In 1947, India got political independence under Congress which also pledged economic independence for all its citizens within shortest possible time frame. Out of 67 years since then, this grand old party ruled India for 54 years on its own and for another 6 years running a minority government with support from other parties [National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by BJP under Vajpayee was at the helm in the remaining 7 years]. Forget economic independence, currently majority of citizens are living under economic subjugation. They are not able to generate adequate income to make both ends meet even as their condition in regard to access to housing, water, electricity, sanitation, education and health continues to be pathetic. This is primarily...
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Category: Welfare schemes
Direct benefit transfer – Time to move beyond LPG
Putting cash in the bank account of a beneficiary or direct benefit transfer (DBT) is a revolutionary idea that has the potential for radically transforming the way government’s welfare schemes including subsidies are administered. DBT is globally recognized for (i) openness and transparency in administration; (ii) substantially enhanced targeting and speedy reach; (iii) elimination of leakages and (iv) avoidance of market distortions and resultant benefits of competition where subsidies on food, fertilizers, LPG and kerosene etc are involved. India latched on to this idea only a couple of years back when the erstwhile UPA – government announced its adoption in January 2013 for some 29 schemes. The move was half-hearted as it kept out food and fertilizers [these account for...
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Who is pro-corporate and anti-poor?
In a rare intervention during discussion in Indian parliament (Lok Sabha/lower house) on “Agrarian crisis in India” on April 20, 2015, Rahul Gandhi, scion of Gandhi family and Vice-President, Congress (likely to be anointed as President soon) taunted Modi – dispensation as “Suit-boot ki Sarkar”. Addressing a Kisan (farmer) rally on the previous day i.e. April 19, 2015, he had hurled another diatribe viz., “Modi took thousands of crores from industrialists/businessmen for funding his election campaign during 2013/2014 and will now be snatching away land from farmers to repay that debt”. When seen in conjunction, the two statements tantamount to a very serious insinuation that government led by him works only to promote interests of industrialists/businessmen and shows no concern...
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Modi’s dream budget – 2015/16
Borrowing from cricket terminology, media is agog with description of Modi – government first full-fledged budget 2015-16 as a ‘super-budget’. There could not be a more apt description. Finance minister Jaitely has delivered wholeheartedly on the hopes and aspiration of 1.25 billion people of India who only 9 months ago had given Team Modi a resounding mandate to govern and extricate them from the deep economic morass they were plunged in to, courtesy a decade of mis-management and policy paralysis. People gave command to Team Modi on five major planks viz., (i) inclusive development; (ii) building infrastructure; (iii) social safety net (iv) poverty alleviation and (v) countenancing the menace of corruption. On all these counts, the team has delivered without...
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Land acquisition ordinance is pro-farmer
The entire opposition is up in arms against the Land Acquisition ordinance promulgated by Modi – government in December, 2014 which the latter is now seeking to replace by a legislative enactment. The opposition is lambasting Modi for making amendments to the Act passed by the erstwhile UPA dispensation in 2013 which they allege, are pro-industry/business and anti-farmer. The allegations are without any valid basis. These are political statements aimed primarily at embarrassing a government which is committed to inclusive development. Modi’s agenda aims at increasing employment and income to improve lot of poor including farmers. The amendments to 2013 Act are guided by this over-arching objective. Yet, why does opposition think otherwise? The 2013 Act required prior consent of 70%...
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Modi’s juggernaut is unstoppable
Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has registered a thunderous victory in the just concluded Delhi assembly elections. AAP has won a monumental 67 out of a total of 70 seats that translates to a scorecard of 96%, a feat rarely seen in elections the world over. While, Congress has been decimated securing a big zero, BJP is reduced to a trifle 3, down from 31 it won in December, 2013. Critics have interpreted this to be a referendum on Modi and even surmised that this will stop his juggernaut. Such interpretation is figment of one’s imagination. It reflects a mindset of his opponents who suffered ignominy of defeat in general elections last year and were desperately looking for a...
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Lift the veil on subsidies
In his maiden budget for 2014-15 presented on July 10, 2014, finance minister, Arun Jaitely had announced setting up of an expenditure management commission (EMC) to recommend a road- map up for rationalizing and phasing out major subsidies. As a follow up, on September 4, the government constituted the EMC under chairmanship of Dr Bimal Jalan. The commission’s mandate puts under scanner government’s spending on all its programmes and schemes, procurement from defence to office items besides the methodology for counting receipts and expenditure. It is expected to recommend measures for utilization of allocated funds in the most cost effective manner. While addressing the just concluded ET Global Business Summit, Jaitely informed that the recommendations of the commission made in...
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Unclogging land acquisition – Modi way
The erstwhile UPA regime had piloted much trumpeted amendment to Land Acquisition Act – Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (RFCTLARRA) which came in to vogue from January 1, 2014. Bandied as a revolutionary reform, the Act promised handsome reward to landowners/farmers and speed up the process of acquiring land for building infrastructure and spurring development. However, on a close scrutiny of its provisions, one notices that the outcome would have been just the opposite. A key provision stipulates that the landowner will be compensated @ of 4 times prevailing market price in rural areas and 2 times prevailing market price in urban areas. This sounds attractive and seeks to put an end...
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Fiscal deficit target (2014-15) – within reach
While presenting his maiden budget (on July 10, 2014) for 2014-15, finance minister, Arun Jaitely had accepted a daunting challenge of achieving fiscal deficit (excess of central government’s expenditure over receipts) of 4.1% GDP – a number set by his predecessor P Chidambaram in the interim budget. Fiscal deficit at 4.1% of GDP translates to Rs 531,000 crores. During April – October, 2014 or just 7 months of current year, about 90% of this or Rs 478,000 crores has been exhausted. This has led many experts to doubt the capability of present government to stick to the target for the whole year. The doubt is reinforced when one looks at increase in tax revenue which was only around 5% during...
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LET’S HAVE THAT RATE CUT, PLEASE
The Modi Government’s focus is on creating assets. With this, fiscal deficit will be under control and there will be no risk of banks’ money landing in pockets which could destabilise the economy and aggravate inflatio For the sixth time in succession, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has refused to budge. In its monetary policy stance released early this month, the RBI has retained the repo rate (rate at which banks borrow from RBI) at eight per cent. This is despite a retail inflation during November at 4.3 per cent (wholesale inflation has plunged to ‘zero’) already hovering at just half the eight per cent benchmark set by the RBI for January, 2015, below which, a cut in...
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