-The Indian Express Contrary to conventional wisdom, the UPA lost despite an inclusive, growing economy. Economists have been busy telling us that the economy decided the election result. We heard it during the campaign and they have been at it again in their post-mortems. They are wrong. Consider some evidence. Most Indians live in rural areas. Elections are won and lost there. So for any government, it makes good electoral sense to look...
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Inclusive growth, an exaggerated claim -Raghav Gaiha, Manoj K Pandey and Vani S Kulkarni
-The Hindu Business Line Claims that the economic gap in India is being bridged are not borne out by NSS data Recent accounts of poverty reduction - especially during 2004-11- triggered by the release of the 68th round of the NSS data, have been euphoric. Growth acceleration not just resulted in more rapid poverty reduction over this period than during 1993-2004 but it was also more inclusive as the most disadvantaged groups,...
More »Why voters punished UPA-Himanshu
-Live Mint If anything, the UPA has been punished by the voters for moving away from its core agenda of entitlement-based politics The victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 elections will remain a watershed moment for Indian democracy in many ways than one. Coming at a time when the economy is in a serious mess, the victory of the BJP and the defeat of the Congress party and...
More »MGNREGA claims, and facts -Jeh Tirodkar
-The Indian Express Available data suggests the programme has been effective in reducing rural poverty and gender discrimination Nirmala Sitharaman's misinformation (‘How not to run a programme', IE, May 9) on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which employs one in every four Indian rural households every year, is disappointing. Consider these facts. For the first time in over two decades, the increase in rural consumption (a proxy indicator...
More »Missing the evidence-Sourindra Ghosh and Atul Sood
-The Indian Express The Gujarat model, if there is one, is not shining. Surjit Bhalla, in recent articles (‘Gujarat's inclusive growth', IE, April 12, ‘Gujarat's other calling card', IE, April 19 and ‘Just name-calling', IE, April 26), has been making a case for Narendra Modi's prime ministerial candidacy by praising the Gujarat development model. It is surprising because, just a year ago, he critiqued Gujarat's growth model for being "neither equitable nor...
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