-The Hindu If regulation goes to plan, the Indian consumer will no longer be in the dark about sodium content in food products. Indian adults consume between 8.5 grams and 15 grams of salt each day as against the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendation of less than 5 grams per day to reduce blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, says a September 2012 paper in PLOS ONE. According to the President of the...

-The Hindu Move to give nutrition supplements to anganwadi children draws flak. Bengaluru: Can two grams of a plant-based dietary supplement substitute a wholesome balanced meal for anganwadi children? With the Women and Child Development Department all set to administer Spirulina to severely malnourished children, activists and nutritionists are battling for a wholesome meal instead. As announced in the State Budget, the department has decided to administer two gm of Spirulina for 180 days...

-Livemint.com Bus most common mode of transport; more people stay with friends and relatives, shows NSSO data If you travel by air or stay in hotels during your domestic jaunts, you are not a typical Indian tourist. The bus is the most common mode of transport and more people stay with friends and relatives during such trips than in hotels and guest houses, according to a National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)...

-The Hindu Confining it to just the Ministry of Rural Development would be the most retrograde step in democratic decentralisation in over a quarter century. If, as The Hindu’s exclusive on Wednesday indicates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi were to close down the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, it would confirm one’s worst fears about his government’s hypocritical approach to grass-roots democracy for grass-roots development. This was a lacuna that was evident in the ‘Gujarat...

-The Times of India New Delhi: Veteran journalist P Sainath has made a strong demand for declaring agriculture a public service. He also believes there needs to be a special session of Parliament to discuss the farmer crisis and the decade-old report of National Commission of Farmers chaired by professor M S Swaminathan. The author of Everybody Loves A Good Drought delivered the inaugural lecture of a monthly lecture series planned by...