-The Hindu Caste demographics do not have the deterministic effect on electoral outcomes that is often assumed As a new round of State elections approaches in India, political parties are crafting their electoral strategies. A large part of this exercise consists of constituency mapping, or gathering data about caste and community demographics, information about the local balance of power between groups, and the identification of local caste leaders, with the aim of...

-TheWire.in We must change the parameters we use to judge the "productivity" of parliament. My first few days in the Rajya Sabha were tumultuous enough to realise that classics like Erskine May’s Parliamentary Practice, the bible of Westminster, would really have to be ‘tropicalised’ a lot to adjust to the gross realities of the world’s largest and beleaguered democracy. The small endoscopic view of parliament’s functioning also leads to the belief that...

-Down to Earth The need of the hour is to put halt large hydel-power projects in the Himalayas. Can small hydropower plants offer a sustainable solution? Hydropower is a renewable and non-polluting source of energy. India has an economically exploitable and viable hydropower potential, which is estimated to be about 84,000 megawatt at 60 per cent load factor. It has an installed capacity of 148,701 MW, according to the National Hydroelectric Power...

-The Telegraph This year, a combination of factors is hurting the agriculture sector immensely A quiet, reverse transformation is happening in the countryside, and it is disconcerting. This sowing season, growing numbers of farmers are falling back on their bullocks as fuel prices are piercing the roof. The tractor, the symbol of modern farming, is becoming a luxury in the literal sense. The conventional ploughing equipment tied to bullocks costs only a...

-Newsclick.in Nearly 93% of the Indian garment workers were pushed below the international poverty line of the World Bank in April and May, 2020 Garment workers lost a significant amount of wage during the pandemic in six Asian countries including India. Workers’ wages were at poverty levels even before the pandemic, and were pushed further below the International Poverty Line in their countries by the pandemic, according to a recent report titled...