The virility of Muslim men vis-à-vis men from other religious communities have often been used as a political tool and to create a divisive agenda just before elections for getting votes from the majority of the Indian electorate who are Hindus. Instead of focusing on positive agendas like human development, employment generation, and poverty reduction, political campaigns just before the elections oftentimes reduce to mere communal propaganda (when a lot...

-Livemint.com India has slid down the Global Hunger Index (GHI) this year, falling behind its South Asian neighbours to rank 101 out of 116 countries. The government has dismissed the report’s ‘unscientific’ methodology. Mint explains the numbers: * What’s  the  controversy surrounding GHI? The hunger index ranks countries on four indicators: the share of undernourished population, stunting and wasting among children, and child mortality. India’s overall score has improved since 2012, the last year...

-Hindustan Times An analysis of incumbency level datasets prepared by the Trivedi Centre for Political Data suggests that becoming an MLA does not bestow much power, at least beyond the current term, to a person in the Politics of states. What does it take to win a state election in India? Charismatic chief ministerial candidates or a committed, yet grounded set of MLAs? Logically, the answer should tilt towards the latter. After...

-Livemint.com The finance ministers of G-20 countries are scheduled to meet today in Washington to discuss the global minimum tax of 15% for multinational enterprises. Mint looks at the global minimum tax and its implications. * What is the global minimum tax? Last week, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) finalized a landmark agreement to subject multinational enterprises (MNEs) to a minimum 15% tax from 2023. A total of 136 countries,...

-The Hindu Lower court acquitted Mr. Mishra in 2004 but the criminal appeal in a murder case is still pending before the Allahabad High Court. The mowing down of farmers in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, in which his son Ashish Mishra is accused of murder, is not the first burning controversy in the life of Ajay Kumar Mishra, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs. Before he entered State-level electoral Politics, Mr....