Political Science

The paper intends to underline the features of e-governance at local selfgovernment level in rural India and examines the viability of the e-panchayats in making the local-self governance citizen-centric for efficient, responsive, costeffective, result-oriented mechanism for faster pace of rural development. The epanchayats also become the effective instrument of vibrant grassroots democracy by empowering people with knowledge. Theoretical tenets, application of ICT in local-level governance and outcome features have also been underlined. The focuses have also on the theoretical aspects of egovernance, followed by practical aspects, and the role of ICT in the areas of good governance and facilitating people's enhanced access to the governance, and finally on the prospects of e-governance at local level in the south Asian region.

Environmental degradation has adverse impact more on the developing countries than those of developed ones. South Asian countries have negligibly been contributing pollutants to the environment but have been worst sufferers of the impact of environmental degradation. So is the case with the poor people within the region. The mitigation of impact of the environmental degradation and bringing it on political agenda is prime duty of the policy framers and political actors. This situation has indicated that now the environmental degradation is not simply a harmful scientific phenomenon rather it is a political phenomenon. It seems urgent to address the questions -what efforts did the policy masters take to check the menace? What steps did they take to mitigate the impact of the degradation? How political actors addressed the issue? The implementation of policies scenario is very bleak in India. It is more likely that the policy formulation has political contents in it and it is the politics that drives the policy formulation on one hand and flout its implementation on the other.

Environmental degradation has adverse impact more on the developing countries than those of developed ones. South Asian countries have negligibly been contributing pollutants to the environment but have been worst sufferers of the impact of environmental degradation. So is the case with the poor people within the region. The mitigation of impact of the environmental degradation and bringing it on political agenda is prime duty of the policy framers and political actors. This situation has indicated that now the environmental degradation is not simply a harmful scientific phenomenon rather it is a political phenomenon. It seems urgent to address the questions -what efforts did the policy masters take to check the menace? What steps did they take to mitigate the impact of the degradation? How political actors addressed the issue? The implementation of policies scenario is very bleak in India. It is more likely that the policy formulation has political contents in it and it is the politics that drives the policy formulation on one hand and flout its implementation on the other.

The present chapter examines the emergence of grassroots political leadership in rural Bihar in its historical perspectives. It is intended to provide the socio-economic environment in which the grassroots level political leaders emerged and formed a particular nature during the periods before India became a sovereign democracy (till independence in 1947).

The emergence and nature of political leadership at grassroots level have been caused by some extra-politico-legal factors in recent years. It seems unique but it is real. There are three kinds of such factors -voluntary action, social capital and latent role of political parties' organizations at the grassroots level. Though the social capital among the common masses, particularly the weaker sections is a result of voluntary action, yet it has gained ground in rural Bihar. The concept of social capital involves mutual trust, net-working and community action for shared objectives among the weaker sections. This makes an urgent imperative to notice and underlined the ground realities of these factors in order to understand the emergence and nature of grassroots level political leadership in rural Bihar. These factors have been visible during the recent elections of Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) in rural Bihar held in 2006 and 2011. Under the influence of this assumption, the researcher intends to underline these factors as effective instruments in rural Bihar in present section of this research report. Voluntarism As an Effective Factor A new trend of voluntary action has emerged in rural India, particularly in rural Bihar that intends to empower the poor and deprived sections of electorate for political participation. As such the role of NGOs in giving life to the grassroots democracy in form of creating social capital among the nondominants and the neo-dominants generally drawn from socio-economically deprived sections of our society. A number of literatures pertaining to role of voluntary action in political field have come up during the last decade. 1 There

Tanks have dwindled in last three four decades in Eastern India because of negligence of the government and people as well in the wake of exploiting underground water through tubewells by  the affluent farmers which is hazardous to environment rather caused depletion  of underground water. These tanks are low cost, farmers managed, economically viable and sustainable. Tanks can ensure social justice and resolution of conflicts through community management and maintenance. The history of such water bodies has been traced out in the present work which indicates these benefits.

International politics influenced by attempts to protect environment has gone against the developing countries as they contribute very less to environmental degradation but have been bearing the adverse effects more than the developed countries. The issue has been raised since Kyoto Protocol 1997. But the countries polluting the environment most, China, USA etc did shy away from fulfilling their commitment made in the protocol. The question arise now - how to make these countries become sensitive to this menace?

The dawn of 21st has witnessed some new features of Indian politics that seem not to be truly democratic. These features are neither of dictatorship nor of totalitarianism rather they depict declining capacity of welfare state. The effects of globalization on Indian politics has created an imbalance between interests of social classes and corporative interests which compelled the political regimes to adopt certain measures that can be called 'post democracy'. There has been a sea of changes in nature of party-politics, agenda setting, policy priorities, role of media and aspirations of people. The present paper intends to underline the features of Indian politics in context of party politics, growing corporate interventions and role of media in the changed scenario.

Covid-19 Pandemic has varied dimensions other than health hazard such as, Economic, social, political and environmental. The pandemic has paved ways for exploring the opportunities of sustainable development in all its dimensions. In the crisis people have begun to use the traditional wisdom, harness the indigenous resources and shifting to sustainable consumption.

There are three pronged visions of making India self-reliant over the periods - namely Gandhian views (self reliant villages), conditions of globalisation (modernisation without westernisation) and Prime Minister Vajpai's views (swadeshi, boycott foreign goods and FDI). The fourth vision is of Prime Minister Modi refers to buy local and make local global.  The call of PM Modi for Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (Self-reliant India Mission) is good step in the post Covid-19 Pandemic scenario but it lacks concrete plan and clear vision. The examination of economic and fiscal scenario of India do not show prospects of self-reliant India. There should be concrete plan with modes of generating finances from indigenous resources.

The dawn of 21st century has witnessed some new features of democratic politics that seem to be shifting away from what we call democratic. The impact of globalisation has created such a nexus among elites of politics-corporates-media that has made political regimes to ignore the democratic norms and well-being of common masses and overemphasise economic growth and corporate-friendly policy priorities. Besides, the approach of the political actors (parties and politicians), in the process of power-seeking, has shown unconventional trends. These features do not resemble either dictatorship or totalitarianism; rather they depict trends of aristocratic mode of decision-making by using democratic framework and institutions. Such trends have been termed as 'post-democracy' by recent Western scholarship. Indian politics is not an exception. These trends have created an imbalance between interest of social classes and corporative interests which has prompted political regimes to take tough decisions, in despotic ways. Though the present article does not posit that Indian democracy is on the brink, it attempts to underline the post-democratic features visible in Indian politics through examination of (a) party politics in terms of democratic framework, ideology, policy initiations and reforms, electioneering, etc.; (b) politicians-corporates-media nexus; and (c) modes and trends of politicians in communicating and relating with the electorate.

Babu Jagjivan Ram was one of the makers of modern India and had spent half a century in Indian legislature. His acts and ideas are still relevant today, particularly when we think of transforming India as per country's aspirations. The present draft paper is divided into 4 sections - first, reasons of discussing J Ram in present context, second, what does India aspire now (Aspiring India), third, the areas in which tranformation is required and fourth,  discussion on Babu J Ram's ideas and actions relevant today.

The dawn of 21st century has witnessed some new features of democratic politics that seem to be shifting away from what we call democratic. The impact of globalisation has created such a nexus among elites of politics–corporates–media that has made political regimes to ignore the democratic norms and well-being of common masses and overemphasise economic growth and corporate-friendly policy priorities. Besides, the approach of the political actors (parties and politicians), in the process of power-seeking, has shown unconventional trends. These features do not resemble either dictatorship or totalitarianism; rather they depict trends of aristocratic mode of decision-making by using democratic framework and institutions. Such trends have been termed as ‘post-democracy’ by recent Western scholarship. Indian politics is not an exception. These trends have created an imbalance between interest of social classes and corporative interests which has prompted political regimes to take tough...

The dawn of 21st century has witnessed some new features of democratic politics that seem to be shifting away from what we call democratic. The impact of globalisation has created such a nexus among elites of politics-corporates-media that has made political regimes to ignore the democratic norms and well-being of common masses and overemphasise economic growth and corporate-friendly policy priorities. Besides, the approach of the political actors (parties and politicians), in the process of power-seeking, has shown unconventional trends. These features do not resemble either dictatorship or totalitarianism; rather they depict trends of aristocratic mode of decision-making by using democratic framework and institutions. Such trends have been termed as 'post-democracy' by recent Western scholarship. Indian politics is not an exception. These trends have created an imbalance between interest of social classes and corporative interests which has prompted political regimes to take tough decisions, in despotic ways. Though the present article does not posit that Indian democracy is on the brink, it attempts to underline the post-democratic features visible in Indian politics through examination of (a) party politics in terms of democratic framework, ideology, policy initiations and reforms, electioneering, etc.; (b) politicians-corporates-media nexus; and (c) modes and trends of politicians in communicating and relating with the electorate.

It is environmental laws that regulate the environmental protection bodies and make them effective. With this view in mind, the article intends to examine the environmental jurisprudence in India in terms of evolution, pattern of delivery of environmental justice and place of people's attitude in the process. It was found that the superior judicial bodies including National Green Tribunal have set certain norms to deal with environmental cases against the polluters (mainly government bodies and private firms), but not for day-today activities of the people which pollute the environment sizeably. Besides, the article, on the basis of empirical studies, finds that despite having been aware of the menace of the environmental degradation and its gravity, people are less intended to be sensitive towards the problem owing to three-pronged reasons: First, they perceive environmental protection as the sole responsibility of state; second, sizeable of them have no spare time out of their livelihood engagements; and third, lack of leadership or community action at local level for the cause. The article prima facie finds that environmental jurisprudence in India has inadequately addressed the issue of people's say and environmentally hostile people's attitude towards environmental protection in the process.

The average total energy as well as its hadronic and electromagnetic components are measured with the CMS detector at pseudorapidities $$-6.6<\eta <-5.2$$-6.6<η<-5.2 in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $$\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {TeV} $$s=13TeV. The results are presented as a function of the charged particle multiplicity in the region $$|\eta |<2$$|η|<2. This measurement is sensitive to correlations induced by the underlying event structure over a very wide pseudorapidity region. The predictions of Monte Carlo event generators commonly used in collider experiments and ultra-high energy cosmic ray physics are compared to the data. All generators considered overestimate the fraction of energy going into hadrons.

It is environmental laws that regulate the environmental protection bodies and make them effective. With this view in mind, the article intends to examine the environmental jurisprudence in India in terms of evolution, pattern of delivery of environmental justice and place of people's attitude in the process. It was found that the superior judicial bodies including National Green Tribunal have set certain norms to deal with environmental cases against the polluters (mainly government bodies and private firms), but not for day-today activities of the people which pollute the environment sizeably. Besides, the article, on the basis of empirical studies, finds that despite having been aware of the menace of the environmental degradation and its gravity, people are less intended to be sensitive towards the problem owing to three-pronged reasons: First, they perceive environmental protection as the sole responsibility of state; second, sizeable of them have no spare time out of their livelihood engagements; and third, lack of leadership or community action at local level for the cause. The article prima facie finds that environmental jurisprudence in India has inadequately addressed the issue of people's say and environmentally hostile people's attitude towards environmental protection in the process.

It is environmental laws that regulate the environmental protection bodies and make them effective. With this view in mind, the article intends to examine the environmental jurisprudence in India in terms of evolution, pattern of delivery of environmental justice and place of people's attitude in the process. It was found that the superior judicial bodies including National Green Tribunal have set certain norms to deal with environmental cases against the polluters (mainly government bodies and private firms), but not for day-today activities of the people which pollute the environment sizeably. Besides, the article, on the basis of empirical studies, finds that despite having been aware of the menace of the environmental degradation and its gravity, people are less intended to be sensitive towards the problem owing to three-pronged reasons: First, they perceive environmental protection as the sole responsibility of state; second, sizeable of them have no spare time out of their livelihood engagements; and third, lack of leadership or community action at local level for the cause. The article prima facie finds that environmental jurisprudence in India has inadequately addressed the issue of people's say and environmentally hostile people's attitude towards environmental protection in the process.