-ThePrint.in Rural Development Ministry data shows Modi’s village Nagepur in Varanasi is not open defecation-free, scores zero out of THRee. New Delhi: As part of his marquee Swachh Bharat initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set an ambitious target of ensuring an open defecation-free (ODF) India by October 2019. This could be a bit of a stretch because as it turns out, the PM’s own adopted village — Nagepur in his Varanasi...

-The Indian Express Deliberations at UN show resolve to address public health challenges at highest level. On September 26, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) deliberated on how best to address a serious public health challenge — tuberculosis (TB). A day later, the world’s most esteemed political forum deliberated on combating non-communicable diseases (NCDs). For several years, WHO South East Asia and its member states have been ground zero in the battle against...

-The Hindu Country’s high population makes it vulnerable to an ecological crisis, says World Wide Fund for Nature India’s soil biodiversity is in grave peril, according to the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas prepared by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The WWF’s ‘risk index’ for the globe — indicating THReats from loss of above-ground diversity, pollution and nutrient over-loading, over-grazing, intensive agriculture, fire, soil erosion, desertification and climate change — shows India among...

-Livemint.com Systematic analysis of groundwater conservation methods must be conducted to forestall the water crisis India’s over-exploitation of groundwater is contributing to—as stated by NITI Aayog—“the worst water crisis in its history”. Groundwater is one of the most important water sources in India accounting for 63% of all irrigation water and over 80% of the rural and urban domestic water supplies. In fact, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)...

-Newsclick.in The Modi government has been trying to cut the RBI down to size for quite some time. The Modi government’s penchant for subverting institutions has now extended to the Central Bank of the country. Not content with eliminating the Planning Commission; decimating the finest universities in India; crippling the premier public sector unit of the country, the ONGC, by interfering in its decision making; bringing the nationalised banks to grief by...