-The Hindu In addition, 11 tigers and 13 lions died in railway and road accidents in the past three years Kolkata: In 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) released ‘Eco-friendly measures to mitigate impacts of linear infrastructure’, an advisory document for mitigating human-animal conflicts. Despite this advisory, and many others issued by conservationists and organisations, deaths of wild animals in road and railway accidents have continued unabated. The MoEFCC...

-The Indian Express It would have made more sense — economically, legally, politically, morally, constitutionally — to have limited 10 per cent EWS reservation to those with farming or rural backgrounds The last few years have seen the so-called dominant farming communities — especially the Jats, Marathas, Patidars and Kapus — mount violent agitations demanding quotas in government jobs and higher educational institutions, whether under the OBC (Other Backward Class) or...

-The Indian Express The latest data compiled by the DepARTment of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on recruitment over the last three years through the main agencies show a declining trend in selection and recruitment, from 1,13,524 cumulatively in FY2015 to 1,00,933 in FY2017. New Delhi: In terms of employment prospects, beneficiaries of the 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections in the general category, which was passed in Parliament last week,...

-The Indian Express While a focused jobs guarantee thrust could help mitigate financial distress for tens of thousands of rural families, Maharashtra’s performance on MGNREGA until now this year has been lacklustre on several counts. Mumbai: As drought conditions worsen in across large pARTs of rural Maharashtra and sowing for rabi crops adversely affected, the state is expected to give a fresh push to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee...

-The Indian Express Trucks carrying sugarcane were stopped on the Pune-Bengaluru highway near Tandulwadi in Sangli districts, bringing traffic to a halt. Kohlapur: Harvesting and transportation of sugarcane in western Maharashtra remained paralysed for the third day on Sunday due to a protest by farmers against sugar mills over pARTial payment of dues. Led by Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghthana, a prominent organisation of farmers in this region, the farmers in the sugarcane heARTland...