With a stunning tally of 21 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has stumped each of its political rivals in the country's most important political state -- the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. It will given the Congress leadership the strength to keep both the BSP and SP away from the United Progressive Alliance.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi looked and sounded pleased as punch at having outmanoeuvred her rivals and enacted a coup of sorts by bringing in the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha, and that too a Dalit.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Karnataka Power Minister K S Eshwarappa has alleged that liquor had been used to woo voters to vote for Chief Minister B S Yedyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra, who won the recently-held Lok Sabha polls from Shimoga.Eshwarappa's comments come in the wake of Yeddyurappa's allegations about the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader not doing enough to ensure that his won wins by a larger margin.

'The BJP ran a miserable campaign and the Third Front, happily, was clueless. It also showed the disutility of a negative campaign where the BJP could not proffer any viable policy alternatives to Congress,' says Professor Sumit Ganguly.

Election Commissioner S Y Quarishi on Election 2009 and the challenges many the Election Commission faced.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Trump administration supports a plan to send checks to Americans, likely within the next two weeks, to mitigate household and business interruptions caused by the spread of the new coronavirus. Photo: Evan Vucci/Associated Press

With elections just weeks away, Child Relief and You asks that political parties to focus on issues that affect children.

Jayaprakash Narayan on the famous verdict of May 2004 that saw the BJP-led NDA evicted from power. This feature includes a brief interview.

At least one controversial issue raging in the Karimnagar by-election race in A.P. has taken its toll. Union Minister Oscar Fernandes has assured the region's beedi workers of modifying a controversial New Delhi order that has mandated a skull-denoted warning on beedi packets. Kondal Rao reports.

With a population of 170 million and with 403 Legislative Assembly seats up for grabs, political parties are baiting the the masses in U.P. Of course, masses do not include the approximately 78 million women of the state, reports Tarannum.

Water is a big local concern, but at the national level, it does not seem to figure very high up in the considerations of major parties, at least as seen in their pre-election promises. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

The choice for the last remaining Communist party on this planet is clear. It either reinvents itself, as its brethren around the world have repeatedly done. Or it walks off into the JNU sunset.

If he shall not do so today, can Dr Manmohan Singh ever push reforms and infrastructure initiatives?

M Karunanidhi, who is keen on ensuring that all his children are well settled before he passes into the ages, needs to learn from President Kalam's example.

By fixing a minimum tenure for secretaries in key ministries, Singh can ensure continuity of policy.

If the Bharatiya Janata Party's own chances of returning to power are so weak, where is the question of Narendra Modi assuming its leadership and becoming the next Prime Minister. B Raman examines

Narendra Modi, who posted a resounding victory in the assembly elections, will be sworn in as Gujarat Chief Minister for the fourth time on December 26.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is yet to congratulate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and refused to say anything on Modi's hat-trick victory on Friday.

The National Institute of Oceanography has repeatedly attested that the Adani group's projects in Kutch would not negatively impact the region's ecology, but admits this only reluctantly. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Tripura's proclaimed progress in ensuring high attendance and sufficient numbers of teachers doesn't stand up to scrutiny. There are many holes in the numbers as well as quality. Himanshu Upadhyaya reports.

Efforts to rein in massive emissions of pollutants, and to reduce volumes of water consumed by coal-based thermal power plants have been thwarted by endless delays in implementing the regulations that were to take effect last year. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

The government proposes to replace a number of laws protecting the social security of workers with a single Code. But could its vast scope itself make it vulnerable to the details in fine print?

What should a town-planning engineer in a district or taluk headquarters know of the Energy Conservation Building Code to get it successfully implemented, without complicating things? Chandrashekar Hariharan provides some answers.

Both the Ministry of Renewable Energy and the Ministry of Environment and Forests appear loath to pay attention to the potential environmental impact of small hydel power projects in the country. Parineeta Dandekar underlines the shortcomings in the official stance towards such projects.

The idea of women as autonomous and equal citizens is sanctioned in our public sphere through the media, even as the media also endorses the idea that women are around to be gazed at through advertisements, films, contests, and the like. Shoma Chatterjee says that our women are paying a price for this contradiction.

A 90-second video put together by a group of women activists demands a pop-up statutory warning on screen every time a woman is assaulted or abused. Shoma Chatterji critiques the video, raising several questions over its content as well as the stance that it takes.

The recent government crackdown on Greenpeace in particular, and the activism sector in general, reeks of arbitrariness and illegitimacy, says Ashish Kothari in a scathing critique. The question is will the people give in to the state’s tactics?

Community engagement should be born out of respect for the participating community members and their capacities rather than as tokenism needed to fulfill a program requirement, writes R Balasubramaniam.

India's doctrine of 'deterrence by punishment' is least credible in the most likely scenario of Pakistani nuclear use. But the tenets of this doctrine are not above revision, and times of relative peace offer a better opportunity to find the way forward, says Firdaus Ahmed.

India’s foreign policy moves under Narendra Modi have so far been aggressive, but sustaining the heat on the external front, sans resolution of critical internal and regional positions, comes with its own risks, writes  Firdaus Ahmed.

L S Aravinda points out that many Indian children are better off because their parents prefer natural infant hygiene, but warns of an increasing number being swayed by 'the convenience' of diapers.

Rasika Dhavse reports on the transition from conventional conservation practices to community based ones.

The 2013 rejection of the bauxite mining plan in Odisha’s Niyamgiri Hills by the local tribal gram sabhas is hailed as the first successful environmental referendum in the country. Meenal Tatpati and Rashi Misra visit the region to find out what led the people to oppose the proposed ‘development’.

Ammu Joseph

For some time there has been an impasse between media and the government over the media regulation and the Broadcast Bill, with citizens left on the sidelines. A set of documents is being released into the public domain to stimulate public debate. Ammu Joseph has more.

We need to reflect on the political and social possibilities that India has contributed to the modern world. The Indian experience offers new interpretations of key modern concepts such as nationhood, democracy, citizenship and individual freedom, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

There is a dichotomy between the normative, rational principles enshrined in the law and the actual practice of public morality. We can overcome this only if we co-locate physically and mentally with fellow citizens, says Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The recent simplifications to the Central environmental clearance process may endup pushing peoples’ participation and transparency to fringes, says Sunita Dubey.

Thus far, MoEF has only been negligent in safeguarding the environment, but now it proposes to do away with even the need to do so. The new draft notification from the ministry has obligingly confined itself to facilitating new investments, and ignored all other stakeholder voices, writes Kanchi Kohli.

Total plan funding for urban areas is Rs 3,500 crores, but for rural programmes, it exceeds Rs 40,000 crores. In the meantime, the urban poor often live in sub-human conditions, and the infrastructure is barely able to cope. Ramesh Ramanathan says we need more rigour in our policy discourse.

The claims of the second phase of the Bharat Nirman campaign, glorifying the achievements of the UPA in various sectors, ring hollow when one looks at the crises afflicting the economy. Shambhu Ghatak discusses this in the light of findings of the CAG's financial audit of the Union Government Accounts.

Media reports following the two-day Accountants’ General conference have focused largely on the observations and advice on CAG audits by the Finance Minister and the PAC chairman. Himanshu Upadhyaya wonders if such a meet cannot be evolved into a more citizen-focused and constructive exercise.

Blank Noise, begun as Jasmeen Patheja's personal reaction to street sexual harassment, has grown to record women's experiences in creative ways. The latest of these is a clothes collection effort to tackle the misconception that women's attire invites harassment. Vasudha V reports.

It is not just another feature film; new generation director Kamaleshwar Mukherjee's fictionalised depiction of the life and genius of iconic film-maker Ritwik Ghatak is in itself cinema at its best. Shoma A Chatterji reviews the film.

In a significant move, the Kerala government has decided to promote the production and marketing of organic food. C Surendranath reports.

To expect poor and marginal farmers to trade online seems to be a wild imagination of a stockbroker, says Devinder Sharma.

Kasturi Das makes a strategic case for a shift to organic agriculture in India.

A theatre festival was held in Kolkata between November 1 to November 4 dedicated to the memory of Nati Binodini (1863-1941), a versatile actress whose dramatic and tragic life had more twists and turns than a film script. Shoma Chatterji attended, and has more.

On 12 August 2008, history was made. A woman performed the duties of a 'qazi'. Today, a new 'nikahnama' has been placed before the 'ummah' (community), which protects the rights of the Muslim women, writes Syeda Hameed.

Our deities can't be bullied into becoming soulless robotic creatures that yield to every new wave of political fashion. Madhu Purnima Kishwar wants protection from the new missionaries of uniformity.