-The Hindu If Gujarat is a model, then the real toppers in development indicators, like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, must be supermodels In an earlier article published on this page ("The Gujarat Muddle," April 11, 2014), I pointed out that Gujarat's development achievements were hardly "model" class. This is pretty firm ground: the same point has been made by a long list of eminent economists. Yet confusion persists, so I decided to...
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A Price to Pay for Selling on the Street -Neeta Lal
-IPS News New Delhi: Bhure Lal, a 33-year-old street-food vendor, has been selling his spicy ‘chaat' outside the New Delhi Railway Station for 15 years. But despite a punishing 12-hour work schedule, and a new law to protect hawkers like him, he doesn't take home enough to feed his family. More than half of Lal's weekly income from the ‘chaat', a lip-smacking pot-pourri that is particularly popular with women, is extorted by...
More »Direct Benefits Transfer scheme finds no place in Cong’s campaign-Ruhi Tewari
-The Indian Express According to sources, DBT barely figured in the party's manifesto consultation process or during discussions After launching it with much fanfare and touting it as the next electoral game-changer, the Congress seems to have distanced itself from its ambitious Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme. There has also been a discernible dip in the UPA government's interest in the scheme, which has manifested itself in no review meetings having taken...
More »Another ‘Gujarat model’-Anupama Katakam
-Frontline A study on untouchability practices in 1,589 villages in Gujarat provides critical data for the Dalit movement to shape its interventions at the national and international levels. DESPITE laws making it punishable, untouchability continues to exist in the country in a vicious manner. A study titled "Understanding Untouchability: A Comprehensive Study of Practices and Conditions in 1,589 villages", conducted in Gujarat by the Navsarjan Trust, an organisation that promotes the...
More »A grain of sense-Aditya Puri
-The Indian Express How Punjab is making the best use of the flawed public distribution system. Inclusive economic growth is a political, economic and social necessity. The question is: what is the right strategy to ensure this? Most of our programmes to help the underprivileged have suffered from leakages and inefficiencies, so that the benefits have not accrued to the targeted groups but the strain on our fiscal deficit remains. Subsidies are...
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