While the finance minister took care to express the commitment of his government to poor and vulnerable people while presenting the Union Budget for 2016–17, this stated commitment has not been backed by adequate increases in allocations to areas of critical interest to the poor. It is likely that resource constraints will continue to be a serious hindrance in important areas like nutrition, health and livelihood support. (Letter)

The study highlights the climatic water balance, drought assessment and agricultural potentiality of Uppar Odai sub-basin located in the Southern part of India, Tamil Nadu state. The average annual precipitation in the sub-basin is 625 mm, which is much lower than the state average rainfall (970 mm). It has been observed that the intensive agricultural practices and extensive groundwater mining lead to the groundwater decline in the sub-basin. Rainfall data were collected from 1971-2011 for five rain gauge stations.

This paper looks at the crucial issue of dry-season groundwater-availability in the state of Maharashtra, India. We look at the two key hydro-climatological measurements which are used to implement groundwater policy in the state, viz., water levels in 5000+ observation wells across the state and aggregate rainfall data. We see that there is substantial variation in groundwater levels within and across the years in most wells. We argue that for a large number of these observation well locations, aggregate

The world’s drylands are subject to desertification as a result of extended droughts, climate change, and human activities. Development in drylands depends on addressing degradation of the ecosystem, mainstreaming sustainable natural resources management, and building upon the existing adaptive capacities of communities and institutions. In this regard, recent scientific results aimed to promote sustainable development through action plans for combating desertification.