ET2008 ⁽¹²⁾

Giving a boost to trade liberalisation, rural road construction as well as targeted subsidies and better healthcare programmes are some of the measures even a populist budget can adopt to help the poor. Read full article There has been a remarkable sense of resignation on the part of the vast majority of those writing on the budget to be presented on Friday. The view is that this being the last full-term budget of the current UPA government, it will have to go for increased expenditures and tax cuts. But for those with true belief in reforms, this is an overly pessimistic scenario. There exist policy changes feasible even within the context of the populist stance of the government that can help the cause of the poor. Indeed, the finance minister has already announced one such measure outside the budget.

Read full article (adapted on Brookings) Abstract: Rural health care in India faces a crisis unmatched by any other sector of the economy. To mention just one dramatic fact, rural medical practitioners (RMPs), who provide 80% of outpatient care, have no formal qualifications for it. They sometimes lack even a high school diploma. In 2005, the central government launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) under which it proposed to increase public expenditure on health as a proportion of the GDP to 3% from 1%. But increased expenditure without appropriate policy reform is unlikely to suffice. Experience to-date inspires little confidence in the ability of the government to turn the expenditures into effective service. Rural India consists of approximately 638,000 villages inhabited by more than 740 million individuals. A network of government-owned and -operated sub-centres, primary health centres (PHCs) and community health centres (CHCs) is designed to deliver primary health care to rural folks.