-The Hindu While the earlier Assembly saw 271 MLAs or 67% crorepatis, this time there has been a jump of 13 percentage points. As the BJP got a sweeping mandate with 312 seats in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, data analysis by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms shows that 80% of MLAs in the new Assembly are crorepatis. The MLAs with the most assets are the BSP’s Shah Alam Urf...

-The Hindu Fifteen % of candidates face criminal cases; over 50% of candidates' declare their educational qualification to be between ‘5th pass and 12th pass’ An analysis by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has found that 38 candidates, or 15% of all, appearing in the coming election in Goa have criminal cases registered against them. Nineteen of them face serious criminal charges, including those of assault, murder, kidnap and rape. Topping...

-The Hindu The truth may ultimately prevail about demonetisation, but the government might be able to maintain the loyalty of a large part of the public for a long time, says Amartya Sen More than two months after the demonetisation, Nobel Laureate and economist Amartya Sen says that any proper “economic reasoning could not have sensibly led to such a ham-handed policy.” He predicts that the demonetisation will hit the economy quite...

Situation alarming: More than one-third population hit by drought   The country is facing severe drought for the second consecutive year. Conservative estimates from official sources show that over a quarter of rural habitations are facing drinking water scarcity. Although both India Meteorological Department and Skymet have predicted a more than normal rainfall during June-September, 2016, the water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country has declined from 22 percent...

-The Hindu An analysis of 812 MLAs across the five states where elections were recently conducted. A third of all the MLAs elected through the recent elections have criminal charges filed against them, says an analysis done by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). The firm collected and analysed data for all the 812 MLAs elected in the recently-concluded polls in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry. State-wise...