After so many wrongs, the Planning Commission may have just got it right. According to leaked accounts, its universal health coverage proposal may become reality as early as the next five-year Plan. Once this policy is in place, India can legitimately enter the club of welfare states through the front door. Now, at last, it has a scheme that is truly inclusive for it includes us all. When implemented, this measure...

India has scored 3.1 (down from 3.3 last year) on a scale - where 10 indicates very clean and zero, highly corrupt - of Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The CPI focuses on corruption in the public sector, involving public officials, civil servants or politicians.  The data sources used to compile the index include questions relating to the abuse of power and bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of...

Has India done a China to its trade partners? Against huge opposition and popular discontent over the years, the Cabinet last week cleared 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and allowed 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail. The move appears crafty in that it tries to change the perception of a reform impasse in the government while simultaneously aiding India’s negotiators to meet their peers...

The 11th five-year plan promised the nation “inclusive growth”. It marked a departure from the earlier official position that the “benefits of growth” would automatically “trickle down” to the poor, and that if growth was not actually benefiting the poor, then the reason lay in its not being high enough. The 11th plan, by contrast, conceded that the “benefits of growth” did not automatically “trickle down”, but argued that growth...

With deep pockets and international sourcing capabilities, global retail chains will outcompete domestic players, displace jobs, and undermine livelihoods. In predictable fashion, the Manmohan Singh government chose to ignore voices of opposition and implement its agenda of permitting foreign investment in the retail trade. While Parliament was in session, the Cabinet met to approve the hitherto prohibited foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, with a cap of 51 per cent on...