In the last two months, Eastern India has suffered a familiar disaster: disastrous floods that have buried farmlands, displaced thousands, and brought daily life to a halt. From overflowing rivers in Bihar and West Bengal to embankment breaches in Odisha, this year's monsoon has revealed not only a climatic pattern but also a policy failure that has been years in the making. The magnitude of destruction is astonishing. Numerous people have been affected throughout the region, hundreds of villages are still waterlogged weeks after the worst rains, and important segments of rural roads and railways have been wiped away....