-The Indian Express Every crisis produces its fall guy. This time, it is sugarcane that’s bearing the brunt of the blame for drought, especially in Maharashtra’s worst-affected Marathwada region. Sugarcane, no doubt, requires 2,100-2,200 mm of water, more than the 1,400 mm or so for paddy, 900 mm for cotton, 600 mm for jowar (sorghum) and arhar (pigeon-pea), 550 mm for wheat, and under 500 mm for soyabean and chana (chickpea). But then,...

-FirstPost.com New Delhi: Job creation has been suffering under the Modi Government and fresh data released by the Labour Bureau shows the extent of worry on this count. So, even as the country’s GDP growth continues to be healthy and predictions of above-average rainfall this year bring some cheer, the bad news on the jobs’ front needs the government’s immediate focus. A jobless growth does not help anyone. As per the...

-The Indian Express Instead of announcing new schemes, focus to be on those already announced and key sectors As the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government pads up to enter its third year in office, its focus would be on key areas such as banking, defence, retail, Manufacturing, infrastructure and job creation. If the first two years were about announcing signature schemes and campaigns, and setting the agenda for the...

-Business Standard The new rules will hopefully do better By notifying fresh rules to govern the handling of electronic waste or e-waste (the earlier rules issued five years ago were quite inadequate), the Indian government has taken a key step to combat this most lethal form of pollution. Organic and easily recyclable metal, glass and plastic waste need not permanently remain in landfills. But hard-to-recover substances from e-waste like mercury make their...

-Hindustan Times It is good to see Harsh Vardhan, Union minister for science and technology, apprising members of the Lok Sabha on adulterated milk, which has become a part of our diet. However, like many previous mentions of the issue, this one also missed the point: Contamination due to management practices. While efforts are put into testing milk available in the market, we often forget the cows and buffaloes, which are the...