-The Economic Times For one who had worked so closely to frame the world's largest job guarantee programme, known as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, it's not easy to see it succumb to pressure. It's no wonder that economist-cum-activist Jean Dreze will raise his voice against this, along with eminent academics such as Pranab Bardhan and Maitreesh Ghatak. Dreze says corruption related to NREGA and leakages - its...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Govt. LPG subsidy capped at Rs. 20 a kg -Puja Mehra
-The Hindu The Union government has also decided to resume providing subsidy on cooking gas through direct cash transfers straight into consumers' bank accounts. The Modi government has frozen the budget subsidy for cooking gas at Rs. 20 a kg. This will not mean any increase in price for the consumer right away. However, if international prices were to rise, as they normally do in winter, then the government will be faced with...
More »How to improve the welfare state -Ajay Chhibber
-The Business Standard Make schemes mobile and portable, by focusing on people and not products India spends close to four per cent of its GDP on an alphabet soup of welfare schemes and subsidies - it has become a welfare state before becoming a developed state. Despite its significant costs, India's welfare system is neither comprehensive nor very effective - subject to huge leakages and corruption, and not well knit into...
More »Ashok Gulati, former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, and at present chair professor agriculture, the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, speaks with Sandip Das
-The Financial Express From allocating extra foodgrains to states as a means to fight the price rise to setting up a high-level committee to recommend measures for restructuring the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the government has taken various steps for cutting down food subsidy and curbing further spike in agricultural commodity prices. From allocating extra foodgrains to states as a means to fight the price rise to setting up a high-level...
More »India's shifting food bowls -Ravish Tiwari
-India Today Geography of rice and wheat has been transformed with Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh generating surpluses Almost 50 years ago, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri went on air to appeal to Indians to skip a meal a day. Foodgrain supplies had come under strain after the 1965 drought, and the patriotic ethos cautioned against over-consumption: what you ate left that much less for the rest. Today, it is...
More »