-Tehelka Away from the politics of food security, a small initiative in Assam is changing the way young people look at agriculture. Pubali Saikia, 13, plucks fresh ripe tomatoes, as her classmate Sunti Saikia, 14, arranges beanstalks. The two teenagers are excited; it is, after all, the first produce of their life. Of late, the Titabor sub-division in upper Assam's Jorhat district has been witnessing a silent awakening of sorts. And...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: An Indian government laboratory released a formulation of salt fortified with iodine and iron for mass consumption, calling it a tool to combat anaemia and iodine deficiency, without adequate and rigorous evidence to show that it increases blood haemoglobin levels, scientists have said. The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, has shared the formulation and production technology for its double fortified salt (DFS) with seven salt-producing companies, some...

-Down to Earth Schools in Maharashtra do not want responsibility, say the scheme hampers teaching THE Maharashtra government may allow schools in the state to outsource midday meal with the consent of school management committees (SMCs). The Mid Day Meal Committee, constituted by the state government, recommended in early November that education societies which run more than one school can outsource midday meal to a single agency if the SMCs agree. The...

-The Telegraph Patna: Students of around 210 government schools in Patna district would have to skip their midday meal for the next fortnight. A day after a dead rat was found in the midday meal supplied to the Government Primary School in Saidpur, the chief minister today ordered stern action against the non-government organisation (NGO) which supplied the food to the school. Ekta Shakti Foundation, a Delhi-based NGO, supplies midday meals to 210...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: Eleven-year-old Vidya clearly remembers the last time she ate a midday meal at school. It was three months ago, the day school authorities discovered a lizard in the food. "She carries her own lunch ever since. On days she doesn't, I give her lunch money to eat chole-kulche outside school," her mother Sangeeta Devi says. Sangeeta Devi isn't the only parent refraining her child from eating midday...