-Down to Earth After two budgets and Rs 5,300 crore in funding, the Centre's micro irrigation project that promises water to every farmland is not even close to a roll-out The news of deficit monsoons this year has once again left the Centre worried. A concerned prime minister chaired a high-level meeting on June 8 where he emphasised the need to quickly augment the irrigation capacity of the country. But he conveniently...

-The Indian Express Urban poor are highest in Manipur, Mizoram, Bihar, least in Goa and Delhi Unreleased data from the first urban Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), tabulated as per criteria laid down by the erstwhile Planning Commission’s expert Hashim committee, shows that roughly 35 per cent of urban Indian households live below poverty line (BPL). This amounts to 22 million households of the total 63 million households surveyed in 4,041...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: It hasn't washed away the fears of deficit rainfall, but the monsoon's satisfactory performance so far has sharply reduced the possibility of a second consecutive drought in the country this year. In a drought year, average nationwide rainfall is at least 10 per cent below normal. As of now, almost halfway into the rainy season, the monsoon is 2 per cent below average, still within the...

-The Hindu Chennai: Scientists at the Chennai-based Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture have achieved success in breeding milkfish in captivity after 10 long years of research. For the first time in the country, efforts to breed in captivity milkfish (Chanos Chanos), known as Pal Kendai in Tamil, met with success by the Chennai-based Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA) at its Experimental Research Station in Muttakadu. “It is a major breakthrough in the...

-The Hindu National averages hide State-level dynamics; SCs, STs worse off on average. New data from the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 and the UNICEF’s Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC) show that while India’s Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have worse socio-economic indicators, this disadvantage is varies substantially depending on the State where they live. So SC and ST children in Tamil Nadu and Kerala are less likely to be underweight...