The finance ministry has asked public sector banks to devise products for Indian farmers to ensure they get adequate funding in emergencies. The government, the majority owner of such banks, wants them to roll out products such as emergency loans to farmers that will be linked to savings accounts, a weather index-based insurance product, and set up a credit guarantee fund that will aid farmers in the event of crop losses...

The northern region of Gujarat State in western India is semi-arid and prone to Droughts, receiving almost all of its rain during the monsoon season between June and September. But for the past three decades, many crop and dairy farms have remained green—even during the dry season. That's because farmers have invested in wells and pumps, using massive amounts of electricity to extract water from deep aquifers. The government has artificially propped...

Experts agree that the economic and environmental costs of interlinking India's rivers far outweigh its projected benefits. Some people believe it is the one-stop solution to prevent floods and Droughts, reduce water scarcity, raise irrigation potential and increase foodgrain production in the country. But others say it is just another grandiose scheme involving huge costs and leading to long-term ecological consequences. The contentious idea of interlinking India's rivers has come...

-The Telegraph Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today blamed Mamata Banerjee’s recent expressions of intolerance towards critics on her “lack of self-confidence”. He described as “paglamo (madness)” the new government’s curbs on co-operative banks’ loan recovery processes, saying it would “destroy” such banking systems. Asked during a TV interview about his successor’s frequent admonitions to the Opposition to keep mum and allow the new government to work, Bhattacharjee said: “It’s not just the...

For local residents, most Himalayan peaks from Sikkim to Arunachal Pradesh are divine — their might flowing in the form of rivers capable of sustaining life and washing away their ills. One such river is Lohit in Arunachal Pradesh, where Parashuram, an incarnation of Vishnu, was believed to have cleansed himself after beheading his mother. Today, however, the Himalayas seem to be fighting a losing battle against India's hunger for electricity....