Nearly Rs 3,400 crore (Rs 34 billion) in cash and other items were seized in the elections in 2022-2023, an increase of 835 per cent over 2017-2018.
'The estimated expenditure is expected to be more than double the Rs 60,000 crore spent in 2019'
The Foundation for Democratic Reforms and Lok Satta, along with some organisations will arrange a round table conference in New Delhi on April 24. The conference is for a consensus on the creation of a powerful and independent Lok Pal at the national level and Lokayuktas in states.
At a staggering Rs 10,000 crore, the Lok Sabha polls this summer would cost more than what Barack Obama and others spent in the US presidential race. According to information available with the US Federal Election Commission, Obama and other candidates collectively spent close to US $ 1.8 billion (nearly Rs 8,000 crore) in the 2007-08 presidential elections.
The 'India Corruption Study 2007', brought out by NGOs Transparency International India (TII) and Centre for Media Studies (CMS), found that about one-third of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households in the country bribed officials to avail a total of 11 services -- from police to PDS.
The director has made 22 films and won 46 awards in India and abroad.
Vatavaran 2005, India's premier environment and wildlife film festival, invites applications from Indian Environment Filmmakers for the UK-CMS Environmental Film Fellowships.
What is ailing India's Public Distribution System (PDS)? "Corruption" is the one and only answer to that question.
The 'whodunnit' mystery over the sensational Noida twin murder seems to have caught the news channels in a big way, with a media watchdog claiming that six leading TV networks devoted half of their prime time to the case.
The CMS study said a majority of the bribe money went to lawyers (61 per cent) followed by court officials (29 per cent) and middlemen (five per cent).
Pay your tribute to Manohar Shyam Joshi, who wrote Hum Log and Buniyaad.
One-third of school students feel that television plays more important role in their lives than their teachers.
Latching onto a new survey's findings on corruption in Delhi Police, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday stepped up attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he should "stop being stubborn" and hand over police and Anti-Corruption Branch to AAP government.
The Centre for Media Studies after releasing a report on 2019 polls expenditure, also claimed the recently-concluded election has signalled that the more the expenditure, the "more vicious and ugly" the campaigns become.
A research organisation has described the electoral exercise as "money guzzler".
A whopping Rs 30,000 crore is likely to be spent by the government, political parties and candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, making it by far the most expensive electoral exercise in Indian history.
With the Modi government close to completing its two years in office, a new survey on Saturday said nearly half of the respondents (49 per cent) feel "no change" in their living standards while another 15 per cent feel the situation has actually worsened.
This was the most expensive Lok Sabha elections entailing a cost of Rs 3426 crore to the national exchequer, a substantial jump of 131 per cent over the expenses incurred in 2009.
Non-performers were not punished, performers were not rewarded, points out Utkarsh Mishra.
'Modi remains the most popular politician in India; the BJP's organisational and fundraising prowess is considerable; and the Opposition, while newly collaborative, has no leader or clear economic messaging as of yet.'
The EC limits campaign expenses incurred by a candidate to Rs 50 lakh to Rs 70 lakh. But there is no such limit on spending for parties. The vendors aren't complaining.
'When a newspaper says that Karnataka leads in corruption, one must also know it means Karnataka leads in patronising corruption.' 'You can't be corrupt without me succumbing to your corruption.'
Indians are election junkies, and that includes all of us -- political parties, aspirants for seats, pollsters, pundits parsing straws in the wind, says Shreekant Sambrani
The perception about JNU being 'radical' is one that is as old as JNU itself. But the university is more than just that. At its heart, its campus is a mosaic of ideologies that allow its students to breathe politically.
Mahesh Vijapurkar is hopeful that two Supreme Court directives and Gopinath Munde's confession that he spent Rs 8 crore to get elected to the Lok Sabha may lead to a possibility that the processes administered by the Election Commission may get cleaner, even if only over time.
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