Author: Rwitwika Bhattacharya

Numbers and the Government

In 2013-14 India spent approximately 1545 billion rupees on healthcare, education, rural development and agricultural security, however the Statistics and Census programs are only allocated only 9.8 billion rupees to collect data and gauge the effectiveness of the programs (.6 percent of the budget). We are a country of big numbers. Now consider this, in […]

Development Stamp on Ballot

Two thousand and fourteen was a sweeping year for India and India politics. Eight of the nine State elections that were held last year had the winning party emerge with an overwhelming margin of at least twice as many seats (with the exception of Jammu & Kashmir). The general election indicated a similar pattern with […]

What’s Changed About the Voter?

When the Delhi’s Chief Ministerial Candidate, Arvind Kejriwal commented on the exchange of money for votes, I was reminded of a story from my ancestral town. A few years ago, Panchayat elections were held in West Bengal. A week before the election a message cryptically spread through the town that the pricing for votes had […]

What Makes a MP a Rock-star? Your 5-point guide*!

Black umbrella and red booklets have taken over Delhi and our national newspaper as Parliament has come in to session in Delhi this month. As an Indian citizen it is often hard for me to remember what a MP is expected to do. Here is the shocker for most of you: NOTHING. Our Indian Constitution […]