-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...

-HindustanTimes.com Contrary to conventional wisdom, a comparative study of elections since 1980 indicates that verdicts are, if anything, getting less decisive and election wins are becoming narrower Are Indian voters empowering governments with more decisive mandates? This is the emerging wisdom among many experts and observers of Indian politics. For instance, pollster Pradeep Gupta, in his book, How India Votes: And What It Means, has argued that new forms of technology are enabling...

-TheWire.in On July 15, the prime minister inaugurated various development projects in UP and praised chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s governance. The Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly elections will be held between February to March next year. Campaigning for the polls has begun and it is not unusual for the incumbent government to make assertions about the milestones it has achieved in the past years. On July 15, PM Narendra Modi inaugurated various development...

-The Hindu Difference seen in both first and second wave. The number of “excess deaths” registered by the Civil Registration System (CRS) in West Bengal ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit (from April 2020 to May 2021), was an estimated 1,20,227, which is 11.1 times the official reported figure of 10,787 deaths for the same period. Five districts — Darjeeling, Jhargram, Kalimpong, North 24 Parganas and Paschim Medinipur — were not considered for...

-Scroll.in In a world of powerful spying tools, Indian democracy urgently needs checks on intelligence gathering. With allegations that opposition leaders, Union ministers, bureaucrats, an election commissioner and even a Supreme Court judge could have been spied on, the Pegasus spyware scandal points to one of the most egregious misuses of power in India’s history. The Israeli manufacturer of Pegasus insists that it only sells its weapons-grade spyware to governments, prompting allegations that...