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Showing posts from 2018

Congress wrests power, BJP saves face

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By Anaka Harish Ganesh (Image Courtesy: Business Today) Within 24 hours, three states in the Hindi heartland have changed their political colour from saffron to blue. Is this a vote against the BJP? Or is this a vote for the Congress? The BJP was clearly routed out in Chhattisgarh. But to interpret it either way in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is too extreme. Voters didn’t award the Congress or put away the BJP as expected in Rajasthan and in Madhya Pradesh, the fight was so close that no one could predict who would form the government until the very end.  In Rajasthan, the dissatisfaction with the Vasundhara Raje government was thick in the air and for the past 25 years, the state has never re-elected the incumbent. There was also a perception of Raje as arrogant and a visible strain in the relationship between her and Amit Shah. In addition to this, the ability to connect with farmers and the youth over farm distress, unemployment and the anger over SC/ST

A tug of war for sugar farmers

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By Anaka Harish Ganesh Recently it was reported that Australia is taking legal action against India at the WTO for “far exceeding” the level of farmer assistance permitted under WTO rules in the sugar industry. They allege that this has caused a “significant downturn” in global prices and have hurt Australian producers. These subsidies and this issue are just the tip of the iceberg. Looking deeper, a domestic political battle for a significant constituency will reveal itself. Sugarcane farmers are an important constituency in UP, Maharashtra and Karnataka, but for now I will only analyse their effect on the upcoming elections in Maharashtra.  Of the 542 sugar mills in India, 187 are in Maharashtra and of the total sugar production in the state, around 77% is confined to the regions of Marathwada and Paschim Maharashtra (the blue and green regions in the below image). The sugarcane farmers in these 2 regions are an important constituency as they an impact on 10-15 Lok Sab

Awaiting MP assembly poll results: Will right alliances help INC out of exile?

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By Piyush Prakash Yadav Image courtesy - Election Tamasha The Madhya Pradesh Assembly Poll results is set to define the mood of the voters in the upcoming 2019 General Elections. Madhya Pradesh is mainly a bipolar contest between INC and BJP, but in recent times a few regional parties have come up with major vote banks in the state. MP has 90.89% Hindu population and majority of the voters voted for BJP because of its Hindu identity. The state which has more than half of the population engaged in agriculture is still heckled by agrarian issues, crime against women, unemployment, corruption etc. These issues have a major implication on people’s minds and may cause them to vote for a change of government. Making this assembly election very important for both BJP and Congress. BJP has been ruling the state since 2003, winning the last three elections. The Congress on the other hand has been in exile for 15 years and desperately wants to make a comeback. Wining this election wil

Madhya Pradesh Assembly Polls 2018: BJP to maintain its winning streak

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By Piyush Prakash Yadav   Image courtesy - Times of India " BJP’s strong vote bank in the urban constituency can help the party to retain their votes as the Modi factor maintains a great influence ."  Voters in Madhya Pradesh shall soon decide the political fate of the BJP and the Indian National Congress as the state goes to poll on November 28. This assembly poll will not only set the mood for 2019 but also help boost the winning party for the upcoming General Elections. It is quite vital for BJP to win the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, as the party holds 26 out of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies. But, in order to win the general elections of 2019, BJP cannot afford to lose any seats in Madhya Pradesh, which has been one of its strongholds. Even though Madhya Pradesh has been under BJP rule since 2003, with Shivraj Singh Chouhan leading the party since 2005, there seems to be no anti-incumbency factor. The BJP’s choice of the incumbent Shivraj Singh Chouhan a

The Introduction of Autonomous Vehicles in India

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*Prepared by Vishal Vinod , intern at Centre for Public Policy Research An autonomous vehicle is one that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating through the roads without any manual human input. The Society of Autonomous Engineers (SAE) has created a method to classify cars, whether automated or not, into six levels as given below. In the first three levels, the driver monitors the driving environment. Level Zero cars have no automation, with only the ability to give warnings. In Level One, the driver and the system share control of the vehicle. For example, the ‘Adaptive Cruise Control’- where the steering is controlled by the driver and the speed is controlled by the system. Level Two cars have partial automation where the system is capable of taking full control of the vehicle, but the driver must monitor the car at all times and must be willing to intervene at any moment. In the last three levels of the classification, the automated driving syste

Placemaking gives meaning to the space

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*Prepared by Srinidhi Hariharan , intern at Centre for Public Policy Research Placemaking is an approach to city planning where the citizens and the local community are involved in driving projects and events to bring the community together. It derives ideas from the local community and the neighbourhood in which the project takes place, so that the people living in the area are actively involved in the project. Placemaking is about driving change in public spaces and involving people around a public space to understand and experience it through first hand exposure. It is a concept developed by William H Whyte and requires vision and group effort.  An example of a placemaking project is one where the local community is involved in painting the surroundings to beautify public spaces, thereby providing a means to activate the public realm and encourage more people to come together and utilize the public space and express interest in improving their neighbourhood. Community b

Skill Development and Job Creation

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By Ispita Mishra* The term ‘Youth’ as defined by the UNESCO – is “ the period of transition from dependence to independence and awareness of our independence as members of a community ”. India is a young nation with nearly 65 percent of its population under 35 years old [i] . However, this demographic dividend might prove to be dangerous, rather than a boon, as India lacks severely in employment, skills and opportunities. Indian youth can contribute to higher economic growth; their potential must be aided by substantial policy orientation. The sustainable empowerment of youth can be ensured through the four pillars of education, skills and employment, temperamental change and government policy. But the number of jobs created annually is inadequate to absorb this growing population of youth in the labour market. Currently, the youth unemployment rate (15-24 years) is 10.1 percent. 43 percent of India’s youth are not in employment, education or training [ii] . The labour ma

INDIA’S IMPROVING ENERGY TRANSITION

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By Mathews Raju* India’s power sector is highly dependent on thermal and hydroelectric power plants. Thermal power plants mainly use fossil fuels like coal or oil leading to increased pollution and carbon emission. Hydroelectric plants tap energy from water reservoirs, which destroy the natural habitat. The increasing carbon footprint and environmental degradation has paved the way for energy transition in the country. It is the transition towards a more inclusive, sustainable, affordable and secure energy system that provides solutions to energy related challenges, while creating value for business and society. The Energy Triangle The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked India 78th in the Energy Transition Index. This is a performance index, where 126 countries are ranked based on 18 indicators that come under three core dimensions – energy access and security, environmental sustainability, and contribution to economic growth and development. This is referred to as

Are Indo–Canadian Relations Still Short of a Strategic Partnership?

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by J Paul Zachariah* When the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, planned his weeklong visit to India, the Canadian establishment would have never anticipated the hugely negative publicity it received in the Indian and Canadian media. Prime Minister Trudeau’s official visit, which began more like a family vacation, was, in fact, not even a shadow of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic visit to Canada in April 2015, when Stephen Harper was the Prime Minister. If Prime Minister Modi’s Canadian visit resulted in Indo–Canadian relations maturing into an effective partnership, the one indelible takeaway message from Trudeau’s visit was ‘Khalistan’, apart from his ill-advised choice of traditional Indian wear. And this, unfortunately, would loom large over the whole visit leading to a series of events and non-events that compelled Canada’s ‘National Post’ to have this as their front-page headline – “Colourful, classy but snubbed”. One commentator on CNBC