India stares at summer water crisis as reservoir levels slide
New Delhi Reuters India’s main reservoirs have hit their lowest March levels in five years, government data showed, indicating a possible squeeze on drinking water and power availability this summer. In major centres such as India’s ‘Silicon Valley’ Bengaluru, home to firms like Google, water supply is already being curtailed. Residents get their containers filled […]
Thousands of farmers rally in New Delhi to demand higher crop prices
New Delhi, India Reuters Thousands of farmers rode buses and trains from across India to gather on Thursday at a rally in the capital, New Delhi, pressing a demand for higher guaranteed prices for their crops, as they faced down police barricades and tough security. The rally, days before general elections are expected to be […]
“Caught in a cycle”: India’s sugarcane workers suffer debt bondage as climate change bites
SANKET JAIN, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how climate shocks in Maharashtra ruin crops for many farmers leading some to migrate to sugarcane fields to seek work where some say they are trapped due to low pay, poor conditions…
Updated: Heavy rain in India triggers floods, landslides; at least 125 dead
Updated: 9am, 25th July, 2021 Mumbai/New Delhi IndiaReuters Rescue teams in India struggled through thick sludge and debris on Saturday to reach dozens of submerged homes as the death toll from landslides and accidents caused by torrential monsoon rain rose to 125. Maharashtra state is being hit by the heaviest rain in July in four […]
India breaches 200,000 daily COVID-19 cases as hospital beds, oxygen fall short
New Delhi/Bengaluru, IndiaReuters India reported a record 200,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and the financial hub of Mumbai entered a lockdown, as many hospitals treating coronavirus patients reported severe shortages of beds and oxygen supplies. The surge was the seventh record daily increase in the last eight days and comes as India battles a […]
“Much, much worse”: India’s richest state swamped by pandemic’s second wave
Mumbai, IndiaReuters Hospitals in Maharashtra are running short of beds, piped oxygen and a key anti-viral drug as a second wave of coronavirus infections has swamped India’s richest state, doctors and patients’ families said. Home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, Maharashtra accounts for nearly a quarter of India’s 12.7 million coronavirus infections. If the state […]
POSTCARDS: THE INDIAN CHILDREN WHO NEED TO TAKE A TRAIN TO GET TO WATER
RAJENDRA JADHAV, writing for Reuters, reports from India…
Widows of suicide farmers to get land titles in Indian state
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation Land titles of farmers who kill themselves in an Indian state will be given to their widows, according to a government order, granting inheritance equality in a nation where their property rights are often denied. A Maharashtra State Government order issued last week said the widows would also receive assistance with […]
Struggle for water intensifies as taps run dry in India
Beed, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Residents of the drought-hit Indian village of Salegaon are so desperate for water they have started lining up their pots two days before the tanker is due to arrive. When it does, the neatly lined up pots go flying as the villagers rush forward. Usually only about half get water, leaving […]
India grants land ownership rights to refugees who fled Pakistan 70 years ago
Thomson Reuters Foundation Refugees in India’s western state of Maharashtra have been granted land ownership rights 70 years after fleeing what is now Pakistan, when the countries were violently partitioned at independence, officials said. The move is part of a wider push to give more rights to certain refugee groups in different parts of India. […]