The Chhattisgarh government has been exposed for shielding IAS officer Babulal Agarwal, who is worth Rs 253 crores, with 473 bank accounts. He owns 30 companies, set up in the last 11 years and has a life insurance policy worth Rs 85 lakh in his son's name. He was raided by the vigilance department in February last year, suspended and then reinstated. Agarwal is now serving as the Secretary, Corporation, in the Chhattisgarh...
More »SEARCH RESULT
India versus China by Amartya Sen
The steadily rising rate of economic growth in India has recently been around 8 percent per year (it is expected to be 9 percent this year), and there is much speculation about whether and when India may catch up with and surpass China’s over 10 percent growth rate. Despite the evident excitement that this subject seems to cause in India and abroad, it is surely rather silly to be obsessed...
More »The cash mantra by Jean Dreze
Conditional cash transfers” (CCTs) are a new buzzword in policy circles. The idea is simple: give poor people cash conditional on good behaviour such as sending children to school. This helps to score two goals in one shot: poor people get some income support, and at the same time, they take steps to lift themselves out of poverty. CCT enthusiasm, however, is often based on a superficial reading of the Latin...
More »Rights & roadblocks
-The Indian Express Indian government uses public funds to alleviate, prevent and end poverty; but, unarguably, does so inefficiently. A new report from the World Bank for the Planning Commission on India’s “social protection” programmes outlines the scope of the failure and provides a few answers. Those programmes can be divided into three kinds, the report argues: those that prevent a slide into poverty, like social security and insurance schemes; those...
More »BPL health insurance fails in Kalahandi
-Express News Service The benefits under the Rashtriya Suraksha Bima Yojana (RSBY) have failed to trickle down to the beneficiaries the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. Though launched as a pilot project in Kalahandi in November 2009, poor management and lack of awareness among the BPL beneficiaries have marred the cashless treatment provision. Out of the surveyed 2,24,859 BPL families, 1,03,083 families were enrolled in 20092010. Ironically, in the first year, only 1,513...
More »