The great mid-day meal shame

Written by: Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

The bestest Secret Santa shopping guide

ICYMI, our holiday shopping guide in this week’s Advisory offered a sneak peek of Souk—the next, most amazing thing from splainer. Souk will do the exact same thing as we have done for news... except for shopping. We're cutting out the noise and hype to make it effortless for you to discover lovely, useful, quality products and brands.

The shopping guide—split up into lists of ‘under Rs 500’ and ‘under Rs 1,000’—is a taste of the fresh, hatke recommendations the Souk team plans to offer. Of this list of 30 items, members of the splainer team are picking our must-buy favourites. The Smoor Stir it Up Hot Chocolate Sticks (prices Rs 699) and the Eleftheria Brunost — Norwegian Style Whey Cheese (priced Rs 400) are on Raghav’s radar. You can pick your faves over here. Let us know what you liked or what we missed over at talktous@splainer.in.

The great mid-day meal shame

About the mid-day meal scheme: It feeds children in 1.2 million schools across India—to ensure that primary school kids get at least one hot meal a day. It was launched by PM Narsimha Rao in 1995—and is funded by the union government. But state governments can choose to supplement its funding.

The shameful data: According to Times of India, the workers who cook and serve the mid-day meals have been paid the exact same salary since—wait for it—2009. The amount: Rs 1000 per month. The union government has not changed the amount, even by a single paisa.

But, but, but: What workers actually receive varies widely across states. The reason: Some state governments are more generous than others—and boost the union government’s spend. In Kerala—at the top of the list—the salary today is Rs 12,000 per month—compared to Rs 1400 in Odisha. Point to note: Only 15 states and Union Territories supplement the Rs 1000 wage.

Adding insult to injury: The union government doesn’t even pay the entire Rs 1000. The cost is split with the states—ranging from 90:10 to 60:40. In effect, the Centre only spends around Rs 600 per worker. OTOH, it also means Kerala—which is responsible for 40% of the Rs 12,000—is paying Rs 4,800 from its own pocket.

Also this: Be it Karnataka or Haryana, mid-day meal workers often are not paid these ‘honorariums’ for months on end.

Key legal point to note: The Rs 1000 wage is less than a fifth of the national minimum wage—Rs 5,340 a month or Rs 178 a day. State governments are not allowed to breach that floor.

How is this legal? These cooks-cum-helpers—who get their own acronym ‘CCH’—are not considered workers. In the words of the government, “CCHs are honorary workers who have come forward for rendering social services.” Therefore, they receive an ‘honorarium’—instead of a proper salary—despite doing far more than a full-time job:

Though the government treats CCH's work as part time, they actually work almost eight hours or more. “Headmasters or teachers ask us to make tea for them, wash utensils, do sweeping and mopping along with cooking for 150-200 students and so we end up being in the school all day. If we refuse, they threaten to sack us as we are not regular employees and have no job security,” said Naseema Bano who has been working as a CCH for over 20 years in Bihar’s Supaul district.

The really egregious bit: is this:

The salary of members of parliament went up thrice in 12 years, from Rs 16,000 in 2006 to Rs 1 lakh plus in 2018 and that of bureaucrats went up twice. The entry level pay for govt employees went up from Rs 2,550 to Rs 7,000 by the sixth pay commission in 2008 and then to Rs 18,000 by the seventh pay commission in 2015.

This should be front-page news but sadly all we found was a single Times of India report—which is behind a paywall.

New rules on ‘wink, wink, nudge, nudge’ ads

India’s consumer protection body—the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)—has drafted new rules on surrogate advertising, which is what?

About surrogate ads: These are ads where the company pretends to be selling one product when it is actually promoting another. Think liquor brand ads for soda or chewing tobacco ads for elaichi. This has been a time-honoured practice among companies that are banned from direct advertising.

The problem: Surrogate ads many times sell products that are not even available for sale. And that violates the laws of false advertising.

The recent crackdown: The government is now gearing up to crack down on such khulla disregard for the law. In October, the CCPA wrote to booze companies challenging their sponsorship of music festivals, sports events, etc. The CCPA was unhappy that they were using “lifestyle content, events, and promotions” to target young people.

What’s happened now: The government has framed new guidelines which will be made public soon. According to Mint, feku products are out:

Under the proposed rule, liquor manufacturers leveraging glassware, music CDs, or any other product to promote their products will be required to regularly submit market reports on their retail availability and sales, the person added. This is to ensure that the product is real, and does not just appear in advertisements as a vehicle for the brand.

What this really means: Expect festivals and other cultural events to lose their biggest sponsors—which, in turn, is bad news for you. (Mint, paywall, Reuters)

New AI threat: Fake Arnold selling fake viagra

The context: In August, Google enhanced its algorithms to remove explicit deepfakes from search results, lower their visibility, and fast track removal requests. YouTube policies also require creators to disclose AI-altered content—and bans deepfake videos that mimic individuals.

What happened now: An investigation by a well-known substack pundit Alexios Mantzarlis shows that YouTube is doing very little to enforce these rules. These include Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone seemingly schilling a product called ‘Prolong Power’—a scam supplement for erectile dysfunction: “All the ads use existing videos that are modified with an AI-generated voice and lip synced to match what the AI-generated voice is saying.”

You can see fake Arnie in action below (it’s awful and wrong but also kinda funny):

The bigger picture: YouTube has been struggling to stay on top of the deepfake tsunami. If it can’t (or won’t) protect celebrities—whose brand endorsements cost millions—it certainly won’t do much for the aam aadmi (or aurat). 404 Media (login required) conducted its own detailed investigation of the YouTube ads which you can still check out (since they’ve been taken down now).

Say hello to ekdum jaldi quick fashion

Why settle for getting your toothpaste or garam masala in a super-duper hurry? You will soon be able to score that Mango dress or Tommy Hilfiger tee in less than 30 minutes—all thanks to Myntra. The ecommerce platform has jumped into the quick delivery space—promising 10,000 products across fashion, beauty and home decor. The service—called M-Now—has debuted in Bangalore and will soon expand to Mumbai, Delhi and Pune.

Why this matters: Fashion accounts for 20-25% of the ecommerce market. Myntra is the first to enter the ecommerce space—but it won’t be the last. Swiggy Instamart and Zomato’s Blinkit are in talks with Fabindia and Puma to list apparel and footwear on their platforms.

Our big Q: What about refunds? There’s a big difference between buying toothpaste—and a top that doesn’t fit. You can check out our Big Story on how the quick commerce model works, and its downsides. (Hindustan Times)

what caught our eye

sports & entertainment

Allu Arjun and Sandhya Theatre management face charges after a stampede at the Pushpa 2 premiere in Hyderabad.
Director Paul Schrader revealed that ‘Xtreme City’—a film which would have starred Shah Rukh Khan and Leonardo DiCaprio—has been shelved. Reason: SRK didn’t want to play second fiddle to Leo. Fair enuf.
Fake Johnny Depps on social media are targeting elderly victims
Spotify Wrapped 2024—which leaned heavily on an AI podcast—has proved to be a dud with fans.
Happily for Taylor Swift, she remains a fan favourite—and is Spotify's Global Top Artist of 2024 with 26.6 billion streams for the second straight year.

as for the rest

Syrian rebels captured Hama, edging closer to Damascus—and scaring the hell out of President Assad. FYI: Tel Aviv and the US are in a tizz on whom to back—a brutal dictator or Islamic extremists.
After great and unnecessary suspense, Eknath Shinde did what was expected—and took oath as Maharashtra's Deputy CM.
Shell casings mysteriously marked "deny," "defend," and "depose" were found at the scene of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s shooting. Also read: new reports of insider trading, and healthcare denial during his tenure.
Scientists used electrical stimulation of the brain to help people with partial spinal cord injuries climb stairs.

Five things to see

One: The Gandhi siblings have upped the style quotient of their anti-Adani campaign. See below: Adani merch you never wanted. (The Telegraph)

Two: Over at the Vatican, the Pope is also readying for a makeover–at least for his car. Mercedes Benz is gifting him the first-ever EV ‘popemobile’—a modified version of the G-class mid-size luxury SUV. Behold its pearly-white glory below. (CBS News)

Three: Spotify Wrapped roped in Ananya Pandey and Jackie Shroff for some ‘Bhidu’ vs. ‘Bandruh’ banter. It didn’t quite land for us—but you may disagree. (India Today)

Four: Everybody loves Shashi Tharoor—including this monkey that sauntered in from nowhere—cuddled up on his lap and fell asleep! Awwww. (The Hindu)

Five: Pantone has unveiled its 2025 Color of the Year—a very underwhelming Mocha Mousse. But, hey, it’s the first-ever brown chosen in its 25-year history. In Pantone’s words: “We look to a mellow brown hue whose inherent richness and sensorial and comforting warmth extends further into our desire for comfort, and the indulgence of simple pleasures that we can gift and share with others.” Yes, they’re talking about chocolate lol! (Vogue)

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