-Down to Earth Farmers rely on IMD forecasts, even though they are not always accurate, but sudden changes in advisories make it difficult for them to respond On February 21, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast thunderstorms and hailstorms in northern Maharashtra and western Madhya Pradesh on February 23 and 24. Gusty winds, hailstorms and thunderstorms over ‘isolated places’ in Pune, Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nashik and Ahmednagar were predicted. It created...

-The Tribune When a CM says: “Police encounters won't stop”, it implies that the Police will keep running into suspected criminals unexpectedly. The question is: Will these chance meetings continue to happen, or will they continue to be made to happen? A news item on February 16, 2018, said: "'Police encounters won't stop,' says Yogi Adityanath" .  Since it was a PTI story, most newspapers reported it. A dictionary describes an 'encounter' as...

-The Indian Express India’s disability movement will not be the same again. I wonder if 50 years down the line, India’s disability movement’s timeline will be viewed as before and after Javed Abidi. The unexpected passing away of this colossus a few days back has shaken all — from activists who were his contemporaries to reporters wondering aloud on Twitter about whom to ask for quotes in future coverage of disability. So where...

-Down to Earth The storm spoiled standing crops in Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh When farmers were already trying to cope with the losses they had incurred after the last hailstorm in February, March 4 saw fresh hailstorms in Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. After losing 50 per cent to 90 per cent of its standing crops to the storm and erratic rains, several farmers’ organisations seek compensation. “Crops of mustard, barley,...

-Hindustan Times Increasing rates of girls’ education, proactive government investments in adolescent girls, and strong public messaging around the illegality of child marriage and the harm it causes attributed to the shift. From one in four to approximately one in five, child marriages have seen a decline world over in the past 10 years, a Unicef report released on Monday said. The proportion of women who were married as children decreased by 15%...