-Hindustan Times Farm policymaking slowed down after the repeal of three laws in 2021. But the climate crisis, geopolitical instability and inflation have exacerbated the urgency for reforms In November 2021, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi repealed three contentious farm laws in a dramatic turnaround. The entire episode — from the passage of the laws, the protests that followed and the turnaround — had stalled national agriculture policymaking. Yet, as this column...
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The case of the powerful, powerless sarkari officer -Yamini Aiyar
-Deccan Herald My colleague and I were in a District Education Office in Bihar. It had all the typical trappings of power. The officer we were meeting arrived with a litany of staff carrying his papers (and lunch box). In the short walk to his chamber, he barked orders to his staff, and as he sat on his chair and removed his Ray-Ban glasses, he commanded waiting visitors (mostly local residents...
More »Reshaping the State-citizen relationship -Yamini Aiyar
-Hindustan Times A corrosive culture distances the State from the public and legitimises demands for public ‘discipline’ to achieve policy goals Caught on a now viral video, ordering police to “break the heads” of farmer protesters, Haryana bureaucrat Ayush Sinha achieved notoriety last week. The incident, coupled with the Haryana chief minister (CM)’s condemnation of the “choice of words” while insisting on “strictness” to maintain law and order, speaks volumes for how...
More »NREGA is crucial to rural India in 2021 -Avani Kapur, Harish Damodaran and Yamini Aiyar
-IDROnline.org While it claims to be a demand-based scheme with an elastic budget, NREGA’s failure to support the rural economy in 2021 indicates otherwise. A comparison of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) demand and supply of work between the first quarter of financial year (FY) 2020, when the national lockdown was in place and the first quarter of FY 2021 when the second wave was at its peak offers...
More »Countering the next wave of COVID-19 -Yamini Aiyar, Jishnu Das, Partha Mukhopadhya and Shamindra Nath Roy
-The Hindu It requires co-ordination across States and districts, based on real-time analysis of data As the focus shifts to a possible third wave, it is important for India to ask how it can marshal its resources better. Can we leverage the advantages of our size and federal character? Delhi’s experience is instructive. As the first wave abated, hospitalisation for COVID-19 patients plummeted. By January 2021, Delhi was using less than 20% of...
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