-The Times of India The gridlock in Parliament over foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail is set to ease with the Manmohan Singh government - armed with ally DMK's support - dropping its resistance to a discussion under a rule that necessitates a vote. The detente over FDI could see fresh discussion between the ruling coalition and BJP over the winter session's legislative agenda with parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath expected to...

-Agence France-Presse Nekpur: With both hands holding the basket of human excrement on her head, widowed grandmother Kela walks through a stream of sewage, up a mound of waste and then dumps the filth while cursing. "Nobody even pays us a decent wage!" she spits as she rakes mud and rubbish over her newly deposited pile, one of several she drops in the course of her working day cleaning toilets as a...

-NDTV After an NDTV story which showed a Class 6 textbook that says meat-eaters cheat, lie and commit sex crimes, the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) has said that school books used across the country are not monitored for content. "We only recommend books for Class IX onwards. Books are chosen by individual schools. There is no monitoring of content of school books," CBSE chief Vineet Joshi told NDTV today. He was...

-The Hindu He would spend his own money on patient care and go to villages regularly on a bicycle or a motorbike An estimated 60,000 tribals from 24 panchayats in Korukonda block were in tears when Dr. Suryakant Patjoshi was relieved as the medical officer of the Public Health Centre at Korukonda, about 20 km from Malkangiri, in 2008. For the people of Potrel, Gongalaguda, Koyaguda, Siraguda, Mohulput, Bonur and other hamlets...

(Application deadline Monday December 31, 2012) Inclusive Media for Change, a CSDS-based initiative invites applications from journalists in English and Hindi for Inclusive Media Fellowships 2012-13. The Fellowships are given to bring spotlight on Rural Development and to promote democratic social change, particularly through empowerment, decentralization, convergence and good use of existing development schemes by Panchayats and local bodies. The Inclusive Media for Change runs a clearing house of ideas, information...