-ThePrint.in French economist defends Congress' minimum income guarantee scheme, says India's poor have been 'badly treated by the country's elite'. New Delhi: French economist Thomas Piketty has defended the Congress party’s poll promise of minimum income guarantee (MIG), saying that India’s poor have been “badly treated by the country’s elite”. “It is high time to move from the politics of caste conflict to the politics of income and wealth distribution,” Piketty said in...

-Newsclick.in Income support should not lead to the State washing its hands of the poor after handing them a certain sum of money whose real value too would dwindle over time. With Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s announcement recently at Raipur that his party had taken a “historic decision” to introduce an income guarantee scheme for the poor, and with the general anticipation that the Narendra Modi government’s last budget will also announce...

-Livemint.com If you want to give a cash benefit, do it without distinguishing between farmers and non-farmers A toothless NITI Aayog is trying to flex its muscles on India’s statistical system. And in doing so, it is destroying its credibility NEW DELHI: The income support scheme announced in the interim budget for small and marginal farmers is both regressive and inefficient, because it neither includes the poorest landless farmers, nor does it...

-ThePrint.in Rahul Gandhi’s announcement is certainly good politics, but does it make for good economics? Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s announcement on a minimum income guarantee for the poor, coming days before the Narendra Modi administration unveils its own income support plans in the interim budget, certainly makes for good politics. But does it make for good economics? With the stress on farmer incomes and rural wages reaching crisis proportions, efforts to loosen the...

-The Indian Express The Budget has promised an assured income to farmers, Rahul Gandhi a minimum income guarantee, and Sikkim a universal basic income by 2022. Back in 2016-2017, the Economic Survey said UBI was an idea whose time was ripe for discussion. As that talk picks up in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, The Indian Express parses the debate, starting from India’s only two pilot projects FINANCE Minister...