The World Bank and the United Nations have hailed it as one of the best health insurance schemes around the globe. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's Budget called this UPA flagship, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), an 'effective instrument' for providing basic health cover to the poor. Yet, UPA-ruled states have virtually disowned the scheme - just 11% of the scheme's Rs 2.31 crore active beneficiaries are in UPA-run territories, an...
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Centre to check on fund release for MGNREGA
To keep control over its flagship scheme ~ the much-hyped Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) ~ and to defeat its non-Congress regimes in various states, the Centre has given itself powers to check releasing funds due to ineffective implementation. In a six-point instruction to states, the ministry of rural development has said that audit teams and media reports have revealed “anomalies” in the implementation of the MGNREGA. “If the...
More »How Pranab squared the deficit hole by AK Bhattacharya
Just reclassified Rs 1.46 lakh crore of spending as capital investment. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget for 2011-12 seems to have used a new accounting system to make a virtue of necessity. Committed to provide funds to run the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or MGNREGS, Mukherjee has transferred the entire financial allocation for the scheme under a head that will now help him take credit for a reduced effective...
More »Bangladesh Court to hear microcredit pioneer’s appeal by Anbarasan Ethirajan
The Bangladeshi Supreme Court is set to hear an appeal by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus against a High Court decision to uphold his sacking. Prof Yunus had to stand down as managing director two weeks ago after the authorities said that at 70, he was past the mandatory retirement age. His supporters say it is related to his attempt to enter politics three years ago, a charge the government denies. Prof Yunus told...
More »Estimating India
The recently concluded 15th Indian National Census is an exercise of staggering magnitude — by any standard. For perspective: the decennial Census covered an area of 3.27 million sq. kms, that included 640 districts, 5,767 tehsils, 7,742 towns and over 600 villages. Primary data on 1.2 billion people would be collected by over 2 million enumerators, specially trained for the purpose. The total cost of the exercise is conservatively estimated...
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