When Ranjan Gogoi, the former Chief Justice of India, retired from the Rajya Sabha two months ago, his performance in Parliament became a matter of debate. As per an analysis by Livelaw, Gogoi did not ask a question to the government even once during the six years of his tenure and participated in the debate on only one Bill.  More recently, when seven AAP MPs defected to BJP, another analysis by Indian Express revealed that one of these seven defecting MPs, Harbhajan Singh, a former cricketer, had only 26% attendance.  Why do we typically go around digging data on the…

Ever since the contentious Mamallan reservoir was proposed in the ecosensitive Kovalam–Nemmeli backwater system, fisher communities in Chennai have repeatedly asked: Does it have to be here? Experts and scientists say no, urging the government to abandon the project and work on sustainable alternatives.  Critics point to a long list of costs: high expenditure, land acquisition, and risks to livelihoods and biodiversity. As we have reported earlier, the central concern driving the project is the looming drinking water supply crisis – demand is projected to rise from 1,100 million litres a day (MLD) to over 2,500 MLD for the Greater…