The Planning Commission’s poverty line affidavit has exposed how blissfully ignorant the glorified economists of the UPA are of the true reality of India The 2G spectrum scam, Commonwealth Games loot, cash-for-vote bribery, Lokpal fiasco, Pranab-Chidambaram duel on the Finance Ministry note, and the count goes on. It seems the UPA-II is stuck in a rut. As if the battering by the united Opposition and hauling over the coals by civil...
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Things, not people by Prabhat Patnaik
The basic problem with the Approach Paper, as with its predecessor, is that its theoretical paradigm is wrong. WHAT used to be said of the Bourbon kings of France applies equally to the Indian Planning Commission: “They learn nothing and they forget nothing.” The Approach Paper to the Twelfth Five-Year Plan gives one a sense of déjà vu. It is hardly any different from the Approach Paper to the previous Plan...
More »Changing priorities by CP Chandrasekhar
In planning, pursuit of profit was not seen as being in the social interest in the post-Independence years, but now profit is the sole motive. FOR two decades now the Government of India has pursued a policy of accelerated liberalisation, dismantling controls, diluting regulations and making the state a facilitator of private investment. It is not that the presence of the state has diminished during this period, but that its role...
More »Neoliberal Plan by Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
The Planning Commission's Approach Paper to the Twelfth Plan sticks with the neoliberal agenda despite claims of inclusive growth. INCLUSIVE was one word that came up time and again in the early announcements of the Planning Commission on the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. “Faster, Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth” was the slogan coined for the Plan and there was the promise of widespread consultations as never before as part of the processes...
More »In Chhattisgarh, bureaucratic enthusiasm leaves lakhs without rations by Aman Sethi
“There is never enough rice to go around for the whole family,” says tribal woman Leela With a handful of grain and a head full of recipes, Leela cooks rice in a pot balanced on three stones in a room with a few bricks knocked out to let in sunlight in this village barely 150 km from Raipur, Chhattisgarh capital. When rice is scarce, she adds more water to make a broth,...
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