Three ostensibly disparate recent events have left me pondering about a lurking common thread among them: the Egypt uprising, PM’s appointment of a Cabinet-rank advisor for skills development and the fifth anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). What could be common among unrest in the Arab world, a seemingly inconspicuous government appointment and a fifth anniversary of a social welfare programme? The answer is youth,...

The Economic Survey tucks away a little, dirty secret of India’s political economy in a box on power sector reform. The losses of state electricity boards, says the Survey, are now about 1% of GDP, which would translate to about Rs 78,700 crore this year. The government stopped publishing a table on this vital parameter a couple of years ago but the problem has only continued to grow in shade...

For most schemes, the increases have been nominalThe Union Budget goes eloquent about the virtues of the flagship schemes of the UPA government but Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has kept a tight fist while allocating funds, whether for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) or those under the umbrella of Bharat Nirman.Though the finance minister referred to wages under the 100-day employment programme having being increased after being indexed...

Poor allocation of funds to key social sectors shows the government’s lacklustre approach to inclusive growth. We are reaching the end of a remarkable fiscal year,” said the finance minister as he rose to present the Union Budget 2011-12. Agreeing with the government that the year gone by presented us with several opportunities and challenges to address critical concerns pertaining to the social sector, the overall sense is that this Budget,...

An aggressive National Advisory Council (NAC), emboldened by the recent appointment of a “friendly” Food Minister, took a formal decision on Saturday to finally go ahead with framing a food security Bill based on its own recommendations, though they were disfavoured by the Rangarajan panel, set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. While the Sonia Gandhi-led NAC wants 75 per cent of the population, divided into the priority and general categories,...