-The Hindu Providing people with a modest basic income instead of subsidies would save public revenue With oil prices falling, it was perhaps a good time to fade out fuel subsidies. All subsidies are inefficient and distortionary, and most are regressive. The same could be said of costly public works schemes as well. By contrast, the debate on direct benefit transfers has moved into a more sensible phase, with the posturing criticism of...
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Exploitation, by law -Vijay Raghavan
-The Indian Express The recent proposal by the National Commission for Women to legalise prostitution has opened up an old debate. It is a misnomer that legalisation would lead to improving the lives of women in prostitution by way of reduced harassment by the police and provision of healthcare facilities. Advocates of legalisation should first examine the experience of countries where prostitution has been legalised. The mere fact that licensing has...
More »Why axe only MGNREGA? Mr Modi, we need to talk -Abhijit Banerjee
-The Hindustan Times One does not have to agree with his views to be intrigued by the possibilities opened up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's emergence as communicator/harangue-master in chief. Public conversations about who we are and who we want to be are key to the vitality of our democracy, and leaders can seed those conversations when they speak out their own views. When I hear people in the Delhi metro...
More »Access denied -Kundan Pandey
-Down to Earth Shortage of antiretroviral drugs and lack of diagnosis is not new in India, but government does not admit to the crisis The fight against HIV/AIDS in India is becoming tougher by the day as patients continue to face an acute shortage of antiretroviral drugs. This is an alarming situation for a country with the third-highest number of HIV+ people in the world-2.1 million. In 2012, about 140,000 people in...
More »LPG subsidy may soon go for the rich, Arun Jaitley says
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: If you are economically well off, you may soon have to pay full market price for your cooking gas refills. "The next important decision India will have to take is whether people like me ... (are) entitled to get our LPG (liquefied cooking gas) subsidy," finance minister Arun Jaitley said here on Friday. "I think the sooner we are able to take these decisions as to who...
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