July 2017-June 2018 · 2020. 4. 15. · • Ashish Ranjan joined in July 2017 as Research Fellow. He leaves the Centre in July 2018. • Sudesh Singh has joined the Centre in June

Annual Report 2017-18 1

ANNUAL ACTIVITY REPORT

July 2017-June 2018

Annual Report 2017-182


REPORT SUMMARY 4 I. Structure and Resources 6

II. ScientificActivities 8

III. Partnerships 12

IV. Events 14

V. Summer Internship Program 17 VI. Next Steps 18 ANNEXURE List of Publications 20

CONTENTS


This is the third annual activity report of the Trivedi Centre forPolitical Data (TCPD from here on), for the year 2017-18. It con-tainsabriefdescriptionof theactivitiesconductedby theCentreand its members this past year, elements of information regarding theCentre’sstructureanddevelopmentaswellasadescriptionofthe Centre’s priorities and plans for the coming year. The Centre’s activities this yearwere concentrated around the coverage of sixstateelections,thebuildingofaresearchprojectonwomeninclu-sioninpoliticsandthebuildingofnewpartnerships.

TheCentreobtainedthisyearitsfirstprivateresearchgrantfromFacebook (60 lakhs), to sponsor a research project on the partici-pationofwomeningeneralandstateelections.TheCentre’sfieldteams covered six state elections and conductednearly80 inter-viewswithwomencontestingforstateelections.

The Centre has built a partnership with the Centre for PolicyResearch (CPR from here on), to conduct a monthly Delhi-based CPR-TCPD dialogue on Indian politics. This talk series brings to-getheracademicians,policyandpoliticalpractitioners,andcivilso-cietyactorstograpplewithimportantsocialandpoliticalissuesinIndia.Itprovidesaforumforintellectuallyrigorous,non-partisancommentary to strengthen public discourse on politics in India.

TheCentrehasalso startedanon-exclusivepartnershipwith theHindustanTimes,whichcarriesafortnightlypieceproducedbytheCentre.ThepartnershipstartedwiththepublicationofaprofileofthenewAssemblyofKarnataka.

TheCentrehasalsobuiltonitsresearchpartnershipwiththeCentrefor International Research (CNRS), Sciences Po Paris and the UniversityofBordeaux,byconductingfielddatacollectionthroughtheyearandorganizingtwoacademiceventsinParisinJune2018.

Report Summary


TheCentrehelditsfirstSummerSchoolinJuly2017aswellasitsfirstSummerInternshipProgram.26participantstookpartintheCentre’s summer course and 14 students from Ashoka and beyond internedwiththeCentrethroughthesummer.

TheCentrecoveredsixstateelectionsthisyear(HimachalPradesh,Gujarat,Nagaland,Meghalaya,TripuraandKarnataka),collectingdata on main parties’ candidates. Four ELM teams and three re-searchersfromtheCentreconductedfieldwork.

The Centre’s media exposure has considerably increased this year, withmoremediaorganizationspublishingtheCentre’spiecesandusingtheCentre’sdatafortheirowncoverageofIndianelections.Centre’sarticlesanddatahaveappearedintheHindustanTimes,theIndianExpress,theEconomicTimes,NavbharatTimes,Scroll.in and The Wire, in English, Hindi and Urdu.

Dr.PriyamvadaTrivedihasjoinedtheCentreasAssociateDirector.Dr.TrivedicompletedherdoctoraldissertationinApril2018fromtheUniversityofMichiganandwillbesteeringtheCentreandwillcontributetodevelopitsmissionsandpartnerships.

The Centre’s core team comprises eight permanent members, sup-ported bymore than two dozenAshoka students, either asELMteams,internsorundergraduatevolunteers.Besides,threeMasters’ofLiberalStudies (MLS) studentswereaffiliatedwith theCentrethis year.

Gilles Verniers Assistant Professor, Political Science Co-Director

Sudheendra Hangal Professor, Computer Science Co-Director


Team Forty-three people have been working or havebeen associated in various capacities with theCentre this year, including the eight-member permanent team. The team is divided betweenthe permanent team, ELM students, and interns (mostly undergraduate students at Ashoka).

Permanent Team• Sudheendra Hangal and Gilles Verniers as

Co-Directors.

• PriyamvadaTrivedi(PhDinPoliticalScience,UniversityofMichigan),AssociateDirector

• NeelanjanSircar(PhDColumbiaUniversity)joinedasSeniorAffiliateResearcher.

• Mohit Kumar (M.Tech, IIIT Hyderabad) isa data scientist and GIS engineer. He joined as Lead Data Researcher, in replacement of Chinmay Narayan.

• Basim U Nissa (alumnus, YIF) joined asDeputyManagerandwaspromotedthisyearasProjectManagerandResearchAffiliate.

• Ashish Ranjan joined in July 2017 as Research Fellow.HeleavestheCentreinJuly2018.

• Sudesh Singh has joined the Centre in June 2016ascomputerscientistanddeveloperandhas left the Centre in May 2018.

• Dr. S.Y. Quraishi (former CEC) joined in July 2016,asDistinguishedFellow.

ELM• On election mapping: Sahil Satsangi, Apratim Chandra Singh, Sanket Kashyap, GirishSastry,AnanyaVajpeyi,AnkitaKundra

Structure and Resources

• On the Women in Politics project: Akansha Naredy, Aryaman Jain, Surabhi Trivedi,Arushi Aggarwal, Naman Bansal, ParagMaheshwari

Summer InternsShivangiTikekar AshokaUG

NiveditaJoon AshokaUG

Anirudh Pisharam Ashoka UG

Ahaan Ghosh Ashoka UG

Jibraan Mansoor Ashoka UG

GauriBansal AshokaUG

Dibyendu Mishra Ashoka UG

SaloniBhogale AshokaYIF

Parushya Ashoka YIF

Suneet Puri Ashoka MLS

ApoorvaNagarajan JamiaMilliaIslamia

Naini Chauhan Hindu College

Shruti Slaria TISS

InternsAbhishek Mishra Web design and development

Deep Vakil Data management

K.C.Sachin Datamanagement

SahilBhargava Incumbencyproject

SitaSawhney Cabinetdataproject

Akshat Sogani Programming

Riday Chokshi Programming

Sukanya Janardhan Data entry

I


Meera Damaraju Data entry

Mrunal Marathe Data entry

AmlanBibhudatta Dataentry

Governing Body TherehavebeennochangestothecompositionoftheCentre’stwoboards

Executive BoardAshokTrivedi Founder,IGate,FounderandTrustee,

AshokaUniversityandCentre’sdonor

AshishDhawan FounderandTrustee,AshokaUniversity

ChristopheJaffrelot SciencesPo,King’sCollegeLondon

RudrangshuMukherjee ViceChancellor,AshokaUniversity

S.Y. Quraishi Former Chief Election Commissioner of India and DistinguishedFellow,TCPD

Scientific BoardChristopheJaffrelot(Chair) SciencesPo,King’sCollegeLondon

PradeepChhibber UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley

AshishGoel ManagementScience&Engineering,StanfordUniversity

MilanVaishnav CarnegieFoundation,WashingtonD.C.

FrancescaJensenius SeniorResearchFellowattheNorwegianInstituteof InternationalAffairs

SudheendraHangal AshokaUniversity

GillesVerniers AshokaUniversity

Ahaan Ghosh Data entry

Himanshu Shekhar Data entry

NiveditaJoon Datasetonthe Supreme Court


The Centre’s scientific activities were concen-trated this year on the building of datasets for the six states thatwent for election (HimachalPradesh, Gujarat, Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland andKarnataka),thecodingofincumbencydatafor the individual incumbency project and thebuilding of datasets on women contestants aspartofthewomeninclusioninpoliticsproject.

TheCentrehasalsoaffiliatedthreeMLSstudentswhoseresearchhasbecomepartoftheCentre’sactivities.

Data• Themainobjectiveforthisyearwastoupdate

and collect data about the six states undergo-ing elections.

• Variousteamsspenta totalof tenweeksonthefield tocollectdataoncaste, reli-gion and political family affiliations ofmajor parties candidates.

• Thedatawas integratedwith the resultsof these elections on the day of the results’ announcement and immediately used for analysis and publication.

• Besides,affidavitdatafromthelastthreeelectionsof every statehasbeenmergedwithallourdatasets.

• Thisdatacollectionefforts feedsdirectlyinto the Centre’s core dataset building exercise.

Kalyani Roy campaigning in Teliamura, Meghalaya, February 2018

ScientificActivities

Projects

Profiling Candidates to Indian Elections• This project is a continuation of the “Rise of Plebeians” project, in whichwe collect dataon the sociological profile of candidates tostate elections.

• Ourfocusthisyearwasonthesixstatesthatwentforstateelections:

• Basim U Nissa and Ashish Ranjan con-ductedfieldworkinHimachalPradeshtocollect data on main parties candidates.

• BasimUNissa,AshishRanjanandMohitKumarconductedfieldworkintoGujaratto collect data on main parties candidates.

• Ashish Ranjan toured the North-East for nearly a month, to collect data on main parties candidates.

II©Nam

anBansal


• Ashish Ranjan spent three weeks inKarnatakatocollectdataonmainpartiescandidates.

• Besides, several affiliated students and re-searcher from the Centre and Sciences Po havecollecteddatainotherstates

• Basim U Nissa and Huzaafa in JammuandKashmir

• Jusmeet Sihra (Sciences Po) in Rajasthan

• Julia Schmidt (Sciences Po) in Gujarat

• Sapna Dubey (Sciences Po) in Madhya Pradesh

• Josh Mazumdar (Sciences Po) and DelphineThivet(UniversityofBordeaux)inWestBengal

• The datasets for the six aforementioned states arenowcomplete.TheRajasthanandGujaratdatasets have also been completed. Otherstates still need to be updated.

State Elections Analysis

• The Centre’s electoral analysis has appeared in a multitude of media publications (see be-low)andhasbeenusedforvariousacademicpresentations(seebelow).

• Huzaafa, an MLS student, has conducted an ethnography of the National Conference in

Mrs. Renuka Chowdhury at Ashoka, March 2018

Srinagar, as part of her capstone thesis this year.

Women Inclusion in Politics • TheCentrefocusedonprofilingofwomencan-

didates contesting from main parties in state elections.Thisinvolvedconductingfieldworkin6statesthatwentforpollsinthelastoneyear – Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Nagaland, Meghalaya,TripuraandKarnataka.110wom-encandidateshavebeenprofiledacrossthesestates

• 80studentsfromtheYoungIndiaFellowshipclass of 2018 conductedfieldwork to profileHaryana 105 current and past women poli-ticians across 19 assembly constituencies in Haryana

• Fieldworkwasalsoconductedtoprofilewom-enMLAsinJammuandKashmir.

• This project investigateswomen candidates’profiles in greater detail. Beyond the usualsocio-demographicvariables,data is collect-ed on the trajectory of women contestantsprior their joining politics (occupation, cir-cumstances in which they joined politics,prior political experience in Panchayat or municipalities).


• Aspartof thisproject, theCentrehas invit-ed or organized panel discussions or talks by womenelectedrepresentatives.

Individual Incumbency Project• This project consists in creating and attrib-

uting a unique ID to all names mentioned in theelectionsdatasets,tocodetheindividualcareer trajectory of individual contestingelections.While theUnique IDwill concerneveryname,thecareertrajectorycodingwilldiscard marginal candidates (essentially inde-pendentswhoappearonlyonceinthedata).

• Thiswill enableus toquantifyandmeasurephenomenonsuchasassemblyturnover,can-didate re-running and re-election patterns and turncoats.

• Elevenstates thathavebeencoded forboth

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LabelAssembly Position Turncoats

INC IND JD(U) NPP Other UDP

10th Assembly Times Won All PreviousCc

WinnerLoser

Assembly and General elections so far are:

• Gujarat

• Karnataka

• Mizoram

• JammuandKashmir

• Haryana

• Himachal Pradesh

• Madhya Pradesh

• Nagaland

• Rajasthan

• Tripura

• Punjab

• Thefollowingstateshavebeencodedforei-ther Assembly elections or General elections:

• Chhattisgarh

• Uttar Pradesh

• Uttarakhand

• Tamil Nadu

• Andhra Pradesh

• Arunachal Pradesh

• Assam

• Maharashtra

• Kerala

• WestBengal

• Odisha

This is a time-consuming process that requires

Individual Incumbency Project

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Individual Incumbency Project


manual coding and various layers of dataverification.

Incumbency Visualization Project • Sivangi Tikekar, a fourth year student inComputerScienceatAshokaUniversity,usedD3, a JavaScript library, to create an inter-active visualization of assembly and generalelection candidates over the years. The vi-sualization sheds light on incumbency and cross-partymovementinparticular.

• Shivangihasworkedon the followingstates- Karnataka, Nagaland, Meghalaya andTripura.

Parliamentary Questions Project • WhilealotisknownaboutwhatIndianpoliti-cianssayduringelectiontimegiventhelargeamount of media coverage, little is knownabout their effectiveness and actions oncetheyareelected toanofficeasaMemberofParliament(MP).LedbySaloniBhogale,anMLS student, this project attempts to address this gap by studying the content of parlia-mentary questions in the Lok Sabha.

• Saloni has scraped a dataset of questions asked during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha (the Lower House of the Indian

Parliament) over the last 20 years from theParliament’swebsite.Thedatasethasatotalof2,76,000questionsaskedover4LokSabhaSessions.Thisdatasethasbeenmergedwiththe Election Commission of India’s dataset whichhasanumberofinformativevariableslike Gender, Constituency Type (indicating Caste), party name, incumbency and so on.

• Rather than using a manual curation of key-words(whichisusuallythemethodadopted),Saloni used a word embedding algorithm(word2vec)toclassifyquestionsbytopic,us-ingsemanticfieldsratherthankeywords.

Judiciary and IPS Data• The Centre has started the process of collect-

ing data on the higher judiciary and on the IPSofficers.

• A small dataset on Supreme Court Judges has been assembled, which profiles the250 SC judges since the Court’s creation.

• Data on IPS officers has been collect-ed from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy and from var-ious online sources, detailing the lists of IPSofficerssincethe1970s.

© N

eelanjan Sircar

Field work in West Bengal


All pre-existing partnerships continue. This year,theCentrehasbuilttwonewpartnershipsthatenhancetheCentre’svisibilityandoutreach.

Centre for Policy Research The Centre has built a partnership with theCentre for Policy Research, to conduct a monthly Delhi-based CPR-TCPD dialogue on Indian politics. This talk series brings together academicians, policy and po-litical practitioners, and civil society actorsto grapple with important social and politicalissues in India. It provides a forum for intel-lectually rigorous, non-partisan commentary to strengthen public discourse on politics in India. See: http://www.cprindia.org/projects/cpr-tcpd-dialogues-indian-politics

For the first two dialogues focused on the

Summer School 2017

Partnerships

Karnatakaelectionsandontheroleofmoneyinpolitics in India

Hindustan TimesTheCentrehasalsostartedanon-exclusivepart-nershipwiththeHindustan Times,whichcar-ries a fortnightly piece produced by the Centre. ThepartnershipstartedwiththepublicationofaprofileofthenewAssemblyofKarnataka.

Sciences PoThe partnership with Sciences Po remains themostvibrantonefortheCentre.

• Five Sciences Po students and researchershaveconductedfieldworkunderTCPDaffili-ation this year, in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra PradeshandWestBengal.

• One workshop and one public conferencewerejointlyorganizedinParisinJune2018,showcasingthefruitsofourcollaboration.

III



TCPD EventsTheCentreorganizedtenpubliceventsinIndia,eight as part of its lecture’s series and three as two as part of its new lecture series with CPR(Dialogue on Indian Politics). The Centre orga-nizeditsfirsteventsabroad,aspartofthepart-nershipwithSciencesPo.

Lakshmi Iyer from University of Notre Damegave a talk on ‘Political Identity and ReligiousViolence in India. Does Political Representation ofMinorityGroupsReduceReligiousConflict?’attheAshokaUniversityinJuly2017

Marie-Helene Zehra and Persis Taraporevala (CPR) talked about ‘Howdo you catch a cloudandpin itdown?Acase fordefining thesmartcitiesmissioninIndia’attheAshokaUniversityin October 2017

Prashant Jha of the Hindustan Times talked abouthislatestbook‘HowtheBJPwins?’attheAshokaUniversityinOctober2017

Chakshu Roy and Trina Roy gave a talk on‘Strengthening Parliament’ at the AshokaUniversityinNovember2017

Katie Harbath, Global Politics & Outreach Director, Facebook gave a talk on ‘The DigitalandPolitics’attheAshokaUniversityinJanuary2018

Rohan Samarajiva and Yudhanjaya Wijeratne fromLirne,SriLankagaveatalkon‘Interrogatingcommunity and connectedness using Facebook

Events

and mobile network big data’ at the AshokaUniversityinFebruary2018

Sujata Gamage ofLirne,SriLankagavea talkon‘Opendataforelectoraldemarcations’attheAshokaUniversityinFebruary2018

Renuka Chowdhury of Indian National Congress gaveatalkon‘TheHardLifeofIndianNetas’attheAshokaUniversityinApril2018

Sreenivasan Jain (Managing Editor, NDTV), Manisha Priyam (Associate Professor (NUEPA) and Sugata Srinivasaraju (Co-Founder & Editorial Director, The State) participated in a panel discussion on ‘Unpacking the KarnatakaResults’ as part of CPR-TCPD Dialogue in May 2018

Milan Vaishnav gaveatalkon‘Politics,Electionsand Money’ as a part of CPR-TCPD Dialogue in June 2018.

Conferences Attended VariousmembersoftheCentrespokeintwelveconferences or seminars.

Gilles Verniers spoke at “The integration of polit-ical and economic elites in Uttar Pradesh” Lamp Fellowship,PRSLegislativeResearch,NewDelhiin July 2017

Gilles Verniers gaveapresentationon“Businessfirst: thechangingprofileofUttarPradesh leg-islators”, during a panel discussion on The Sociology of Elected Representatives in India

IV


at theUniversityofWisconsin-Madison (SouthAsia Conference) in October 2017

Neelanjan Sircar and Gilles Verniers spoke about ‘Dissecting the Gujarat State ElectionsResultsatCPR,NewDelhiinDecember2017

Gilles Verniers and Basim-U-Nissa spoke on ‘Women in Indian Politics’ at the DifficultDialogues Conference, Goa in February 2018

Saloni Bhogale and Sudheendra Hangal partici-patedinconferenceon‘ArtificialIntelligenceforsocial good’ at theMicrosoftLab,Bangalore inMarch 2018

Gilles Verniers spoke about ‘The ChangingProfileofLegislatorsinUttarPradesh’duringaConference on the future of Democracy in India, organised by Progressive Council, Lucknow, atthe South Asia Institute LSE and TCPD in April 2018

Gilles Verniers spokeabout‘TheHighsandLowsof Muslims Representation in Uttar Pradesh’ during a workshop onminority representationin public institutions in India at Sciences Po in Paris in June 2018

Basim-U-Nissa spokeon‘WhogovernsJammuand Kashmir? A profile of the state assembly,1983-2013anditsrelevanceinthestatepolitics’

duringaworkshoponminorityrepresentationinpublic institutions in India at the Sciences Po in Paris in June 2018

Gilles Verniers spokeabout‘UttarPradesh,oneyear after the rise to power of the BJP’ at theConference on India after four years of Modi GovernmentatSciencesPoinParisinJune2018

Basim-U-Nissa spoke about ‘Kashmir since2014. Trends in the civil unrest and their sig-nificanceforpartypolitics’attheConferenceonIndia after four years ofModi Government, atthe Sciences Po in Paris in June 2018

Priyamvada Trivedi spoke about ‘Conceptua-lizing, Measuring and Understanding Discrimi-nation Against Dalits in Gujarat’ at the Conference onIndiaafterfouryearsofModiGovernmentatSciences Po in Paris in June 2018

Gilles Verniers gaveatalkon‘Thestrongersex?Women’s representation and performance in six stateelections’at theKing’sCollegeLondon inJune 2018

The Centre also co-sponsored Ashoka stu-dents’fieldtriptoAmritsar(October2017)andLucknow(April2018).

• Partition Museum, Amritsar, October 2017

• AmbedkarMemorial,Lucknow,April2018


Ambedkar Memorial, Lucknow, April 2018

Partition Museum, Amritsar, October 2017

Ambedkar Memorial, Lucknow, April 2018


The Centre held in July 2017 its first summerschool and summer internship programs.

• The summer school gathered scholars from various institutions to instruct 26 partici-pants from Ashoka and from outside.

• Aafaque Raza Khan (Inter-UniversityCentre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), ISRO)

• Alexandre Chevalier (Developer, CDSP,Sciences Po)

• Chinmay Narayan (Then TCPD)

• Francesca Jensenius (Then NUPI, nowOsloUniversity)

• Jeremy Richard (Developer, CDSP,Sciences Po)

Summer School 2017

V

Summer School and Summer Internship Program

• NeelanjanSircar(thenCPR,nowAshoka)

• RajkamalSingh(PhDCandidate,UCSB)

• The Summer Internship Program gathered 13 students for a period of 6-8 weeks. Theinterns provided support to various proj-ectsof theCentre andworkedon their ownprojectson theside.All received training to acquireskillsinvariousaspectsofdatawork:Statistical computing (R), basics of coding (Python), how to write scripts and conductdata consistency checks using R, basic data visualization.


Objectives for July 2018 - July 2019

Publications• Inordertofacilitateresearchpublicationswestarted our weekly research workshop. ThefirstonewasonJuly18,2018.Thepurposeoftheseworkshopsistwofold.Thefirstisforin-dividualmembersoftheTCPDteamtopres-ent their research and get feedback from the group. And the second is to use the feedback toimproveworkandsubmittopeerreviewedjournals.

Funding• We will work on securing external fundingto work on our research agenda. There aretwo applications that will be submitted byJuly 2019. The first one is to the EuropeanResearch Council (ERC) in collaboration with Sciences Po. The deadline for this isSeptember 2018. And the second one is to the ResearchCouncilofNorway(RCN)incollab-oration with Peace Research Institute Oslo(PRIO)and theUniversityofMichigan.Thedeadline is April 10, 2019.

Outreach• Inthenextoneyear,wewillbepublishing20

pieces in The Hindustan Times. These pieces will data-driven pieceswhichwill tentative-ly be about elections, women and Muslimrepresentation and performance, political strongholds and the political class in India. ThedataforthesepieceswillcomefromtheTCPD databases.

Next Steps

• Therewill bemonthly talks held jointly be-tween theCentre forPolicyResearch (CPR)and TCPD at CPR in Delhi. Members of the TCPD team are expected to present at the CPR-TCPD Dialogues on Indian Politics.

Data Release• The Centre will release its first Legislators’

dataset by the end of 2018, on a limited num-berof states forwhich thedatacollection iscomplete.

• TheCentrealsoplanstoreleasetwodatasetsonwomeninIndiaPolitics:oneonLokSabhawomenlegislators,andtheotheronstateleg-islators, for a limited number of states.

• From then on, the Centre will release newdataeverysixmonths.

Conferences• We are in the process of putting together a

proposal to organize a conference at Ashoka in December 2018. The theme is Empirical and Computational Social Science Research in India. The primary goal of this conference is to take stock of existing empirical social science research in India anddiscuss awayforward.Theoutputofthisconferencewillbeaspecificresearchagendathatwillbeexecut-edinthenextoneyear.Theagendawillcon-tain research questions, available data and/or plans to collect data, themethodswhichcan be used to probe the questions and last-lyonhowexactlywillwebuild the researchcapacity to implement the agenda. The con-ference will bring together senior scholars,junior scholars and students (graduate and

VI


undergraduate),fromthefieldsofdemocraticinstitutions, social and economic inequalities and collective action.Wehope tomake thisanannualeventfromnextyear.

• The Centre will also host the second LIAconference inDecember2018withSciencesPo and a team of research scholars from Berkeley,ledbyDr.JenniferBussell.

• Research conducted at the Centre will beshowcasedthisyearattheAnnualSouthAsiaconference in Madison and in a workshopon political representation at Berkeley, inOctober 2018

• The International Conference on womenrepresentationwillhavetotakeplacethisac-ademic year in Paris.

• The third round of LIA workshop will takeplace in Paris in May or June 2019.

Team • Theteamisnowconsiderablyreinforcedwiththe arrival of anAssociate Director. The role of the Associate Director is to steer the Centre on a full-time basis, to contribute to thedefinitionandexpansionofitsmissions,projects and partnership, to submit grant ap-plications and seek other venues of fundingfor research.

• The Centre is also hiring a new recruit.Saloni Bhogaleisacomputerscientistwhohas completed the MLS program. She willjoinasadeveloper,workcloselywithMohitKumartobuildourtools,andwillpursueherresearch project on parliamentary questions.

• We are looking to hiring another develop-er, toassistMohitKumarandworkondatavisualization.

• BasimUNissa is promoted into a full-timeresearch (pre-doctoral) position.

• TheCentrewillhaveoneaffiliatedMLSstu-dent, Surya Harikrishnan.

• BothSudeshandAshishhavelefttheCentre.

• Wearelookingforwardtohiringanadminis-trativeassistant,torelievecurrentresearchersfromtime-consumingadministrativestaff.

• Beyond that, there is no contingency oth-erwise at this state forhiring anynew staff,unlesswefindexternalfundingtodoso.

Partnerships • Our priority is to build on existing partner-ships.ThepartnershipwithMichiganneedstobere-activatedandthearrivalofPriyamvadaprovidesuswiththeopportunitytodoso.

• WeareexploringapossiblepartnershipwithPRIO (PeaceResearch Institute, Oslo), whohasexpressedinterestinworkingwithus.

Projects • Thisyearwillbethemostintenseyearforthecentre,electionwise.

• Nine states are up for state elections this academic year (Mizoram, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana Odisha and Sikkim) in addition to the 2019 general elections.Thereisapossibilitythatthegov-ernment advances the elections of HaryanaandMaharashtra, should theywish to pushtheir agenda for simultaneous elections. This represents a unique logistical and human resources challenge for the Centre. Elections willtakeupalotofourtimethisyear.

• Wewishtoclosethecodingofindividualin-cumbencybyDecember2018,sothatwemaystart exploiting the data.

• Wewillpursueoureffortofcollectingdataonwomencontestants, tobuildonthedatasetsconstituted this year as part of our Facebook project.

Events • Wewill keepwithour regularpaceof guestlecturesandwillmaintainourweeklyTCPDResearchWorkshop, open to all, on variousaspectsofpoliticsanddatawork.


ANNEXURE

List of Publications

Articles

Conservative in Practice: The Transformation of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar PradeshStudiesinIndianPolitics,vol.6(1),pp.1-16.ByGillesVerniers(2018)

Studying Indian Politics with Large-scale Data: Indian Election Data 1961–TodayStudies in Indian Politics, Vol 5, Issue 2, pp. 269 – 275ByFrancescaR.Jensenius,GillesVerniers

A changing of the guard in Northeast IndiaSchoolofInternationalAffairs,UniversityofNottingham, March 27, 2018ByGillesVerniers

Media The Indian ExpressKarnataka leftoversThe Indian Express, June 7, 2018ByS.Y.Quraishi

What Kairana meansThe Indian Express, June 1, 2018ByGillesVerniers,RajkamalSingh

Elections in the time of Cambridge AnalyticaThe Indian Express, May 11, 2018BySYQuraishi

Karnataka assembly elections 2018: Rahul Gandhi’s credibility will be tested in stateThe Indian Express, May 9, 2018ByAshishRanjan

Gorakhpur in perspectiveIndian Express, March 15, 2018ByGillesVerniers

Constructing DemocracyThe Indian Express, March 4, 2018ByGillesVerniers

BJP knocks on Manik Sarkar’s door in TripuraThe Indian Express, February 18, 2018ByAshishRanjan

BJP gobbles up Congress, bites hard into Left in TripuraThe Indian Express, March 3, 2018ByAshishRanjan

Lawmakers with perkThe Indian Express, February 26, 2018BySYQuraishi

The duty of the youngThe Indian Express, January 13, 2018BySYQuraishi

Reading Gujarat verdict: Rural-urban divide underlined, Congress gains for futureIndian Express, December 19, 2017ByChristopheJaffrelot,GillesVerniers

Narendra Modi is the LoC in Gujarat, one that is still tough for the Congress to crossIndian Express, December 17, 2017ByAshishRanjan

Caste of charactersIndian Express, December 15, 2017ByChristopheJaffrelot,GillesVerniers

In Nepal, with hopeIndian Express, December 12, 2017ByS.Y.Quraishi

The Gujarat difference Indian Express, October 16, 2017ByGillesVerniers

Error of CommissionIndian Express, October 14, 2017ByS.Y.Quraishi

Tweedledee, TweedledumIndian Express, October 5, 2017ByChristopheJaffrelot,GillesVerniers


It’s lonely on the ground Indian Express, September 4, 2017ByChristopheJaffrelot,Basim-U-Nissa

And the winner is Election CommissionIndian Express, August 10, 2017ByS.Y.Quraishi

Hindustan TimesRise of Lingayats, missing women: A profile of the new Karnataka assemblyHindustan Times, May 16, 2018ByGillesVerniers

How political parties choose their candidates to win electionsHindustan Times , March 26, 2018ByNeelanjanSircar

Which MPs utilise constituency funds the best?Hindustan Times, February 21, 2018ByNeelanjanSircar

Education ups attendance of MPs, criminal history lowers itHindustan Times, January 31, 2018ByNeelanjanSircar

The inability to move mass leaders up the party ranks has been a problem for the Congress Hindustan Times, December 19, 2017ByAshishRanjanandNeelanjanSircar

Economic TimesSeeking justice just got harderThe Economic Times, April 4, 2018ByGillesVerniers

View: Holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and state elections is neither feasible nor desirableThe Economic Times, March 10, 2018ByGillesVerniers

The Asian AgeOnus on EC to ensure EVM credibility: Glitches apart, EVMs are necessaryThe Asian Age, June 18, 2018BySYQuraishi

Times of IndiaIdea that women can’t win elections is a lie: SY QuraishiThe Times of India, March 10, 2018ByS.Y.Quraishi

The HinduIt is time to have a debate on proportional representation, says ex-CEC S.Y. QuraishiThe Hindu, March 7, 2018ByAnuradhaRaman

ECI decision to not announce Gujarat poll dates surprises former CEC S.Y. QuraishiThe Hindu, October 12, 2017ByVijaitaSingh

The TribuneAn unequal democracyThe Tribune, March 8, 2018BySYQuraishi

The CaravanWhy India Needs to Change its Electoral Voting SystemTheCaravan,September13,2017ByS.Y.Quraishi

Scroll.inHanging by a thread: The Karnataka verdict explained in 22 charts and mapsScroll.in, May 17, 2018ByGillesVerniers

Opinion: It’s futile to blame political parties for using data manipulators like Cambridge AnalyticaScroll.in, April 6, 2018ByGillesVerniers&SudheendraHangal

North-East politics: The three Assembly elections underline the marginalisation of womenScroll.in, March 16, 2018ByGillesVerniers

Nagaland verdict explained in 24 charts: How the Congress helped the BJP make inroads in the stateScroll.in, March 7, 2018ByGillesVerniers

The Meghalaya hung verdict explained in 25 charts: More volatility than overall results suggestScroll.in, March 4, 2018ByGillesVerniers

The BJP’s remarkable Tripura win (and the total collapse of the Congress) explained in 21 chartsScroll.in, March 05, 2018ByGillesVerniers


Himachal paradox in eight charts: Women outvote men – but only four were elected to the AssemblyScroll.in, December 28, 2017ByBasim-u-Nissa&GillesVerniers

Gujarat elected only 13 female MLAs – continuing a nationwide trend of low representation for womenScroll.in, December 28, 2017ByBasim-u-Nissa&GillesVerniers

How Gujarat was won (and lost): 28 charts that explain the election resultsScroll.in, December 20, 2017ByTrivediCentreforPoliticalData

The PrintWe must save the Election Commission from the clutches of Indian politiciansThe Print, December 15, 2017ByS.Y.Quraishi

The Quint‘Sarkari Slyness’: Ex-EC Chief Backs Quint’s Electoral Bond ExposéThe Quint, April 14, 2018BySYQuraishi

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Will the Modi Government Give the Election Commission More Power So It Is Fully Independent?The Wire, July 7, 2017ByVijaitaSingh

Panchayat Timesxqtjkr% pqukoh eqík rks gSa vkfnoklh exj fodkl dh xkjaVh ls eg:ePanchayat Times, December 6, 2017Byvk”kh’k jatu

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D;k igys pj.k esa de ernku gksus ls xqtjkr esa Hkktik dh thr r; ekuh tk;s?Panchayat Times, December 10, 2017Byvk”kh’k jatu

er izfr”kr esa cM+k varj ikVuk gksxk dkaxzsl dh lcls cM+h pqukSrhPanchayat Times, December 14, 2017Byvk”kh’k jatu

Business WorldIndia@100: Democracy & Polls In 2047BusinessWorld,September14,2017ByS.Y.Quraishi

The Centre in the Media

More and more journalists and media organizations are referring to the Centre’s data and to Lok Dhaba topublishtheirowndata-drivenpieces

TheIndianExpressisnowregularlyusingTCPD’sdatafortheirowndatawork(see:https://elections.indianexpress.com/karnataka-elections-result-overview/karnataka-votes-historical-trends-interactive-maps/).

For a complete list of quoted data pieces, see: https://tcpd.ashoka.edu.in/data-quoted/



Documents

July 2017-June 2018 · 2020. 4. 15. · • Ashish Ranjan joined in July 2017 as Research Fellow. He leaves the Centre in July 2018. • Sudesh Singh has joined the Centre in June