-Hindustan Times The issue of recovering the full extent of the value of our natural resources from parties to whom they are being assigned has reverberated throughout the economy ever since the Supreme Court delivered its judgements in the 2G scam (dealing with the State's earnings from selling spectrum) and on coal block allocations. In both instances, past practice and legal provisions had unwittingly handed these resources to parties at a pittance. Under...
More »SEARCH RESULT
From prosperity to penury -Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
-Frontline NAIB SINGH hanged himself a fortnight ago in the land he had been tilling for five years at Bareh village in Mansa district of Punjab. He had hoped for a successful rabi wheat crop, but unseasonal rains reduced him to further penury. The 25-year-old left behind a debt burden of Rs.10 lakh for his family. His mother, Mahinder Kaur, does not know whether to mourn her son's death or lament...
More »Seven years ago, everyone saw Delhi’s air take a deadly U-turn but no one did a thing -Pritha Chatterjee & Aniruddha Ghosal
-The Indian Express The way the graph moves tells the story of a public health disaster that has been allowed to happen: over the last 15 years, the fall and rise of the lethal, fine dust that clogs your lungs every day in the nation's capital. After the historic Supreme Court judgement in 1998 forced all public transport vehicles, an estimated 100,000, to switch to cleaner Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), the levels...
More »Unique identity dilemma -Jean Dreze
-The Indian Express It is easy to see why the Unique Identity (UID) project, also known as Aadhaar, has caught the imagination of many administrators, economists and policymakers. Identity verification is a routine problem in India and Aadhaar sounds like a foolproof solution. The idea is really smart and the technology is cutting-edge. After the initial hurdle of universal enrolment, numerous applications are possible: monitoring the attendance of government employees, linking...
More »So Richie Rich? Have Another One On Us -P Sainath
-Outlook Corporate karza maafi reaches new heights, social spending new lows This year's budget write-off in customs duty on gold, diamonds and jewellery (all aam aadmi items, of course) is Rs 75,592 crore. That's well over twice the "record" amount allocated to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. As Prof Jayati Ghosh points out, the MNREGA has given billions of person-days of work to tens of millions of poor...
More »