Both Nandan Nilekani and his well-wishers are today, two years after he set out on his unique identification (UID) journey, wiser if not a more disillusioned lot. Right at the outset he had acknowledged concerns over privacy issues, saying, “India does not really have a privacy law. So all this will act as an impetus to define the privacy framework for Indians.” That gaping hole is still staring us in...

-PTI   The daily expense cut-off of Rs 32 per person to define urban poverty “is not all that ridiculous in Indian conditions”, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said today. The comments, certain to stoke the controversy over the criteria, came in a letter that Ahluwalia wrote to attorney-general Goolam Vahanvati. “The fact is that Rs 4,824 per month for a family (of five persons) to define poverty is not comfortable but...

What has changed since the economic reforms began? Many things. No waiting for years for a telephone connection, now cell phones with everyone. From three makes of cars with wind-down windows to dozens of makes, all air-conditioned. From one domestic airline, government owned and for the rich, to many private carriers for the middle class too. What has also changed is the knocking on the window. There are many more rich people...

India’s poor can take heart — for there’s justice even in this world, despite and in spite of the Planning Commission. Planning Commission deputy chairman, and expert on poverty, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has gotten off his high horse. Ahluwalia said on Monday that a new committee would be set up to come up with a fresh method to identify India’s poor. Last week the Commission had filed an affidavit in the...

Discussing the ‘poverty line’ has become a bit like talking about sex or death. Everybody has a view on it. And no two persons have the same view. The Planning Commission, members of the national advisory council, the rural development minister, assorted chief ministers, social scientists, economists, the media, the bloggerati — all have made their points loud and clear. However, such is the topic that it continues to trigger verbal...