-Down to Earth India’s GDP for health is less than 1.5 per cent and is one of the lowest in the world Health infrastructure, especially in the rural areas, is going to be one of the challenging tasks ahead for the new government. In its last tenure, it brought the Ayushman Bharat scheme — the government run health insurance programme — which was seen as a major health policy intervention. However, according...

-Scroll.in The suggested changes will weaken environmental clearance processes, favour industry, say experts. In April, as India was busy in the 2019 parliamentary elections, the central government moved to “re-engineer” the Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006, which governs environment clearance for industrial projects. Experts who have analysed the zero draft (a first attempt at the draft) of the Environmental Impact Assessment notification 2019 opined that it weakens the existing notification and favours the...

-The Hindu The general election saw serious questions being posed to the Election Commission. The 17th Lok Sabha must deliberate on them The biggest election in the world has finally come to a successful end for which the three Election Commissioners and their 12 million staff deserve appreciation. Unfortunately, what deserved to be remembered as a subject of national pride became mired in several controversies. At the top of the list was...

-The Economic Times At a little over 14%, India has the third-largest Muslim population in the world. Are Indian Muslims confronting the void? Political parties are no longer engaging with Muslims like they used to. This process of withdrawal and fracturing began with the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and carries on in 2019. Globally, the pathologisation of Muslims began after 9/11, which entrenched Islamophobia, and moved the discourse around minorities entirely towards terror,...

-IndiaSpend.com Bengaluru: Indian voters do not vote on the basis of  development or policies, according to a recent study, confirming the results of the 2019 general elections. Despite a raft of economic woes afflicting the country, ranging from joblessness to farm distress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has swept to power in India, winning 56% of seats. The study, ‘Do Citizens Enforce Accountability For Public Goods Provision?’, by Oxford University scholar Tanushree Goyal...