Budgets are no longer statements of accounts or expendiTure. In the contemporary context, they are to be seen more as a statement of intent, ambition, reform and politics of inclusion. If these are the parameters on which Budget 2011 is to be judged, it fails despite an implicit statement of intent. For a government which has been elected on the agenda of inclusion, even the statement of intent is not new....

In the recent meeting of the apex National Tiger Conservation Authority, members pointed out seven specific instances where Forest Rights Act has been violated in an attempt to hastily declare an area free of people. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said he would investigate each claim and allegation of violation of FRA. TOI highlights four such reserves. Will he now send a fact finding team to these sites? BRT Tiger reserve,...

Cash transfers cannot and should not replace the public provision of essential goods and services, but rather supplement them. Cash transfers are the latest fad of the international development industry, as the preferred strategy for poverty reduction. And now Indian policymakers are busy catching up. The idea was mooted in the Government's Economic Survey for 2010-11, and the Finance Minister made an explicit announcement in his budget speech for replacing some...

This is a collection of 45 select articles written by M.S. Swaminathan over the past 20 years. Arranged in six sections, they cover ‘sustainable development in Indian agriculTure', ‘technology and evergreen revolution', ‘sustainable food security', ‘agrarian crisis', ‘WTO and Indian farmers', and ‘shaping India's agriculTural destiny'. As Jeffrey Sachs says in his foreword, Swaminathan had “recognised already in the early days of India's green revolution that the new breakthroughs could create...

The major problem that the media is addressing these days is the consumer price index. This is going to be discussed during the budget session. The focus has to Turn to consumer pricing. People also face policy problems because of their wage negotiations and inflationary expectations. Consumer prices escalate by 5 percent every month and that is the first issue that needs to be addressed and attended as of now....