-The Hindu   Anti-graft legislation has to be backed by a concerted people's movement to effectively check the escalation of corruption in a neo-liberal regime, economist Prabhat Patnaik said on Friday. Delivering the W.R. Varadarajan Memorial lecture on “Neo-liberalism and corruption” organised by the Indian School of Social Sciences, Mr. Patnaik said the move to a neo-liberal regime, which, it was believed, would get rid of corruption, had actually expanded the scope...

The past couple of months have seen a renewed attack on the National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC has been decried as an unconstitutional, undemocratic, “super-cabinet” where unaccountable “jholawalas” hatch harebrained schemes guaranteed to run the government aground. Another line of criticism has focused on the process of the formation of the NAC, its space within the Indian Constitution, and its capacity to influence policy. The two criticisms merge with...

The well being dug under the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme at a cost of Rs 2.63 lakh at Gutjera village in Khunti district could not withstand the first spell of monsoon rain. On July 18, its walls collapsed, and so did the dreams of Shravan Mahato of reaping “three crops a year”. His isn’t the only well to have collapsed under the first brush of monsoon. Government estimates...

It’s been raining “rights” in Indian policy for the last few years — education, work, food, service, healthcare, and much else. This “Diet Coke” approach to poverty reduction — the sweetness without the calories — was always dangerous because of unknown side effects. Commenting in 1790 on the consequences of the French Revolution, Edmund Burke said: “They have found their punishment in their success. Laws overturned, tribunals subverted, industry without...

Experts at a discussion on "Two decades of economic reforms: The way forward", organized by CII, Bihar state centre, said the economic reforms had not lessened the urban-rural divide; hence rural people could not generate substantial demand in the economy, though the savings rate enhanced in the last two decades. Director, Asian Development Research Institute, P P Ghosh, said the savings rate had increased from 12% in 1951 to 35%...