As states get together to launch security operations, official data from the first-ever study done of the country’s 33 districts hardest hit by Naxalites, shows an abysmal record of government expenditure on basic amenities, including health, education, roads, electricity and child care. In fact, the evidence couldn’t be more stark: the expenditure in a state’s Naxal-affected districts is merely a fraction of the figure for the rest of the state...

After deliberating for well over seven months, the Union government has eventually evolved a scheme to extend the scope of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) on individual land holdings with Rs. 1.5 lakh as the upper limit of expenditure. The Rural Development Ministry has prepared a draft guideline, detailing not only the works that could be taken up for implementation but also the conditions to govern the...

The Planning Commission, the country’s apex planning body, is gradually reconciling to the fact that there would be no large gains in the gross budgetary support (GBS) in budget 2010-11, as the government struggles to reduce fiscal deficit. GBS is the money the Union government allocates to various government programmes through the Union budget. “The major objective of the finance ministry is to bring down the fiscal deficit from 6.8% of...

A Planning Commission evaluation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has questioned the effectiveness of projects implemented under the Act in boosting productivity and creating assets. NREGA, the Union government’s flagship anti-poverty programme that promises 100 days of employment every year to the rural poor, is partly credited with driving the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to victory in the April-May general election. In a presentation made at Prime Minister...

The government needs to allocate more funds for public health. The mismatch between the declared objective of universal healthcare through the public health system and the actual level of expenditure remains serious.  One of the three most important planks on which Barak Obama won the U.S. presidential election was the country’s healthcare system, which he promised to fix. Indeed, the most important legislative measure initiated by Mr. Obama so far...