-The Hindustan Times Shimla: Even as the Himachal government boasts of having achieved women's empowerment in the state, everyday hardships are Leading to stress and other mental and physical health problems among females in rural areas. Women have been the backbone of the state's economy but a host of vexatious issues they have to continually struggle with still make their life difficult. Poor healthcare facilities, lack of teachers, water scarcity...

-The Third Pole Cities and villages in India will soon run out of potable water if current trends continue, warns senior water official India's groundwater tables are plunging at an alarming rate with reserves in some states dwindling to critical levels, according to the latest report from the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) - the apex body under the Ministry of Water Resources. Over 16% of the country's groundwater resources are ‘over-exploited' -...

-The Business Standard In July, India had clarified it wouldn't ratify a trade facilitation agreement until a permanent solution on food security was arrived at A day before the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s trade negotiations committee meets in Geneva, India on Wednesday said during the negotiations, it would stick to its stand on food security. Speaking to reporters here, Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "Our position remains intact...we will underline the...

-The Indian Express Moves to dilute labour-material ratio in MGNREGA and focus exclusively on select backward blocks will adversely impact rural poor. Before the general elections, free-market fundamentalists had lobbied fiercely to reshape so-called wasteful social-sector expenditures. Primary among their targets was the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which, according to them, should become an unconditional cash transfer scheme. Post-elections, the late Gopinath Munde's espousal of the MGNREGA went...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today said "heads should roll" because the Ganga has remained polluted even after 30 years and Rs 20,000 crore of clean-up efforts and hinted it might order the closure of industrial units pumping waste into the sacred river. "You can't shift the city but at least you can shift the factories," a three-judge bench said in a terse warning to over 700 such units as...