Consultants make a cool Rs 700-800 cr from general elections – study

Consulting firms that help political parties plan their campaign and media strategy are making around Rs 700-800 crore from the general elections, a study by industry body ASSOCHAM found. While releasing the ASSOCHAM paper on “LokSabha elections throw new biz opportunities” Mr. D S Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM said, “the disaggregating of the poll data […]

Modi factor – Polling gets off to strong start in Kerala

Indicating the strong interest in the evolving scenario at the centre, polling got off to a strong start in Kerala, where nearly half of the population are Christian and Muslim. Nearly 14.3% of the registered voters have cast their ballots in the first two hours of voting, according to unofficial information from the election commission. […]

Trolls dominate online election commentary; BJP most favored

If elections were to be held on popular news websites like Firstpost.com, ZeeNews, Hindustan Times etc, the Bharatiya Janata Party would have a clean sweep – going by its total domination of the online comment space. According to an analysis of the top commenters on four of India’s top news websites, 61.4% of the top […]

Initial probe finds Kerala forest fires were set by manmade force

A preliminary enquiry by the Kerala Forest Department has found that widespread forest fires in Kerala’s ecologically sensitive Wayanad region were likely to be man-made rather than natural. Fires were detected across the district on Sunday at the almost the same time. The area has been the hotbed of anti-environmentalist protests over the last three […]

Aam Aadmi streams live coverage of Arvind Kejriwal speech at Bangalore

With many TV channels deciding to “go easy” on covering the events of Aam Aadmi Party, the fledgling political outfit has taken to the Internet to take its live transmission of Arvind Kejriwal’s speech to its followers. Arvind Kejriwal is addressing Aam Aadmi supporters at Bangalore’s Freedom Park. He is expected to say whether he […]

Poll – Is Indian Media Intolerant of Criticism?

The last two days have seen media barons pour scorn and outrage on Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party for suggesting that the media is corrupt. The Editors Guild, a kind of industry lobby, seemed to be shaken by Kejirwal’s statement that an inquiry would be ordered into corruption in media and guilty journalists […]

Aam Aadmi Party’s reservation policy – first educate, then dismantle

The Aam Aadmi Party has clarified its stand on the subject of caste-based reservations in government jobs, saying it is in favor of abolishing reservations after social equality has been achieved. Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party was not in favor of discontinuing reservations in the current circumstance as caste-based discrimination, untouchability and injustice are […]

Americans keenly watched the fight between Church and Communists in Kerala (Wikileaks)

Not everything contained in the US diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks is news. However, many cables are interesting not because they reveal new information about their subjects, but they give a clue about what interests the American government, what it keeps tabs on and how it views developments. The American government has great interest in […]

Indians to be handled with care, Malaysia a “divided society” : Lee Kwan-Yew (Wikileaks)

Lee Kwan-Yew, the World’s longest serving prime minister and the architect of modern Singapore, sees India’s rise as a welcome development, but felt the Indians were a sensitive lot who had to be handled carefully. Lee also expressed his worries about Malaysia, which he called a “divided society” thanks to race politics, according to a […]

General Elections 2014: Minority consolidation to help Congress retain Kerala seats

The vote share of the Congress Party-led United Democratic Front will fall by 3% in the upcoming general elections 2014 in Kerala, while that of the Left Democratic Front will remain the same compared to 2009 – according to an opinion poll by Asianet News network and research firm C Fore. The Bhartiya Janata Party […]

US will work in Afghanistan even after 2014: Kerry assured India (Wikileaks)

The United States reassured India that its plan to withdraw its military forces from Afghanistan by 2014 did not mean it was totally abandoning the war-torn country. In a meeting between the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry and the Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao, the former reassured the latter that withdrawal will […]

Army calls the shots, US told India miffed over 26/11 inaction by Pakistan (Wikileaks)

India was sorely disappointed by the Government of Pakistan’s failure to take “visible” steps against the Lashkar e Toiba militants accused in the Mumbai terror attacks, but the US consoled it by pointing out that the Pakistani civilian government was powerless before its own army. According to a US diplomatic cable written in February last […]