In a few days from now, women could account for 52 per cent of all local bodies. They are tailors, farmers, accountants, legal clerks, homemakers, vendors and activists. There are M.Com degree holders alongside poor women from deprived backgrounds. Together, they make up the most highly educated women candidates fighting local body Elections anywhere in the country. There are nearly 40,000 of them contesting the polls across more than 1,200...

Except for the Left parties, none of the major political parties have given importance to land reforms and problems of landless people during the Elections. The Janata Dal(U) and the RJD-LJP are silent on land reforms. In their manifestoes in the previous Elections, they had devoted some space to declare their dedication to the problem of land reforms. According to the official sources, the last action of distribution of surplus land was...

Panchayat Elections in Uttar Pradesh have thrown up many curious phenomena. Everyone involved with the panchayat Elections in Uttar Pradesh seems to love it. Sons, brothers, sons-in-law of MLAs contesting for seats at the village, tehsil or district levels in vast numbers are happy because the vidhayak mahoday is campaigning on their behalf, making full use of the party machinery. Wives and daughters-in-law from ‘influential families' are delighted because their family's...

Kodinar, where slain activist Amit Jethava led a campaign to create awareness about the Right to Information (RTI), this powerful democratic tool and its use has become an agenda against the BJP in the local body Elections slated for October 21. Jethava’s two close aides, who say they also had to face the wrath of the rich and powerful for exposing corruption in the system, are in the fray for the...

The city has come to be known as the Detroit of India for its large concentration of automakers, but a series of labour disputes have rocked it, putting a question mark over industrial peace. Car markers such as Hyundai Motor India, German luxury car maker BMW and Ford Motor India besides Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia India have set up their plants on the city outskirts employing more than 23,000 people. As...