-Newsclick.in Food grain availability for Indians has increased by just 3.3% since 1961. On this 72nd Independence Day of our India, while there will be the usual speeches and festivities, spare a thought to this shocking bit of news: average availability of food grains for every Indian has increased by 3.3% since 1961. Food grains includes wheat, rice, other cereals and pulses. Among these, per person availability of pulses has actually declined...

-PTI The NGT has directed the National Mission for Clean Ganga to install display boards at a gap of 100 km to indicate whether the water was fit for bathing or drinking New Delhi: Most of the Ganga river water in the Uttar Pradesh-West Bengal stretch is unfit for drinking and bathing, a map released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has indicated. The National Green Tribunal last month directed the National...

-Livemint.com The government is confident of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, says Modi New Delhi: Indian farmers are taking to new and scientific methods of cultivation by adopting organic and solar powered farming, while the government has formulated an agriculture export policy to prepare farmers for the international market, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Independence Day speech on Wednesday. “Despite apprehensions of many, we have set a goal to double farmer...

-Livemint.com Rural development secretary Amarjeet Sinha on how MGNREGS has evolved since 2006 to result in income, acreage, water tables, productivity and fodder availability Agrarian distress and rural distress are terms used interchangeably, but the rural economy today is very different from what it was many years ago, given the diversification of rural incomes and hence incorrect to think one means the other, says Amarjeet Sinha, secretary, ministry of rural development. In...

Good news about digital inclusion often leaves little room for reporting on bad experiences, which netizens encounter in the digital world. A recent report by LIRNEAsia – an ICT [information and communication technology] policy and regulation think tank working in the Asia-Pacific – says that almost one among five Indian netizens in the age-group 15-65 years had faced online harassment in 2017. In contrast, roughly twelve out of hundred internet...