-The Hindu Syndicates target cash hoarders The government's decision to scrap ?500 and ?1,000 notes in 2016 has led to the creation of a space for police acting as complainants in multiple cases of ‘cheating.’ The cash haul in Uttar Pradesh last week, where 16 people were arrested for allegedly storing scrapped ?500 and ?1,000 notes worth ?96 crore is a case in point. The tip-off was provided by the National Investigation Agency...

-Newsclick.in NFHS–4 Survey revealed little improvement in key health indicators in the last ten years. Adivasis and Dalits are the social categories who are most deprived of basic health facilities among others, reveals the latest NFHS – 4 survey . The children belonging to SC, ST castes are suffering from under nutrition, indicating that these are the people at the bottom end of receiving development and welfare policies being implemented in the...

-The Hindu Hundreds of government schools, especially in tribal-dominated districts, have been shut down over the past year. Elizabeth Kuruvilla reports on the closures, the mushrooming of private schools, and the battles waged by tribal villages to keep state-funded local schools open It’s a little past four in the afternoon, the time when schools ring their closing bells in the Hatsesikhal cluster of Odisha’s tribal-dominated Rayagada district. Just before Sekhal Primary School...

-Down to Earth The average agricultural growth has reached its lowest in the last four years to 1.9 per cent While presenting Union Budget 2017-18, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave much emphasis on farmers. He even announced an increased budget outlay for agriculture, which made media houses declare it as a budget for rural India. Soon, the dust settled down and reality came to the surface. The budget was increased by...

-Hindustan Times The Rs 7,000-crore sector in Himalayan states reels under high temperature, low rainfall The drought-like situation prevailing in the northwest Himalayas may spell bad news for the Rs 7,000-crore apple economy that sustains people residing in the upper regions of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir. This winter has been one of the warmest in the last decade, weather department officials said. Apple orchards usually need 500 to 1,000 chilling hours (with temperatures ranging...