for families displaced by land acquisition. The agency, tentatively called the 'R&R Board', will take care of all cases of acquisition as against the present system of the district collector appointing an 'administrator' in every district to work out the R&R plan where land is taken over. Though still...

-The Telegraph In her recent book, Green Wars, the environmental journalist Bahar Dutt, writes: "The editor of a leading media house, everytime I pitched a green story, would invariably complain: ‘Environmentalism is stalling growth; all I am interested in is double-digit growth for this country.'" The idea that environmental protection and economic progress are at odds is widely held among India's elite. It is shared by newspaper editors, economists, businessmen, and, not...