Truth vs Hype

Power prices went up in Delhi this month, prompting the usual protests, which led us to plunge into the debate: are electricity rates too high in the city? Are the distribution companies making huge profits ? Or as these companies claim, the truth is the exact reverse- prices are too low, and they have mounted crores of loss? This week we try and decode the exasperatingly complex world of Delhi's power pricing, which is representative of the flare ups over power tariffs in other Indian cities.

The late monsoons have meant that a very large percentage of crops have not been planted, impacting livelihoods and food prices. Water is still scarce for irrigation and drinking. As always, our politicians blame the rain gods, but as found out that the reasons for the water crisis are man made - whether it's manufacturing water shortage in cities to justify thousands of crores of dams or how the crisis in West and Central India acutely hit by drought may have been exacerbated by the need to supply uninterrupted electricity during election time.

This week we travelled to Nasik, the heart of India's onion belt, to understand the forces that determine the trade of this politically volatile vegetable. We attempt to get inside the tightly controlled ecosystems of traders and political patrons who control the ebb and flow of onions across the country, whose rising prices have raising anxiety levels in the corridors of power.

Summer has come, and with it the inevitable power cuts, and the familiar solutions to end India's power crisis: build more power plants, increase coal mining (never mind those pesky environmental laws), and hike power rates. This week on Truth vs Hype we discover how each of these assumptions don't stand up to scrutiny. Indeed, pursuing them might come at a high environmental and social cost.

The Intelligence Bureau report, which alleges that a clutch of foreign funded NGOs have deliberately stalled India's growth continues to spark a raging debate. We take a hard look at the IB's allegations: do they have the facts to back their claims? And has the IB grossly oversimplified the complex equation between foreign funds, NGOs and policymakers?

One of the first decisions of the Narendra Modi government has been the setting up of a Special Investigation Team to give speed up unearthing of black money stashed abroad and in India. This week, we summarise some of the challenges - political, procedural and legal - that the SIT may face at it attempts to track down the billions of dollars that are supposed to form India's black economy.

Even before he formally takes office with his team, Narendra Modi has hit the decks running, asking for presentations from bureaucrats, shaping policy proposals, even mulling a downsized government. This week, we report on the buzz in Delhi's corridors of power, which are already getting a taste of the working style of the Modi sarkar, as well as the new Prime Minister's possible priorities, of which economic revival seems to be key.

Narendra Modi has wrapped up one of the most relentless and high-decibel campaigns in recent political memory. But its genius lies not so much in converting those who attend his rallies, but to have already convinced the people of his successes in Gujarat model even before they get there. This week, we trace the origins of what some call the Modi 'wave': did Modi indeed perform a miracle in Gujarat, or is it a miracle of marketing? How did his messaging reach remote corners of the country?

Elections in Andhra Pradesh have always been high spending, but as a newly divided state goes to vote, the intense churn has seen money power playing a greater role than ever before. A new breed of multi-crore businessmen have taken centrestage, some of them facing corruption charges. But in the political climate of Andhra Pradesh, that doesn't matter - all that counts is the bottomline.

Mayawati might be a key player in Uttar Pradesh, but speculation is rife over why she is running a 'silent' campaign, avoiding direct attacks on the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. This week, we travel to UP's Bundelkhand region to witness first hand Mayawati's strategy: as she tries to hold on to her core Dalit base, while trying to win back upper castes and Muslims, a balancing act that seems increasingly precarious in the polarised climate of elections 2014.