Alokesh Bhattacharyya

Excl: Deadline to freeze administrative boundaries not extended beyond June 30. Officials to The Hindu: discussion underway,no decision taken. Census last held in 2011, deadline extended 9 times since 2020. Could this mean Census is on the cards? The ambiguity has a direct impact on the dates of the next Census exercise that was last held in 2011. The deadline has been extended nine times since December 2020. A former Census official said an order for a “post-facto” extension could also be issued on a later date but if it was not extended it meant doors were open for the next Census exercise in the next three-six months. The Janata Dal (United), a key ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, has demanded caste census. The order on December 30, 2023 which extended the freezing of administrative boundaries by State governments till June 30, 2024 effectively pushed the decennial census exercise at least till October 1 as it usually takes three months to prepare the enumerators for the task. The implementation of the women’s reservation Act that was passed in a special session of the Parliament last year, which reserves 33% seats in Parliament and State Assemblies for women, is dependent on the conduct of the next Census. I report. https://t.co/MYRpUJ98LS

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Freshly infiltrated militants, around 20-25 are operating on two fronts in Jammu division-Poonch-Rajouri axis and Kathua-Doda areas. In the Kathua belt,they are active in a grid of 30-40 sq km. The China factor, diminished connect of SFs with younger generation and an old infiltration route revived. I try to explain the reasons for rise in militancy in Jammu in the past three years. https://lnkd.in/gcSTu63w

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Here's a full fledged interactive on election results in India in the past two Lok Sabha elections (held in 2014 and 2019) along with up-to-date phases and turnout data for the ongoing elections in 2024. There are filters to choose to drill the data down further; State/UT dropdown to zoom into States for results data; an urban-cluster dropdown because urban constituencies are highly populous but geographically small and you can see all this in a map based view or a simple list. The interactive was done entirely using d3.js and some python programming, while the underlying data was taken from the Election Commission of India, Trivedi Centre for Political Learning's LokDhaba and the SHRUG database (that provided the building blocks for constructing urban/rural classifications for parliamentary constituencies). The fun part - I used the help of GPT-4's "Code Assistant" extensively to get the visualisations done. Gen-AI, again, has truly revolutionised coding and product development. Please see the interactive here - https://lnkd.in/g4_ApwHR .. and share this with others. We are hoping to use this to display- and parse live data on election results day as well. Fingers crossed.

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In this episode on Election 360 we are taking you to Muzzafarnagar. We are answering some key questions here, "How well is the BJP-RLD alliance working? Is the BJP subaltern Hindutva umbrella under which it combined all non-dominant most backward classes still intact? How will the infighting in BJP impact their electoral prospects? What do voters have to say about absence of a Muslim candidate on a seat where they are the numerically strongest group." Do watch. https://lnkd.in/gpnc_RhC

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MHA/RGI centralised registration of deaths and births last year. For past 4 months, revamped portal has been facing glitches, States flag multiple issues to RGI. The portal dats will be used to update NPR,electoral rolls etc. The Hindu has accessed an August 5, 2024 letter by the Chief Registrar (Birth and Death), Bihar government, addressed to the Registrar General of India (RGI) flagging the issues faced by district authorities while registering births and deaths. Bihar migrated to the new portal on June 10. “Due to the revamped CRS portal being extremely slow, the OTPs (one-time password) not being generated in time and continuous display of error message on the page, there has been a huge backlog in all the registration units in the State. As a result, the Registrars are forced to face the ire of the people and public representatives. The glitches are leading to disruption of the entire system,” said the letter in Hindi. An official in Nagaland said sometimes they were not able to issue certificates for three days in a row. A district official in Chhattisgarh said ever since the State started using the new portal in March this year there “appears to be teething problems” with the system. The system often freezes up for hours while registering a birth or death and sometimes it might even take a day for the system to resume working, the official said. https://t.co/gaSLxdr2kc

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What are analysts thinking about Indian elections? If we were to retrace ourselves from the loud election ecosystem of India & think about what would India need politically for its rise, what would it be? We talked with a former political strategist, Chandra Mishra and analyst, Dr. Kaush Arha from Atlantic Council as well as journalist & author sunita aron, currently a consulting editor with Hindustan Times to guage what India needs. The one common thought that everybody highlighted was the role of the opposition and why a government with a majority as well as a strong opposition are important to maintain a balance in Indian democracy! #indianelections2024 #indiavotes #indiandemocracy #roleofopposition

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Financial Action Task Force mutual #evaluation report for #India flags six theatres for India. Four of these areas are getting #funds from abroad. One of these six theatres is #LeftWingExtremism. The LWE is seeking to overthrow Indian #Government. Read on to know more about #terrorfinancing . #TheHitavada #Nagpur Left-Wing extremists seeking to overthrow Govt with overseas funding: FATF on India https://lnkd.in/dRPWVCdi

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Political Disputes Over Central Government Schemes in India Readmore: https://lnkd.in/eSMWWMXq In recent times, the rift between India's central government and various opposition-led state governments has deepened, leading to significant political and financial standoffs. Central government schemes initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which aim to benefit the public, have been met with resistance from opposition parties, resulting in potential losses for the citizens. Controversy Surrounding Scheme Names A significant point of contention arises from the branding of these schemes. Opposition parties express discomfort with schemes being associated with PM Modi’s name, fearing that it overshadows their contributions and misleads the public into believing these initiatives are solely central government efforts. This unease leads to opposition-led state governments attempting to rebrand or outright reject these schemes. Opposition to Ayushman Bharat Yojana The Ayushman Bharat Yojana, a flagship health scheme providing free treatment up to ₹5 lakh, has faced hurdles in states like Delhi, where Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has yet to implement it. This has left many residents unable to access the benefits of the scheme. Similarly, West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has blocked several schemes, questioning the necessity of associating the PM’s name with them. #PoliticalDisputes, #IndiaGovernmentSchemes, #CentralVsState, #ModiSchemes, #AyushmanBharat, #SamagraShikshaAbhiyan, #PMShreeYojana, #OppositionResistance, #FinancialBlockage, #StateGovernmentChallenges, #EducationalReforms, #HealthcareSchemes, #MamataBanerjee, #ArvindKejriwal, #IndianPolitics, #GovernmentSchemes, #PublicWelfare, #PoliticalTensions, #StateVsCentre, #PolicyImplementation,

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Here is another season of corporate earnings. And it is likely that Indian companies, especially in the Nifty 200 universe, may see yet another quarter of slowdown in growth due to higher interest rates, weak global demand, and macroeconomic challenges. To read more on Informist Media Pvt Ltd's poll on how March quarter financial results of companies in the Nifty 200 index are expected to be: https://lnkd.in/de7WpQfQ

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With the #festiveseason approaching, the trend of gifting is also gaining ground. Read my analysis of a Flowwow report here - https://lnkd.in/dMcTPEhA

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What prompted the inexplicable choice for RBI governor? Read more at: https://lnkd.in/ehc3MhMX Story by Furquan Moharkan, Ujval Nanavati.

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**🚨 Exclusive Investigation for Al Jazeera: 🚨** I’m excited to share my latest investigative piece with Al Jazeera on the Government of India's advertising agency, the Central Bureau of Communication (CBC). Initially meant to promote government plans and programs, CBC's ads have increasingly featured catchphrases from Modi’s party, making it the top pre-election spender on Google ads. Over the past few months, political advertisement spending has been a hot topic, especially with publicly available data from Google and Facebook. However, the significant expenditures by CBC, which became one of the top spenders after starting its ad campaign in November, have largely gone unnoticed. Curious about this trend, I delved into CBC’s activities, uncovering how this government agency has spent substantial amounts on ads, raising concerns about the broader issue of institutional practices that allow any ruling party to leverage government funds with minimal accountability. This article represents a significant milestone for me as it combines my expertise in data analysis, policy, and ground reporting. Reporting on India's elections has always been a dream of mine, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to pursue this investigation. A big thank you to Nadim A. for entrusting me with this project and to Charu Kasturi for the seamless collaboration. Check out the full article here:

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How can ad agencies protect their creative ideas while working within the confines of a highly competitive industry that often pitches them for free? I explore in a story for Financial Express (India) today.

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My opinion piece on Sharad Pawar's tirade against EVMs: The root cause of MVAs defeat is not the EVMs but the failure of the alliance to connect with the electorate. Political parties are not just fighting for power but must also fight for relevance. Elections are about ideas, vision, and leadership. They are a reflection of how well a political party can resonate with the people, address their concerns, and present solutions that appeal to the electorate.

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The Finance Ministry is working on a new risk management system that would ensure products coming from free trade agreement (FTA) countries meet the value addition norms. The system will play a major role going forward as India is increasingly signing FTAs and has liberalised entry norms for select partners. It’s noteworthy that India’s annual concessions to different FTA partners has reached nearly Rs 75,000 crore and loopholes could prove costly.

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