Top Indian Politics Fact Checking Websites/Source: Ramdlon |
In past few days, there is a lot of hubbub about fake and planted news. The age old problem has become a new societal threat, all thanks to the Internet. In an interview with BBC’s Economics editor Kamal Ahmed, Sundar Pichai in a cautious manner said, “false stories about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton could have affected the outcome of the US election as the margins were very narrow.”[1] Moreover, the same is true for the Brexit, if you dig about Brexit, you will easily learn, how fake stories played a significant role in the Brexit.[2]
In India, the situation is a bit similar, or you can say, it is hiding under the veil of collective ignorance. One can just understand the scenario by revisiting 2014 Lok Sabha elections when our social media timelines were filled with numerous fake and polarized stories. The trend which has taken a monstrous form now.
Though in United States, Europe and other parts of the world, they have a new breed of vigilante journalistic websites like PolitiFact and FactCheck informing about trust value of the news, but we don’t have any such privilege in India, for now. However, if you look at the same Internet, there is a ray of hope. There are websites which can be taken as the Indian alternatives to the fact checking websites and one of them is trying to be a fact-checking website.
PRS Legislative Research
PRS is a non-profit organization that was established by CV Madhukar and MR Madhavan in September 2005 as an independent research institute to make the Indian legislative process better informed, transparent and participatory.
[[Official Website]]
Data Portal of India
Data Portal of India (or Open Government Data Platform India) is an initiative by Government of India in the line of United States Government Open Data website, data.gov. The portal was launched with the aim to provide data on deployment of public funds, to enable rational debates and better decision making in order to meet society needs.
[[Official Website]]
Laws of India
The Laws of India is another initiative by PRS Legislative Research to make laws enacted by all 30 state legislatures accessible under one roof for free of cost.
[[Official Website]]
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)
ADR was established by a group of IIM-A professors in 1999 with the aim to provide a detailed analysis of the backgrounds of candidates contesting elections and make voter aware of their prospective candidates. Since 2002, Gujarat Assembly Elections, ADR is conducting Election Watches in collaboration with National Election Watch.
[[Official Website]]
Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha Official Websites
The official websites of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha provide you ample information on latest development in both houses of the Indian Parliament.
[[Lok Sabha]] [[Rajya Sabha]]
Factchecker
Factchecker by The Spending & Policy Research Foundation, which also run IndiaSpend, can be taken as the Indian version of PolitiFact, but infrequent and less number of updates makes it hard to track the issue, which is long forgotten by the masses then.
[[Official Website]]
Footnotes
1. Google commits to £1bn UK investment plan – BBC
2. Fake news handed Brexiteers the referendum – and now they have no idea what they’re doing – Independent