-The Indian Express Extended dry spell hits rabi plantings on top of failed kharif crop Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh, an agricultural success story of the past decade, is bracing itself for a rough time this year, with deficient rains resulting in the failure of the kharif crop and also putting a question market over sowing in the ongoing rabi season. The state, in recent times, had emerged as the country’s second largest contributor of...

-IPSNews.net DHARNI (Maharashtra): In the semi-darkness of her hut in Berdaballa, a forest village 610 km northeast of Mumbai, 28-year old Babita Mavaskar sat with her newborn baby boy watching him checked by a paramedic in an important antenatal exam. After about 20 minutes the health worker emerged from the shelter and made a big announcement, “All is well. Everything, the weight, temperature and height … is normal.” The small crowd of...

-The Guardian A not-for-profit group of small-scale farmers in India is succeeding where others have failed – what is the Fair Trade Alliance Kerala doing right? A walk through the annual Kerala seedfest, in the sultry heat of India’s Western Ghats, is like a walk through a proverbial garden of Eden; okra the size of a hand; deep purple coloured runner beans; 26 varieties of chillies from one village alone....

-The Guardian NGO EarthRights files complaint against IFC on behalf of those affected, over $450m loan for plant that ‘destroyed livelihoods’; IFC claims immunity In the first case of its kind against the private investment arm of the World Bank, fishermen and farmers from north-western India are suing the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in a US federal court over a $450m loan for a coal-fired power plant. The communities say the IFC...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The government is set to test a new strategy to build highways, using geofoam - or giant lightweight polystyrene blocks - in a bid to slash construction time and costs and increase the life span of roads by reducing the risk of rain-triggered damage. Officials said the Union ministry of road transport and highways had cleared a proposal to use Thermocol, a popular geofoam brand, as the filler...