-The Hindu Business Line One man with a backpack is determined to introduce the children of Kalagachia, West Bengal, to the joys of reading The conductor calls out “Mallikpur brickfield!” as the bus grinds to a halt. Across the road a tall chimney is visible — part of the brick-making outfit that this place is named after. A narrow sand-and-gravel path snakes from the road, through paddy fields, towards a village. The...

-The Indian Express A new initiative attempts to economically empower villagers living near Kanha National Park, and protect its green cover and wildlife. The Kanha–Pench forest corridor is rich in biodiversity and home to a large concentration of tigers, leopards, gaurs, barasingha, and cheetal. But with the population of the villages increasing and land holdings shrinking, conservation efforts were paramount. If the needs of the villagers for improved livelihoods are not...

-Outlook Vigorous action can nullify the reasons that conspire to keep Dalits out of newsrooms In the ’50s, a foreign correspondent wrote to a renowned south Indian English daily, seeking comments on alleged discrimination against non-Brahmin Journalists on its staff. Discrimination was out of the question, the paper clarified, as it never hired a non-Brahmin!  Over  60 years later, the media landscape has altered but the Indian newsroom is still the sanctuary...

-FirstPost.com Latur: At first glance, Latur looks like any other Indian town with its dusty congested streets and crowded bazaars. But looks can be deceptive. The town is the epicentre of a process of deindustrialisation and economic deprivation that has spread across the whole district. Reason: The worst drought in the last 45 years has led to acute water scarcity. Marathwada, which has received deficient rains for the last three years, is...

-FirstPost.com Latur: A city with a population of five lakh, Latur offers a peek into a possible dystopian future for the rest of India. In the middle of the most severe drought of the past half century, everything here revolves around water.  Social gatherings, family outings, VIP visits and administrative meetings are all connected in some way to water scarcity and ways to address it. Unless a solution to the water...