-Live Mint Data indicates that in the presence of a credible alternative, people are unlikely to choose NOTA The recently held assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were the first where voters had the option to reject all candidates by voting for "none of the above" (NOTA). The option, however was simply hypothetical-votes marked to "none of the above" would simply be ignored while deciding the winner, and...

-PTI Allaying fears of a spurt in public expenditure ahead of Lok Sabha polls, finance minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said government will not compromise on fiscal discipline, notwithstanding the defeat of Congress in four states, including Delhi and Rajasthan. Inaugurating the Delhi Economic Conclave, Chidambaram blamed the states for "inaction" to check hoarding and said the incumbent government pays a price for high inflation. "The agenda, therefore, will be obvious. At the...

-The Business Standard But urban homelessness has increased As part of the 2011 census operations the government took a count of homeless people across the country on the night of February 28, 2011. The numbers of India's homeless population emerging from that survey were made public a few days ago. Although a single-day exercise has many advantages, some people have also contested it - at least one non-governmental organisation working in the...

-The Telegraph Lucknow: The laptops are piling, the classrooms are empty. The Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh government today indicated it was ready to shift gears and focus on tackling alarming school dropout rates after being slammed over misplaced priorities and cash-guzzling populist schemes like free laptops. The issue was raised by a Congress legislator, Pramod Tiwari. BJP MLAs soon followed suit, drawing the government’s attention to the large number of dropouts at the...

-Outlook New Delhi: When it comes to crorepati leaders winning the elections, Delhi seems to have taken the cake among the four states with at least 52 such MLAs in the 70-member strong assembly. While absolute number of MLAs with assets running into crores of rupees may be higher for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the number of constituencies in these two states is also higher at 230 and 200, respectively. Chattisgarh has...