-Accountability Initiative/ RaghuBytes Unless you have a blocked nose, I strongly suggest that you do not drive from Bhubaneshwar the capital of Orissa, to Kandamahal, a remote tribal district, particularly in the evenings. At twilight, when you begin to wind into the interior, you are greeted with the sight of the behinds of the entire population squatting on the roadside, faces turned away and shitting. We quickly wound up the windows...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The emphasis on use of digital technologies to bridge the "rural-urban gap" in the union budget is limited to high talk and minimal allocations. The need for a more comprehensive and peoples' participation-oriented rural action plan should have been the focus while setting sectoral allocations, but that is not to be in this mid-year budget. Vipul Mudgal (vipulmudgal@gmail.com) heads the Inclusive Media for Change project at the Centre...

-The Hindu Business Line     A set of technologies that deals with production and marketing constraints can work wonders Indian agriculture faces herculean challenges today; yet, the near- and the medium-term outlook on agriculture and agri-businesses seem bright. Growing urbanisation and changing food habits, malnutrition plus declining areas under foodgrain pose a big threat to food security. Agriculture and food production are strongly influenced by international trade, credit availability, development co-operation, climate change and environmental...

-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation) As per the poverty estimates released by the Planning Commission, the percentage of population below poverty line in urban areas has declined from 25.5% in 2004-05 to 13.7% in 2011-12. This was stated by Dr. (Ms.) Girija Vyas, Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. Dr Vyas stated that the...

-The Hindu Suicide has been part of everyday conversation in many living rooms, but there is little understanding of why it happens Everyone has opinions on why people they have never met, and do not know, kill themselves. I hear people say things like "what a cowardly thing to do," or "he was weak". The words are redolent of casual judgment, perhaps born out of familiarity and even fear: the thoughts that...