India’s Youth Unemployment Data Shows Exponential Growth

Unemployment has become a major problem in India. And in the past decade, it has seen a sharp increase. This is something that all of us can see around us. A few weeks back, around 35,000 posts for Indian Railways attracted 1.25 crore applications. This alone shows the desperation among youth for employment.

Why Exit Polls Go Wrong?

It is 2022 and the election season is around in India. In the next few months, we are going to have State Legislative Elections in five states. This includes elections in politically the most important state in India: Uttar Pradesh, and the heart of the Farmers’ protest: Punjab. But, before the results will be announced, we will see a lot of news channels conducting exit polls in these states to show you the probable winners.

Role of Indian Politics in Income Equality

The World Inequality Report 2022 categorizes India as a ‘poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite.’ The report further shows that 57% of wealth is held by the top 10% of the population, while the bottom 50% hold just 13%. What are the reasons behind such inequality? What role do policies and politics play in it?

Gandhi, and Group Polarisation

Kangana Ranaut’s statement has once again created a controversy. In an interview, she said that India got its real independence in 2014. “…what we got [in 1947] was not Independence but alms.”
Statements like these by a national awardee are a disgrace to our society. And it also teaches us a couple of things. But first, let’s talk about some statistics.

Talks About Democracy and Institutions in Modi’s Visit to US

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a visit to the US for a bilateral talk. In a joint media appearance before their first in-person meet, Kamala Harris, US vice president, talked openly about democracy and democratic institutions. She said,

Fighting Hate Speech and The Grey Area

On 8th August 2021, at a rally in Jantar Mantar, inflammatory slogans calling for violence against Muslims were raised. Two days later, Bhartiya Janta Party leader Ashwini Upadhyay and five others were arrested. According to a report in Scroll, they have been charged with promoting religious enmity and breaking the Covid-19 protocol. But more than […]

Of WhatsApp, Group Polarization, and Fake News

Last year, during the time of Delhi election, a message claiming that Arvind Kejriwal was accused of rape and was arrested in 1987 came in my family WhatsApp group. Well, it took me a single google search (nearly about 5 seconds) to find out that it was fake. Even when it was so easy to find out the truth, the fact is that someone shared it in our group and someone else in our group must have forwarded it to some other group. And that is how the instant messaging service has become one of the largest propagators of fake news. But how does it happen? What is the reason people believe in fake news?

Why The Pegasus Project is a Much Bigger Issue than It Seems

Recently, Amnesty International, a human rights organization came up with a database of 50,000 phone numbers which were either infected or were potential targets of a spyware called Pegasus. NSO Group, an Israeli company, has made this spyware. It sells it only to governments and official agencies for security purposes, which is why this issue has become a lot more controversial. Various governments including India’s have been suspected to keep an eye on its citizens, especially the dissenters, using this dangerous weapon.

We Don’t Need a Population Control Bill

One of the most heated topics of last week was THE UTTAR PRADESH POPULATION (CONTROL, STABILIZATION AND WELFARE) BILL, 2021. I think, it has become a tradition from the last few years to draft at least one controversial bill every year. And this is the latest entry to that list. There are many myths about the population in india which needs to be busted. Also, as we will see later, this bill has nothing to do with the real issues as is claimed, but is purely a political gimmick. So let’s start.

When a Renowned Media Organisation Got It All Wrong

While scrolling through my google news feed, I came across this news article titled ‘Why govt is not cutting petrol, diesel prices; Rs 1.3 lakh cr oil bond repayments due for cheap fuel in past’ in the website of Financial Express, one of India’s leading business media entity. Being such a large and renowned media organization, I didn’t hope they would write this article. It is basically a report on how the increasing tax on petrol and diesel is because of the oil bonds issued by previous governments which we have to pay now. This, as we shall see later, is totally wrong and belongs more to whatsapp university instead of Financial Express.

Society is The Court of Ethics and Morals

Central Vista Redevelopment project has been surrounded by controversies ever since it was announced. Going with such a large project when the average economic growth of the country declined for the fourth consecutive year in FY 2019-20, that is, the pre-pandemic year, seemed irresponsible. As we entered the pandemic, we not only saw one of the biggest economic contractions in the post-independence history, but also the Indian healthcare system collapsing miserably. The floating dead bodies on the banks of river Ganga are an open testimony to that. Personally, I know dozens of people who have lost their lives in this pandemic. But, even this didn’t prevent the current dispensation from continuing the massive project, or as the critics call it “Modi Mahal”.

On Partisanship, Education Levels, and Free Vaccines

In 2006, two political scientists, Charles Taber and Milton Lodge, conducted an experiment to examine the way Americans thought about two randomly chosen controversial political issues: gun control and affirmative action. The participants were given arguments from both the sides to assess the strength and weakness of each. One would have thought that being asked to review the pros and cons, people with opposing views might create a shared understanding amoung them. Instead, they tried to look through the points that backed their existing beliefs as much as they can. When invited to assess the opposing arguments, they would spend considerable time thinking up ways to shoot them. Why did this happen?

An Open Letter to All Feat. The Deshbhakt

Akash Banerjee, a political satirist and a youtuber who runs a community called The Deshbhakt (The Patriot), made a video recently called ‘The Republics on The Road’. It was really very intriguing and compels us to ask an important question to ourselves: Where are we heading to?

The Power of Emotions

Emotions are something which differentiates humans from other organisms. It is a necessary part of human behavior and also helps us to interact with others’ needs in mind rather than our own, which is the basis of society. But, sometimes it gets the better of us and overpowers rationality. We stop thinking, and go with the flow of emotions. Tim Harford, one of my favourite economists, recalls an interesting story from the past in his book ‘How to Make the World Add Up’, to explain it. So the story goes something like this: