-The Indian Express Interim budget does little to tackle unemployment, poverty. And it is clear that the government’s figures cannot be trusted. Last month, I was part of an all-party delegation of MPs from Karnataka, led by a Union cabinet minister, who met the Union rural development minister. We requested him to release the MGNREGA funds overdue to Karnataka. We pleaded that the poorest of the poor, who turn to MGNREGA...
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What will it take for political parties to increase women's representation in electoral politics? -Namita Bhandare
-Hindustan Times There’s no shortage of talent. For over two decades, women have occupied 33% of seats in panchayats and done so well that states like Bihar bumped up their quota to 50%. Exactly 101 years after the 19th Amendment granted American women suffrage, a record 116 women, including the first Muslim, the first Native American and the youngest ever, were voted to the US Congress. India, too, has the highest number...
More »Today's Assam Looks More and More Like the Violent 1980s -Debarshi Das
-TheWire.in A ripe ground for terror operations has been prepared. The National Register of Citizens exercise has been resurrecting many fissures in Assam. Some of the fissures are old, half-forgotten. The troubled years of the early 1980s had almost become the stuff of nostalgia – but not anymore. Those times of suspicion, distrust and insecurity are back. People are once again divided along community lines. Mass violence has made a comeback, albeit in...
More »60% in 18-19 age bracket not enrolled as voters -Bharti Jain
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Barely 40% of the country's newly eligible voters in the 18-19 age group are currently enrolled as voters. In fact, in big states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, 75 lakh and 46 lakh young people have turned 18 but are yet to enlist themselves as voters. As per statistics compiled by the Election Commission as part of its special enrolment drive focused on Young Voters, 3.36...
More »Job creation in high-growth India should be a top priority -Harsh Mander
-Hindustan Times There are almost no jobs available in India’s high-growth economy. Job creation has plummeted to levels even below those of preceding UPA governments. Of the one million new people who join the workforce every month, only 0.01% of new workers added to the work force actually found work. For millions of Young Voters Prime Minister Modi’s most alluring election promise in 2014 was that his government would create ten million...
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