CHENNAI: We've finally bid goodbye to 2024, and have been presented with an opportunity to turn things around in 2025. As eight billion people around the world welcome the New Year, we approach the changeover with a sense of trepidation. It's a world wracked with conflict, ravaged by climate change, and bursting at its seams with issues of all kinds — insufficiency of essential resources, political turmoil and uncertainty in its myriad forms.
Keeping it local, the one thing that has taken up the mindshare of leaders across India is the rolling out of the census, a process that was postponed on account of the pandemic, and will finally take place in the new year. Apart from being employed by the governments at the Centre, State and UT levels for planning and formulation of policies and effective public administration, the census data is also used to carry out the delimitation exercise and reservation of constituencies for parliamentary, assembly, panchayats, and other local bodies. States in which population growth has been low relative to the national average since 1971, could see their share of seats decline.
On the other hand, those with higher than average population growth would garner larger shares, a development that could significantly impact south India. Guesstimates have revealed that states like UP and Bihar might gain as many as 10 Lok Sabha seats while Tamil Nadu might end up losing the same number of seats. Speaking of which, citizens are keeping their fingers .
