-Outlook UPA’s populist trumpcard of 2008—the farm loan waiver—has fallen short of its intended target, as a CAG audit throws up The Scheme     2008 Union finance minister P. Chidambaram announces farmer debt waiver and relief scheme in budget; PM Manmohan Singh writes to beneficiaries “seeking their support”     Rs 52,275 cr Total money that was disbursed to eligible farmers across the nation as part of loan waiver scheme     Rs 50,000 The loan...

-Outlook Hapur: Its benefit to farmers was well touted. The reality of the loan waiver is less creditable. In the early hours of a foggy morning in the sugarcane belt of western Uttar Pradesh, produce-laden bullock carts move about in Rasoolpur village, Hapur district, about 50 km from Delhi. As good a spot as any to gauge the impact of the ambitious loan waiver scheme for farmers announced by the UPA-I...

-The Hindu The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), whose funding of corporate warehousing projects on terms far softer than those offered to poor and often suicidal farmers was highlighted by The Hindu last month, has withdrawn its controversial scheme with retrospective effect under pressure from the Reserve Bank of India. The minutes of a meeting of the sub-committee of the NABARD Board held last month confirm that the RBI...

-The Hindu One of the most prominent features of India’s middle-class-driven public culture has been an obsession about our GDP growth rate, and a facile equation of that number with a sense of national achievement or impending arrival into affluence. In media headlines, political speeches, and everyday conversations, the GDP growth rate number — whether it is five per cent or eight per cent or whatever — has become a staple...

-Economic and Political Weekly A cost-benefi t analysis by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy of the benefits from Aadhaar integration with seven schemes throws up huge benefi ts that are based almost entirely on unrealistic assumptions. Further, the report does not take into account alternative technologies that could achieve the same or similar savings, possibly at lower cost. Reetika Khera (reetika.khera@gmail.com) is at the Institute of Economic Growth on...