-ThePrint.in The BJP seems to have overturned the game of rival political parties claiming to be the harbinger of social justice and welfare on their own turf. Caste and religion remained dominant factors in Uttar Pradesh assembly election. And the political parties mobilised voters with social engineering and Developmental discourse both. Hence, it becomes essential to investigate the social profile of the new UP legislature. I provide a descriptive analysis of the newly...

-IndiaToday.in More women voted for the BJP than men in all four states that the party won in the recently concluded Assembly elections, according to the data. Here's why. The story of women voting in India has added one more puzzle for social scientists to decipher. In the past decade, the research largely focused on the increasing voter registration among women and their higher turnout rate at polling booths. The combined effect...

-Frontline.in A Parliamentary Standing Committee pulls up the Rural Development Ministry in its report on a “critical evaluation” of the MGNREGA and calls for more investment in the scheme. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report of the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, tabled in February, strongly recommends enhancing the budget for implementation of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, higher wage rates, and increasing the number...

-Down to Earth The Kala Talab has been filled with fly ash and soil to build residential colonies in the east Rajasthan city on the Chambal, resulting in crocodile deaths Some 50 mugger crocodiles have died in the last one month in a prominent waterbody of Rajasthan’s Kota city as a result of it being filled up for Developmental activities, locals and wildlife activists have alleged. The Kala Talab (‘black pool’) is connected...

-The Hindu Freshwater resources are under stress, the principal driver being human activities in their various forms The Global Water System Project, which was launched in 2003 as a joint initiative of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) and Global Environmental Change (GEC) programme, epitomises global concern about the human-induced transformation of fresh water and its impact on the earth system and society. The fact is that freshwater resources are under stress,...