-The Guardian Higher disposable incomes, changing consumption patterns and the marketing might of powerful western brands are bringing fast food to India's children The camera pans in. The grins of smiling school children fill the frame. An enthusiastic teacher, played by a famous Bollywood actress, sits in the centre. The scene is a "remote picturesque setting". And all are munching happily on Domino's Pizza. The advert is typical of the marketing bombardment...

-Live Mint After years of denial about problems in its flagship social welfare programme, the MGNREGS, the government has awoken to the need for an honest debate on the subject After years of denial about problems in its flagship social welfare programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS), the government has awoken to the need for an honest debate on the subject. On Saturday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made some...

Model community forestry initiatives in Orissa are defying Forest Department efforts to control and exploit the region’s forests. ‘Heaven is a forest of miles and miles of Mohua trees / And hell is a forest of miles and miles of Mohua trees with a forest guard in it!’ Thus goes a song of the Muria Adivasis in the forests of Bastar in central India. Encapsulated in this simple expression, however, is...

-The Hindu Even while acting swiftly to ensure that minor married girls are not denied an opportunity to pursue education, officials see it as a contentious topic requiring a wider debate. The practice of giving girls in marriage at an early age, especially within the family, prevails among certain communities in rural pockets of Tamil Nadu. Speaking to The Hindu on Friday, Chief Educational Officer S. Nagaraja Murugan said that the issue of...

-The Indian Express It is not just 21 cartoons that have been deemed “inappropriate” for NCERT textbooks. The Thorat Committee has frowned on much more, disapproving of “ too many cartoons of Mrs Indira Gandhi” in the Class XII textbooks, and objecting to some Amul advertisements. Set up in May following MPs’ objections to political cartoons in textbooks, the six-member committee headed by ICSSR chairman S K Thorat vetted six textbooks that...