In the survey conducted by anti-graft group Transparency International, only 14 per cent Indians said none of the religious leaders were involved in corruption, while another 15 per cent did not know about their corrupt practices.
On the eve of the first phase of polling in Rajasthan, Rediff.com spoke to some of the first time voters in Jaipur who form a considerable chunk of the voters. While some youth seek a sincere, development-oriented leadership which has zero-tolerance towards corruption, there are others who think communalism is the main issue. Shahnawaz Akhtar reports.
The introduction of GST would constitute India's biggest reform.
The trio, 'twin shocks' of demonetisation and GST, 'twin balance sheet' problem that has been weakening India's banking system and the 'twin deficit' problem will continue to challenge economic management and performance in the year ahead, says Shankar Acharya.
The high new GDP numbers are puzzling.
E-auaction cannot totally end corruption in the system.
'Every traffic police station in the city has a policeman designated unofficially as the 'cashier.' 'His job is to collect the bribes and, at the end of every month, distribute this money among the cops according to rank.'
'I am hopeful of getting all six seats from Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, either for the BJP or with our allies.' 'The same is true about Meghalaya.' 'We will have to work hard in Mizoram and in Tripura.' 'In Assam, we won seven seats. In 2019 election, we will add to this number.'
Thursday's Lok Sabha elections will be a landmark for Tibetan youth as they finally get the right to vote in their adopted homeland, reports Anshul Gupta.
With India lagging behind on several human development indices including healthcare and education, the Union government's decision to up the spending on these sectors is a step in the right direction. However, much more needs to be done in the way of increasing accountability and arresting corruption if headway is to be made on these fronts, says Devanik Saha.
Sharply attacking the Congress and the BJP for being in collusion to defeat the Jan Lokpal Bill, Arvind Kejriwal, who resigned as the Delhi chief minister, on Friday evening said that people will teach both the parties a lesson in future.
'There are a lot of positive things these reforms are bringing about and it is only a matter of some quarters before the growth rate picks up momentum.' 'Until then we need to be a little bit patient.'
What should concern the Indian citizen is not the fact that the world's biggest assault rifle purchase was scrapped. What should is the fact that the tender was for a type of rifle that has never been produced, says Nitin Pai.
India' can't succeed unless it is made easier for people to do business.
Democracy is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for rooting out corruption
BJP chief Amit Shah said that the government has brought the country out of policy paralysis.
Even if they score administratively, state governments ruled by the party suffer from an inability to communicate positively, say observers.
A left-leaning centralised socialist model has created a shortage/entitlement economy. In fact one of the reasons for India's limited progress is that post-independent India is at odds with its true nature. It is something that educated right of centre Hindus are trying to correct, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
Economist Dale W Jorgenson declares that India is doing "very, very well" and forecasts that India might continue to outrun world economies, including China over the next many years.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley appealed to parties to rise above partisan considerations to support it.
China's economy is in transition, with rising wage costs and massive overcapacity.
'India cannot expect to be insulated from the crisis. Europe is India's biggest trading partner with two-way trade of E72.5 billion or Rs 530,000 crore last year,' says Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.
The government has provided a long-term vision.
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