Articles by Akshay Agarwal

India has one of the largest road networks in the world; yet, year after year, citizens bear the brunt of poor road quality, especially during the monsoons. From Mumbai to Guwahati, from Gurgaon to Bangalore the rains turn roads into rivers and when they do resurface, it is difficult to classify the ravaged, pothole-ridden stretches as roads! This may be an annual affair but the quality of roads in Indian cities continues to remain poor due to lack of accountability mechanisms in place. Why does such a situation persist for years on end and what might it take to fix…

At a broad level, legislative assemblies and legislative councils together form the legislative body at the state level. As a representational body, it has the mandate to make laws, hold the state executive accountable and sanction public expenditure, just as the Parliament at the central level. As opposed to the Parliament of India, some states comprise of the lower house only (called the legislative assembly whose members are directly elected by the people), while few others also have the upper house (called the legislative council whose members are elected through a select electorate comprising of members of municipalities, teachers, MLAs…