Mihir Shah, member of the Planning Commission and chairman of the committee to redraft rules and guidelines of NREGA, tells Sreelatha Menon that the Act may also cover farm labourers. The consortium of NGOs that recommended changes in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was founded by you, but your suggestions have been criticised. You seem to consider it a lack of demand rather than a supply problem. First, you should...
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Neoliberal Plan by Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
The Planning Commission's Approach Paper to the Twelfth Plan sticks with the neoliberal agenda despite claims of inclusive growth. INCLUSIVE was one word that came up time and again in the early announcements of the Planning Commission on the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. “Faster, Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth” was the slogan coined for the Plan and there was the promise of widespread consultations as never before as part of the processes...
More »In Chhattisgarh, bureaucratic enthusiasm leaves lakhs without rations by Aman Sethi
“There is never enough rice to go around for the whole family,” says tribal woman Leela With a handful of grain and a head full of recipes, Leela cooks rice in a pot balanced on three stones in a room with a few bricks knocked out to let in sunlight in this village barely 150 km from Raipur, Chhattisgarh capital. When rice is scarce, she adds more water to make a broth,...
More »Ethics & economics
-The Indian Express There was a bitter argument over the provisional poverty line put out by the Planning Commission in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, which drew the line at Rs 32 per capita per day in urban areas and Rs 26 per person in rural areas. The Planning Commission has now “clarified” its position. While the Tendulkar Committee line will remain a point of reference, various welfare entitlements will...
More »Changing priorities by CP Chandrasekhar
In planning, pursuit of profit was not seen as being in the social interest in the post-Independence years, but now profit is the sole motive. FOR two decades now the Government of India has pursued a policy of accelerated liberalisation, dismantling controls, diluting regulations and making the state a facilitator of private investment. It is not that the presence of the state has diminished during this period, but that its role...
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