Tag Archives: Kerala

A crash course in India’s Farmer Crisis

Jan 2021: India's farming crisis has been on for decades and what we are seeing right now is just the tipping point of systemic issues that have existed forever. It is completely reasonable to hold the government of the day accountable irrespective of which political party is in power. Here's a post from 2017 explaining the various components of this crisis. India's leading rural journalist (and unfortunately one of our only ones), P. Sainath, recently Read more [...]

India’s Infant Mortality Rates are worse than Uganda, Bangladesh, Iraq….

At 7.3% GDP growth, India is set to be 2016's fastest growing large economy. However, as of today, a child born in Bangladesh, has a better chance of living then one born in India. India has far surpassed Bangladesh when it comes to economic indicators, but many of our social indicators continue to be inferior to those of Bangladesh. And you can add the likes of Uganda, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Suriname, North Korea, Algeria, Bhutan, Nepal, Namibia and Read more [...]

7 stats on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that will blow your mind into many pieces

Here are some heartwarming stats from last year's mega elections that may restore your faith in humanity and/or blow your mind.  1) 73% of voters in Vadodra or 8.45 lakh people voted for Narendra Modi  It’s no surprise that some of the most impressive victories in the election were seen in the state of Gujarat by BJP candidates. Narendra Modi’s victory in Vadodara was arguably the most comprehensive one across India. Modi and C.R. Patil Read more [...]

State Scan 2014 – Dying Children and Economic Prosperity

This year is beginning with multiple new state governments all promising better 'governance'. This post attempts to analyze a couple of key criteria which can be viewed as outcomes of good governance.  Here are the two criteria: 1) State GDP per capita - The market value of all officially recognized goods and services produced within each state per person in that state. This has been used as a benchmark of economic development in a state. 2) Read more [...]

3 Government Projects to be proud of

Most media stories about politics and governance in the country these days come with predictions of doom and gloom. However, across the country, there are many politicians and bureaucrats who are diligently working towards improvement of public services. This year, three Indian projects received U.N. Public Service Awards. These awards recognize projects that fight poverty and promote sustainable development. Evaluation criteria for the awards include Read more [...]

Heads, I win. Tails, You Lose – Victory margins of Indian MLAs

  Five states went to poll earlier this year. Elections were conducted in a total of 823 assembly constituencies across Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu & West Bengal. 364 out of 823 MLAs (i.e. 44%) had more people voting against them than for them. Despite this they won due to the nature of our electoral setup. Here is a break-up of MLAs sworn in earlier this year: The above graph shows a split of MLAs between those who managed Read more [...]

Neta Profiling – Aam Aadmi to Ameer Gunda

Members of Parliament in the Lok Sabha represent each one of us. However their financial assets & criminal backgrounds are a different story. Here we compare MPs from different states in the country and figure out whether they are Aam Aadmis or Ameer Gundas or a mixture of both. All candidates who contest elections in India submit to the Election Commission, a self sworn affidavit with details of criminal records & financial assets. These Read more [...]

Murderers Eleven

Indian cricket teams have notoriously been known for lacking the ‘killer instinct’. Here’s a look at one Indian team which has all possible predatory instincts. Wah Sarkar decided to select 11 of our finest parliamentarians from the Lok Sabha to form a team of world beaters/killers/murderers/thugs. Out of 543 members, 162 MPs have pending criminal cases*. Thus it was a tough task narrowing this immensely talented bunch down to just 11. We have Read more [...]