-Economic and Political Weekly An increase in indebtedness in agriculture between 2003 and 2013 does not necessarily mean a growth in debt that has debilitated the cultivator. Higher indebtedness may also reflect a more enabling process--the increased availability of institutional credit. An analysis of NSSO data. Sher Singh Sangwan (drsangwan8@gmail.com) is at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development, Chandigarh. The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report, Situation Assessment of Agricultural...
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Cash for Food--A Misplaced Idea -Dipa Sinha
-Economic and Political Weekly Direct benefi t transfers in the form of cash cannot replace the supply of food through the public distribution system. Though it is claimed otherwise, DBT does not address the problems of identifying the poor ("targeting") and DBT in place of the PDS will expose the vulnerable to additional price fluctuation. Further, if the PDS is dismantled, there will also be no need or incentive for procurement...
More »When statistics lie -Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
-The Asian Age The much-quoted sentence, "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics", was attributed to the 19th century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli by American author Mark Twain. Although researchers could never find such a statement in any written work of Disraeli, the sentence gained universal popularity to signify how economists and other number-crunchers use the "persuasive power" of figures to make a political point or...
More »MDGs: A neglected agenda for inclusiveness
The India Country Report 2015 on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) comes at a time when the Union Budget 2015-16 allegedly cut expenditure on several social sector schemes and programmes. This year's MDG country report says that India will fail to achieve two important targets pertaining to reducing hunger and maternal mortality by 2015, among others. Released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the report says that India is...
More »Policy on child malnutrition uses old data -Rema Nagarajan
-The Times of India Prime Minister Modi said child malnutrition would be tackled on a "mission mode", his predecessor called it a national shame. Yet, policymaking is dependent on malnutrition data from 2005-06, with the data from the Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC) carried out by Unicef and the women and child development (WCD) ministry in 2013 yet to be made available. The data was sent to the health ministry for...
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