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Abhishek Jha

Abhishek Jha is a data journalist. He analyses public data for finding news, with a focus on the environment, Indian politics and economy, and Covid-19.

Articles by Abhishek Jha

Can Congress reclaim Assam with an alliance?

The Congress, which ruled the state for 15 years from 2001 to 2016, has changed its electoral tactics and stitched together an alliance to leverage the consolidation of a previously fragmented anti-BJP vote base to recapture power in the state.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi during an election campaign rally ahead of Assam assembly polls, in Sivasagar district, Sunday, March 21, 2021.(PTI)
Published on Mar 26, 2021 04:11 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, , New Delhi

Six factors which will decide the 2021 West Bengal contest

West Bengal is expected to be a bipolar contest between the TMC and the BJP. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, these two parties cornered 83.5% of the total votes polled and 97% of the total 294 assembly constituencies, if results are disaggregated at that level

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee addresses an election rally, at Bankura on Wednesday, March 24. (ANI)
Updated on Mar 25, 2021 02:36 PM IST
ByRoshan Kishore and Abhishek Jha, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

The role of language and religion in Assam battle

While the state’s politics is driven by many factors, the larger issue is the dynamic between language and religion.

Artists perform Jhumar Dance during Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's election campaign rally ahead of Assam Assembly Polls at Purabangla, in Golaghat on Monday. (ANI Photo)
Published on Mar 24, 2021 02:49 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, , New Delhi

What makes electoral politics in Kerala unique?

Kerala is not the only state where political power changes hands regularly. Tamil Nadu had this tradition for 32 uninterrupted years, until J Jayalalithaa led the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) to a consecutive victory in the 2016 elections.

A worker puts up an election campaign banner of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, ahead of the Assembly polls, in Kochi. (PTI Photo)
Updated on Mar 20, 2021 06:32 AM IST
By, Abhishek Jha, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

What does it take to win Assam? A fine balance between religion and language

If there is one state in India where migration is a big issue, it is Assam. There are multi-layered political fault lines in Assam, which encompass caste, religion, linguistic nationality, migration and deprivation

Supporters beat dhol and drums during the nomination filing procession of a candidate in Dibrugarh. (PTI)
Updated on Mar 27, 2021 10:50 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha and Roshan Kishore

3 states face risk of being next Covid-19 hot spots

Maharashtra leads the pack but Punjab, MP and Haryana also see their positivity rates rise higher than the average national rise of 1.4 percentage points; Kerala the only state to see its positivity rate drop over the past 30 days

Special In Madhya Pradesh, the daily case rate went up 277%, while the average positivity rate rose 3.3 percentage points. (PTI)
Updated on Mar 20, 2021 10:52 AM IST
By, Abhishek Jha, New Delhi

Kerala: A state of multi-layered bipolar polity

The southern state has a uniquely multicultural society and there are entrenched pockets of support for various political actors in different parts of Kerala

A worker puts up an election campaign banner of Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, ahead of the assembly polls, in Kochi. (PTI)
Updated on Mar 19, 2021 01:45 PM IST
ByRoshan Kishore and Abhishek Jha, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Which way for Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu in 2021?

2021 elections will be interesting as far as Tamil Nadu’s long-term political landscape is concerned.

Both M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, who shared the chief minister’s post between them for 32 out of the last 52 years, are dead now. If we include the term of M G Ramachandran, whose political legacy Jayalalithaa inherited, the chief minister’s post was held between the three people for 42 of the last 52 years.(HT Illustration)
Updated on Mar 16, 2021 01:39 PM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, , Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Tamil Nadu assembly polls: Which way will Dravidian politics swing in 2021?

Whether Tamil Nadu maintains its trend of declining victory margins, the growing footprint of the two major Dravidian parties will only be known on May 2.

File photo: Tamil Nadu CM Edapaddi K Palaniswami. (HT image)
Updated on Mar 16, 2021 03:55 PM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, , Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Never-ending fragility grips Indian workforce

The June quarter numbers capture the period of the hard lockdown, and things have improved since then, as can be seen from the GDP numbers.

The report was released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on March 10. The latest PLFS numbers also show that the rise in unemployment rate might not capture the entire stress in labour markets.(Reuters/ File photo)
Updated on Mar 12, 2021 09:45 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

West Bengal election 2021: How TMC is countering BJP’s polarisation bid

The Trinamool Congress’s ticket distribution strategy in the forthcoming elections – it is the only party to have declared all its candidates so far – shows a clear pattern that it is trying to counter BJP’s strategy.

Overall, the TMC has fielded fewer Muslim candidates in 2021 than in 2016(AP)
Updated on Mar 27, 2021 10:50 AM IST
ByRoshan Kishore and Abhishek Jha

Why reservation may fail in levelling the field

From SC-ST social groups, reservations have expanded to OBCs, economically weaker sections

The apex court has agreed to re-examine the 50% ceiling on reservations in India while hearing a case on the validity of 10% separate reservations for Marathas(Amal KS/HT PHOTO)
Published on Mar 09, 2021 01:58 AM IST
By, Abhishek Jha

Total factories in India grew by 2% in 2018-19

The top three states by GVA were Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu. They had a share of 41% in the total GVA. Rural India added nearly as much GVA (49%) as urban India (51%).

ASI data is the most important source of industrial statistics of the registered organised manufacturing sector of the economy.(Reuters)
Published on Mar 06, 2021 01:51 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Most cities low on economic ability

The last, which has a weight of almost one-third in the rankings, is a completely subjective parameter.

The average score of the 111 cities is the least on the economic ability pillar. The average score on this pillar is 13.17 compared to 51.38 for quality of life, 53.63 for sustainability, and 76.1 for citizen’s perception.
Published on Mar 05, 2021 01:58 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Urban areas still more vulnerable to coronavirus but cases now evenly spread

While India seems to have so far escaped a second wave of Covid-19 infections, tracking the geography of the pandemic in the country over the last one year makes for an interesting analysis.

A health worker wearing protective gear takes a nasal swab sample of inbound travellers for Covid-19 coronavirus tests at CSMT railway station, in Mumbai.(Bhushan Koyande / HT file photo)
Published on Mar 01, 2021 04:43 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, New Delhi

Five charts that explain the upcoming elections

Three out of the four states going to polls; Assam, West Bengal and Kerala are also the top three states by share of Muslims in the population. With 26.7% Muslims and 16.6% Christians, Kerala has the lowest share of Hindus -- to be sure, they are still a majority – among India’s important states.

The states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam account for 13% out of the 543 seats in Lok Sabha.(File photo. Representative image)
Updated on Mar 27, 2021 10:53 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha,

Congress needs to worry more about rebels than opponents in Puducherry

The only time the Congress has lost Puducherry, it has been because of a rebel. The Congress and DMK together have won over 50% seats in every assembly elections in Puducherry since 1980, except in 2011

Representational image. (AFP)
Updated on Feb 22, 2021 06:32 PM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

The lessons to be drawn from Chamoli disaster

The effects of the climate crisis on Uttarakhand’s weather patterns and their impact on the environment’s capacity to sustain damage being done by the construction of dams makes the state particularly vulnerable.

Rescuers on Thursday recovered another body from the Tapovan dam tunnel in Uttarakhand’s flash flood-hit Chamoli district, taking the toll from the tragedy to 59,(PTI)
Updated on Feb 20, 2021 10:01 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, Jayashree Nandi, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Number Theory: What does mobility data tell us about the state of the economy?

While mobility has been increasing continuously, its recovery is relatively slower when compared to NIBRI. To be sure, mobility levels had reached 90% of pre-lockdown values (median value for the day of the week in the January 3, 2020 to February 6, 2020 period) in December 2020 itself.

The latest NIBRI numbers indicate a moderation in labour participation rate (LPR), which is defined as the share of working age population working of looking for a job.(Reuters)
Published on Feb 16, 2021 03:51 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha

No Covid death in Delhi first time since May 11

According to government data, the highest number of Covid-19 cases in a day (8,593) was recorded on November 11, and on November 18, the city recorded the highest number of single-day deaths (131).

Hundred new cases in Tuesday’s bulletin, reported from 56,410 tests conducted the previous day, took the case tally to 636,260, but active cases were down to 1,052.(HT photo)
Updated on Feb 10, 2021 06:11 AM IST
By, Abhishek Jha, New Delhi

Path to a just transition to lower CO2 emissions

Even at the time these lockdowns were imposed, an improvement in indicators of air quality raised hopes that a world with lower emissions from burning of fossil fuels was not an unachievable target.

Continuing this trend of lower CO2 emissions, however, will also have socio-economic consequences, such as workers in fossil-fuel based power plants or in coal mines falling out of the workforce.(AP (Representative Image))
Published on Feb 09, 2021 03:14 AM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, New Delhi

Number Theory: How much does an average Indian earn?

The average annual per capita income of households interviewed in the LASI survey conducted in 2017-18 is ₹44,901. This is just about 39% of the per capita income in the same year according to the National Account Statistics

On average, perceived destitution (financial condition being well below average) is 3.4 times more widespread than perceived opulence (financial condition being well above average) in India.(PTI image)
Updated on Jan 16, 2021 03:02 PM IST
ByAbhishek Jha, New Delhi

Is there deferred distress in rural labour markets?

This generated fears of a glut in rural markets and hence a rise in unemployment and crash in rural wages, which had already been declining.

India does not have official high-frequency data on rural employment.(Reuters)
Published on Jan 09, 2021 04:53 AM IST
ByVineet Sachdev, Abhishek Jha, New Delhi

The number theory: Imagining India, 10 years from now

India’s first climate change assessment by the ministry of earth sciences (MoES), published in 2020. said that the climate change seen in the country since the middle of the 20th century is expected to continue in the future.

India will overtake China to become the most populous country in 2023, when its population will reach 1.42 billion.(Reuters)
Updated on Jan 05, 2021 03:18 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVijdan Mohammad Kawoosa, Abhishek Jha and Vineet Sachdev

2020: A year of strange weather events

Floods, cyclones, colder winter, unexpected rains, India has seen them all.

A deserted Marina beach is seen during rains before Cyclone Nivar's landfall, in Chennai.(REUTERS)
Updated on Dec 29, 2020 04:21 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByAbhishek Jha

West Bengal polls and the possible role of defections

West Bengal’s polity since 2014 has been a story of growing polarisation. With the Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Front continuously losing ground against the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in election after election, the BJP started positioning itself as the principal opposition party in the state.

Union home minister Amit Shah during an election campaign rally ahead of West Bengal assembly polls 2021, at Bolpur in Birbhum.(PTI Photo)
Updated on Dec 21, 2020 07:30 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByRoshan Kishore and Abhishek Jha

Are we undercounting India’s women workers?

An HT analysis of per capita worker incomes and per capita incomes in China and India showed that India’s gap with China was much larger when it came to per capita incomes than per worker incomes.

Two government reports suggest that there is significant ambiguity about the number of women workers in the country.(HT File Photo)
Updated on Dec 18, 2020 08:27 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByRoshan Kishore and Abhishek Jha

Cold wave conditions in Delhi from December 16 to 18

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) designates days as cold wave days in the plains if the minimum temperature is 10 degree Celsius or lower and at the same time 4.5 degrees or more below the normal minimum temperature for the day for two consecutive days.

A person using an electric scooter inquires from police personnel manning barricades on Rajpath near India Gate in New Delhi on Saturday, December 12, 2020.(Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)
Updated on Dec 15, 2020 10:14 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByAbhishek Jha

Would Virat Kohli be fastest to 12k runs in another era?

Would Kohli have scored his 12,000 runs as quickly as he did if he played during Tendulkar’s time? One may never know for sure – but an HT analysis looks at the changing scoring patterns one-day internationals to try and answer the question.

India captain Virat Kohli(REUTERS)
Updated on Dec 12, 2020 10:38 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByAbhishek Jha

Will cash transfers help SC/STs better? A look at a Niti idea

On November 27, the Economic Times reported that Niti Aayog had proposed a plan for replacing the existing Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) method of budgeting for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) with a central consolidated fund.

In the last five years, the total spending under SCSP and TSP has risen from 2.8% to 4.5% of the size of the budget, although figures for 2019-20 and 2020-21 could be revised downwards.(Reuters file photo. Representative image)
Updated on Dec 07, 2020 12:00 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByAbhishek Jha
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