NEW DELHI: Twenty years ago, most Indian newspapers were black and white — and read all over.

But with television giving the print media a run for their money, Indian newspapers now spice up their pages with colour pictures and gossip columns on the rich and famous.

Dry political news and religious riots in Gujarat jostle for space with skimpily-clad models, celebrity cross-dressers and cocaine-and-ecstacy raves.

The government on Tuesday scrapped a half-century ban on foreign investment in India’s print media, prompting analysts to say they expect papers to be filled with more glitz and glamour than ever before.

“Newspapers have more colour sections and smaller, more bite-sized items that are more people-oriented,” national columnist Dilip Cherian said. “It’s partially a response to the rise of cable TV and the more populist culture in the country.

“Once the foreign media comes in, Indian customers will decide what they want. And if they’re tired of politics then they’ll have more Madonna.”

India overrode opposition from many powerful media barons on to allow foreigners to take up to 26 per cent stakes in news and current affairs publications.

Already, the pages of the some of the country’s leading English dailies such as the Hindustan Times, Indian Express and the Times of India are filled with what is called “page three” journalism.

PAGE THREE JOURNALISM: Unlike Britain, “page three” in India isn’t about topless girls but concerns itself with the doings of the chattering classes at “haute and happening” parties and the peccadilloes of the fashion fraternity and film stars.