Latest news with #PraveenChakravarty
New Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
South given only their money, cess up 600%: Congress debunks Amit Shah's claim in TNIE interview
Reacting to union home minister Amit Shah's interview with the TNIE, on Saturday, chairman, Professionals' Congress & Data Analytics (Indian National Congress) Praveen Chakravarty chose to debunk some of the claims made by the union minister. On the claim that total allotment to five states in south India under tax devolution during the Narendra Modi government had increased in Grants-in-aid, Praveen Chakravarty reacted saying, "not true." He further added, "It belonged to the states. That's number one. No one is giving. There's not some of your money that you're transferring over. They're not some rulers here. They're not kings here. Number two, the Union government imposed what's called cess and surcharge." Praveen Chakravarty further added that the cess and surcharge has gone up 600% in the last 11 years. "And what does cess and surcharge mean? It means I will keep that money only for the Union government and not share it with the state governments. That's what cess and surcharge means. So they've actually kept more money for themselves instead of giving to states what legitimately belong to the states' Amit Shah had said that the total allotment to the five states under tax devolution during the Modi government has gone up to Rs 10,96,754 crore from Rs 3,55,466 crore, a 209 per cent increase. Grants-in-aid now stand at Rs 9,38,518 crore—it was Rs 2,18,053 crore during the UPA. That's a 330 per cent rise. Tamil Nadu saw a 207 per cent growth in tax devolution—from Rs 94,977 crore to Rs 2.92 lakh crore. And grants-in-aid increased by 342 per cent—from Rs 57,924 crore to Rs 2.55 lakh crore. On the Telangana census, Shah had said: What they are doing in Telangana is a survey. We are doing a census. There is a difference. In Karnataka, they tried, but had to scrap it. The Congress leader reacted thus, 'He (Shah) said that it was a caste survey in the state not census. I'm the convener of the Telangana consensus committee. I'm writing a 300 page report. I think the question was, I remember, if I remember right, that the Union government announced the caste census on pressure."
Time of India
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Telangana set to finalise first composite Backwardness index; report to cover 242 caste groups
File photo HYDERABAD: The first ever Composite Backwardness Index (CBI) report is set to be completed in the coming days, with the indepent expert group appointed by the state govt finalising the analysis of the data sourced from the Socio-Economic, Educational, Employment, Political, and Caste Survey (SEEPC). During a press conference on Wednesday, committee convener Praveen Chakravarty announced that the final meeting to review the report, which spans 300 pages, has concluded. The team is now preparing to submit their findings to chief minister A Revanth Reddy. Chakravarty elaborated on the innovative scoring system that assigns backwardness scores to 242 caste groups, a task informed by a massive survey that engaged 3.55 crore individuals across 74 diverse fields of information. 'The fundamental concept behind this initiative is a ranking method that quantifies backwardness. To calculate the Composite Backwardness Index scores, the researchers utilised an extensive array of 42 parameters, which encompass crucial aspects such as education levels, gender equality, occupational status, living conditions, income brackets, asset ownership, land rights, experiences of discrimination, and access to financial and capital resources' he said. You Can Also Check: Hyderabad AQI | Weather in Hyderabad | Bank Holidays in Hyderabad | Public Holidays in Hyderabad Chakravarty expressed confidence that the final adjustments would be completed within the next 10 days.
The Hindu
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Is voter registration being subject to fraud?
Beginning with the Maharashtra Assembly elections last year, Opposition parties have made many allegations regarding manipulations in electoral rolls. The Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, and others have raised the matter both inside and outside Parliament. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has maintained that it is impossible to tamper with voter rolls. Two days ago, it issued instructions for holding Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar for the Assembly elections to ensure that the names of all eligible citizens are included, the name of no ineligible citizens are included, and to introduce complete transparency in the process of addition or deletion of electors in the electoral rolls. Is voter registration being subject to fraud? Praveen Chakravarty and Rangarajan R. discuss the question in a conversation moderated by Sreeparna Chakrabarty. Edited excerpts: Mr. Chakravarty, let's start with you. You have studied and written on the Maharashtra Assembly elections extensively. What are your major concerns? Praveen Chakravarty: The main issue that the Congress and the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, have raised about the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections is that there was an abnormal, sudden, and almost unexplainable increase in the number of electors. It was a statistical outlier, an anomaly. The Maharashtra Assembly elections were held just six months after the Lok Sabha polls. A group of people voted in Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha elections. Six months later, while there may be some more people voting during the Assembly elections, you don't expect the number to rise in an alarming way. But that is exactly what we found. There was an increase of more than 40 lakh voters in just those months. It is not the number 40 lakh in absolute terms that is significant. In the previous five years, the total number of new voters added in Maharashtra was only 32 lakh. So is this new increase logical? Under what conditions do new voters register? When the ECI adds voters, 80-90% of them are either those turning 18 or adults who had not enroled before. Did lakhs and lakhs of people in Maharashtra suddenly turn 18 or decide to become new voters in just five months while they were not to be found in the previous five years? Who are these new voters? Where did they come from? How did they enrol? What documents were checked? Were they verified? Rangarajan R.: As far as the electoral rolls are concerned, I agree that there may be some issues. But to say that the entire voter registration process could be fudged and could be manipulated to a large extent is stretching it a bit far. The Hindu data team published an article about this sudden spurt after the Lok Sabha elections and before the Assembly elections in 2024. They found that during 2004, there were 30 lakh new voters added in a period of five months. In 2009, between April and October, 30 lakh voters were added. In 2014, between April and October, 27 lakh voters were added. Between April and November 2024, 40 lakh voters were added. One reason why there could have been a sudden spurt is that the cut-off date for enroling, which was earlier January 1 of every year, has been made quarterly. So that could have played a small and important role in the increase. I am not claiming that the electoral rolls are absolutely fine, but there are enough checks and balances. As someone who has worked in the civil services and has conducted elections, I am not for a minute saying that everything is hunky-dory and no reforms are required. There are a lot of reforms required. Aadhaar seeding has probably helped in reducing issues in databases such as PAN. There are valid concerns about seeding the Aadhaar database into the electoral rolls, but that is perhaps the way forward to ensure that there are no duplicates. Wrongful inclusions are not allowed, but the big risk is that there can be wrongful exclusions. And that is something which needs to be addressed carefully. The ECI has said that it is nearly impossible to tamper with electoral rolls and has asked why the Congress did not use the appeals process when the final rolls were shared for the Maharashtra Assembly polls. What is your response to that, Mr. Chakravarty? Praveen Chakravarty: I think there is a lot of conceptual misunderstanding around this issue. I'm going to speak as a data scientist. While Mr. Rangarajan, quoting the The Hindu data team, rightly pointed out some figures for 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2024, what he did not mention is the context of the 40 lakh increase. All numbers have a context. Trends and not levels are important to understand big data. In 2004, when 30 lakh voters were added in the five months between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, do you know how many voters were added in the previous five years? 61 lakh voters, twice. In 2009, when 30 lakh voters were added in the five months, 70 lakh voters were added in the previous five years. In 2014, when 27 lakh new voters were added in the five months, 48 lakh voters were added in the previous five years. So, the statistical anomaly that I am pointing out here is not the 40 lakh. It is the illogical and suspicious trend of more new voters in five months than in five full years. In Maharashtra, fertility levels have been falling for the last two decades. This means that the total number of newborns would have only decreased every year. This also means that the number of people turning 18 would have decreased from 2004. The population may increase, but the number of people turning 18 would have decreased. My simple point is that it is humanly impossible for Maharashtra to produce that many more people in five months than in the previous five years. Regarding your question about whether Congress's booth-level agents were sleeping... Let us say there is a burglary in your home. You go to the police station to file a complaint. What if the police station turned to you and said, your security guard was sleeping, so we can't do anything? The ECI has a constitutional responsibility to conduct free and fair elections in this country. If all the responsibility is outsourced to political parties, why have an independent constitutional body? But I am not denying here that the Congress's organisation should be much stronger than what it is. Rangarajan R.: First, to give due credit to The Hindu, the data team's article does mention these increases that Mr. Chakravarty talked about. However, I agree that if there is indeed an anomaly, the failure of a party's organisational wing to check, cross-check, and file appeals cannot absolve a constitutional authority of their responsibility. Mr. Chakravarty, you have been asking for electoral rolls to be given in machine-readable format for both the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. You have also been demanding CCTV footage after 5 p.m. claiming that there is a surge in voter turnout after that. Could you explain these demands? Praveen Chakravarty: We are asking for it to be in digital or machine-readable format because they (ECI) can give you these scanned images or papers and ask you (the party) to go manage it. Regarding your second point, we are saying — and we have shown using the ECI's summary data — that there is an abnormal surge. We also know that there was some abnormal increase in voting happened after 5 p.m. Now, is it or is it not the responsibility of a constitutional body to preserve the trust and confidence of the institution by coming out and saying here is the footage? Every time we raise a question, BJP leaders are the ones responding. We never asked the BJP to respond. We're only asking the ECI. The ECI has said that beginning with the Bihar Assembly elections later this year, there will be a SIR of electoral rolls across the country. What do you think about this? Praveen Chakravarty: This is a tacit admission by the ECI that all is not well with the electoral rolls. Also, is this the right way to clean up the rolls? This is as good as going back and saying we are almost rendering the last 20 years of voter roll revisions defunct and we're just going to start afresh. Rangarajan R.: To clean up the electoral rolls of wrongful inclusions and exclusions and ensure utmost correctness, a detailed physical exercise such as the one planned by the ECI for Bihar is required. It can still be subject to allegations of manipulation and bias in favour of the ruling party. To overcome such accusations, it must be done in a fair and transparent manner by giving wide publicity to thepublic at it is undoubtedly the legal responsibility of the ECI, all political parties are very important stakeholders in this exercise, representing the citizenry. They should own up and participate in this exercise as much as possible to ensure a robust electoral roll. Listen to the conversation in The Hindu Parley podcast
Time of India
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Backwardness index will pave the way for targeted welfare schemes in Telangana, says Praveen Chakravarty
1 2 Hyderabad: In a move that could redefine the framework of welfare and social justice, Telangana is set to unveil India's first backwardness index—a comprehensive caste-wise ranking derived from its state-wide caste survey. The index aims to usher in a paradigm shift: The more backward a caste, the more targeted support it will receive. Praveen Chakravarty, convenor of the expert committee behind the index and a prominent economist who once worked with former PM Manmohan Singh, spoke to Sribala Vadlapatla about the methodology, intent, and implications. Is this the first time a backwardness index has been created in India? Yes, and it's a significant milestone. The Mandal Commission in 1979 surveyed about 50 lakh people but did not build a formal index. Telangana's survey is far more extensive—covering 3.5 crore individuals across 243 castes with 74 questions each. This is the first time such granular caste-level data is being used to develop a scientifically scored backwardness index. How did you ensure the data was accurate and reliable? We conducted rigorous data validation over a 20-day period to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the survey—a major achievement of this entire project. This included outlier analysis to detect anomalies or careless responses. For example, if a respondent in a white-collar job claimed to have no education, it would flag a likely inconsistency, suggesting inattention or error. Our team brought diverse and credible expertise to this process: I come from a data and statistics background; Professor Jean Dreze is both an economist and a sociologist; Professor Himanshu contributed to the Bihar caste census; Thomas Piketty, a renowned French economist, specialises in inequality; Nikhil Dey is a seasoned activist; and Professor Kancha Ilaiah, along with the commission chairperson, brings deep insight from Telangana. How is the ranking of castes determined? We identified 42 key parameters from the questionnaire—covering aspects such as literacy, education, and asset ownership—and placed them along a spectrum ranging from 'most backward' to 'least backward'. Based on these, we developed several sub-indices, including the social backwardness index, gender backwardness index, educational backwardness index, occupational backwardness index, and living conditions index. In our composite backwardness index, a higher score reflects greater backwardness, while a lower score indicates relative advancement. A caste ranking as the most backward across all 42 parameters would score a maximum of 126 points, while the least backward would score zero. However, in practice, no caste scored either the full 126 or zero across the board. How are castes grouped in the index? All 243 castes are divided into quartiles. Those in the most backward 20–30% range receive the highest points (3 per parameter), while the least backward (top 5%) receive zero. The rest fall within intermediary brackets (5–10%, 10–20%), ensuring a nuanced tiering instead of binary classification. What happens after the index is released? It is the govt's responsibility to design welfare schemes based on the varying degrees of backwardness across castes. While some communities lag in multiple areas, others may face disadvantages in only a few. This underscores that backwardness is relative, not absolute. Welfare policies must therefore be targeted and data-driven. We have recommended that the aggregate survey data be made publicly accessible for researchers and policymakers, with AI tools leveraged for deeper analysis. Follow more information on Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here . Get real-time live updates on rescue operations and check full list of passengers onboard AI 171 .
Time of India
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
After caste survey, T to develop backwardness index for sub-groups
1 2 Hyderabad: In a major initiative aimed at advancing data-driven and equitable policymaking, the Telangana Planning and Development Society (TGPDS) is developing a composite backwardness index (CBI) for each of the state's sub-castes. This will be the first effort of its kind at the state level to provide a statistically grounded, objective measure of relative backwardness across communities. The index is being built using data from the Social, Educational, Employment, Economic, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) Survey conducted in 2024. The CBI will quantify levels of disadvantage using quartile-based statistical analysis and provide both aggregate and category-specific rankings of sub-castes based on multiple socio-economic dimensions. The development of this index is being overseen by an expert working group chaired by retired Justice Sudarshan Reddy, constituted in March this year. The initiative draws inspiration from the Mandal Commission, which used 11 key indicators to evaluate the backwardness of sub-castes at the national level. Sources said the committee is planning to finalise the report within a month. The CBI will provide an ordinal ranking of sub-castes, alongside individual scores across seven comprehensive domains: Social status, educational attainment, living conditions, occupation, income levels, ownership of movable and immovable assets, and access to banking and financial services. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Tukarkan Bitcoin dan Ethereum - Tanpa Dompet Diperlukan! IC Markets MULAI SEKARANG Undo In total, the analysis is expected to include up to 43 parameters. Recent meetings of the expert group—held in Hyderabad and followed by a review session in Delhi—focused on finalising the data and statistical methodology for the CBI. During these sessions, the committee also reviewed preliminary findings, discussed modelling techniques, and reached consensus on visual and analytical frameworks to present the results clearly and meaningfully. In a forward-looking recommendation, the committee has urged the state govt to develop an AI-powered natural language interface to enable researchers to engage with the SEEEPC dataset in aggregated form. This tool would ensure privacy and confidentiality at the household level, while making data accessible for deeper academic and policy analysis, promoting transparency and evidence-based dialogue. "The development of the CBI is rooted in the constitutional values of justice, equity, and inclusion," said Praveen Chakravarty, coordinator of the expert group. "There is consensus on the methodology, the parameters of analysis, the representation of findings, and most importantly, the need to base policy decisions on grounded, inclusive data," he said. The SEEEPC survey covered over 3.55 crore individuals across Telangana, collecting data from 243 sub-castes, including options for individuals identifying as 'no caste' or 'others'—recognising diversity and respecting the right of individuals to self-identify. The scope of the survey spans 75 indicators, touching every aspect of daily life—social, economic, occupational, educational, and beyond. The expert committee is composed of nine full-time members, supported by a group of special invitees who bring a wide range of expertise from sociology, caste studies, public policy, law, history, economics, and statistics.
