Corruption and government apathy may not be hurting MNREGS as much as well-intentioned tinkering There is growing concern that the Centre’s allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) is dropping off. Correspondingly, the average number of days of work created in some of the states is dropping sharply. This decline in the spending of MNREGS money is not a one-off event but has been happening over the...
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Political Challenges to Universal Access to Healthcare by R Srivatsan & Veena Shatrugna
While welcoming the report of the High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage for India for its comprehensive vision and many well-conceived recommendations, this article focuses on the conditions needed for its promise to bear fruit. Towards this, it explores the political dimension, which comprises the forces and interests that come into play to shape and reconfigure administrative policy and its implementation. We are grateful to Anand Zachariah and Susie...
More »Policy Distortions Hurt Agriculture by Bibek Debroy
Food price inflation, and inflation in general, has become less of an issue. But it isn’t an issue that will go away. Give it till June and inflation is likely to inch up again. Competition is a good antidote against price increases. It ensures efficiency and reduces price volatility. Logically, food price inflation should trigger and stimulate agricultural reform, so there is competition and supply-side changes can occur. But in...
More »Professor Arjun Appadurai, Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University interviewed by Smruti Koppikar
Professor Arjun Appadurai is a Mumbaikar at heart; coming to the city is an annual pilgrimage for this internationally renowned cultural theorist and anthropologist. Appadurai, 62, who studied in Mumbai’s Elphinstone College, is currently Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. He has been consultant and advisor to a wide range of public and private foundations such as The Smithsonian. In his seminal work Disjuncture and...
More »Head rolls for Ponty Chadha fiasco that left I-T red-faced
-The Times of India The finance ministry has replaced S S Rana with Madhavan Nair as member investigation in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a change that is seen to be linked to the income tax department's embarrassment over the failed "search-and-survey" operation against Gurdeep 'Ponty' Chadha, a politically-connected businessman. Apart from Rana, who was instrumental in the raids against Chadha a day before the Uttar Pradesh polls got...
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