-The Hindu Rice cultivation in Punjab, which thrived in the past due to the easy availability of water resources and free supply of electricity to farmers, is under considerable strain now. Vikas Vasudeva examines how overexploitation has made groundwater not only scarce but also increasingly alkaline. Gurmeet Singh, 60, a tall land-owning farmer in Bhattiwal Khurd village, which is located in Punjab’s Sangrur district, has yet again planted the water-guzzling paddy crop...

-National Herald Figures prove due to special status, J&K outscored Gujarat on selected indicators. As per Dreze it is an illusion that removing ARTicle 370 will bring development in the Valley Life expectancy at birth is higher in Jammu and Kashmir which is depicted as a terrorist-state by media as compared to Gujarat which is projected as a model state in India; percentage of the rural population living below the poverty line...

-The Hindu Kerala needs to adopt watershed-based master planning and review building byelaws The unique geography of Kerala, with its steep climbdown from 900m high elevations of the Western Ghats to the coast of Malabar, has resulted in a land with a vast riverine network. There are no less than 44 fast flowing rivers that drain the rainwater Kerala is blessed with into the Arabian Sea. It is a lifeline that supports...

-Scroll.in Local reporters say the administration has shown systematic bias against them. To the rest of the world, Kashmiri newspapers have remained frozen in time. On their websites, Jammu and Kashmir is still a state, with its own constitution and special protections under ARTicles 370 and 35A. Kashmiri pARTies are still vowing to fight for special status and its leaders have just been put under house arrest. The websites had last been...

-The Economic Times Private hospitals have been accused of siphoning almost Rs 1.20 crore in just a few months. About a year after introduction of the Ayushman Bharat scheme — the Union government’s programme for providing health protection cover to around 10 crore vulnerable families — truant doctors and hospitals in the tiny Himalayan state of Uttarakhand have come up with some of the most innovative ways of scamming the ambitious plan...