The Most "Power"-full States

Electricity, perhaps, is the one of the most important commodities, yet significantly under-valued. Don't get me wrong - everyone hates power cuts; but its true value is not fully appreciated. Electricity just doesn't run television at home, it also provides a few hours of daily family entertainment to lower-middle / poor class, for whom otherwise no real, affordable alternatives exist. Industries are large beneficiaries as well - higher uptime results in efficient utilization of resources (including labour), higher output and value creation, and economic well-being for human factors. 

After a much publicized visit of Arvind Kejriwal to Gujarat, there are debates on SM whether Gujarat is really as advanced on electricity front as is often claimed by its long-serving CM Mr. Narendra Modi. Dubious claims are made by both sides on this issue. I believe this can be satisfactorily analysed and concluded based on reliable data available in public domain.

The Missing Link

With the advent of Social Media (SM), there are far more debates on politics and governance happening in the country, opening up space for public participation on an unprecedented magnitude. However, such discourse is also prone to 5-minute-Google based argumentation, made-up-facts, and outright lies + propaganda. Often, most of the audience being innocent bystanders gets influenced by statistics presented as gospel truth, but really are cherry-picked / twisted facts, opinions or worse, falsehoods. Some argue that the latter is often more pronounced - the frontyard of SM is littered with sponsored bots.

This is dangerous, since such incorrect statistics not just influences public opinion, but also translate into potentially ill-informed electoral choices on a wide scale.

A Necessary Evil

We are human beings, a basket of imperfections. A common imperfection (I believe this is universal), is to see the world through a lens coloured with our own biases, orientation, and often expectations. One can't take this lens off. 

Hence, when someone claims a narrative / analysis to be 100% neutral, I reject that premise at face value. However, I do believe that such imperfection(s) can be largely addressed by upfront disclosing contours of the lens one is wearing. The other party in general should be able to correct the narrative off such biases / orientation of the narrator, if the same are disclosed upfront. In public discourse, such disclosure should not be left to discretion, rather it becomes a necessity. Hence, the below.