In The Media ⁽⁴⁰⁰⁾

Now that reforms have returned to the policy agenda, we may ask which reforms should receive priority during the remaining tenure of the present govt.Read full article Now that reforms have returned to the policy agenda, we may ask which reforms should receive priority during the remaining one-and-a-half years of the present government. Simultaneously, we must expose policy proposals on the table that would take the nation backwards. The recent Vijay Kelkar Committee report offers an excellent roadmap for the reforms the government may tackle during its remaining term. Though the report is principally about fiscal consolidation, the effects of the measures it recommends will go well beyond cutting high fiscal deficits. This is as it should be since the ultimate goal behind fiscal consolidation is to foster efficiency and accelerate growth. As the report rightly argues, urgent efforts are required to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio. A government that defines itself as the champion of inclusion and, therefore, also redistribution in favour of the poor, can ill-afford the decline in tax revenues from 12% of the GDP in 2007-08 to 10% in…

Read full article Abstract: Perhaps the most powerful argument used by the proponents of the so-called Food Security Bill to further expand the highly inefficient, corrupt and leaky public distribution system (PDS) is adult hunger and malnutrition. Serious flaws exist, however, in both the diagnosis and prescription the proponents offer.Civil society groups and international organisations such as the World Health Organisation, Food and Agricultural Organisation and World Bank contend that one-fifth or more Indians suffer from hunger and many more from malnutrition. But this contention is principally based on the steadily declining trend in calorie consumption in India during the last two decades. The trend has been observed among all classes of consumers whether rich or poor, rural or urban.But when asked in the nationwide expenditure surveys whether they have had enough to eat throughout the year, the responses of Indians have shown exactly the opposite trend. Those replying in the negative to the question were 17.3% in 1983 but fell to 5.2% in 1993-94, 3.6% in 1999-2000 and just 2.5% in 2004-05.

Read full article Abstract: I recently wrote about why the accomplishments of chief minister Nitish Kumar - that at last bring hope to Bihar - could not be underestimated. Today, i turn to Gujarat, which has been generally more prosperous in the post-Independence era and has performed impressively under chief minister Narendra Modi.

Singh words to the Cabinet committee on economic affairs,"If we have to go down, let us go down fighting," are at last those of a leader and not a follower.Read full article For eight long years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has listened to, and done the bidding of, the Congress party organisation, the socialists within his party, the obstructionist coalition members of the UPA, the Left Parties and the NGOs. But enough is enough. Just as he had followed his own instincts in the solitary instance of the Lok Sabha vote on Indo-US nuclear deal in July 2008 and, defying Left allies and his own leadership, scored a decisive victory, Singh has drawn the battle lines in the interest of the nation and his own legacy. His words to the Cabinet committee on economic affairs,"If we have to go down, let us go down fighting," are at last those of a leader and not a follower. The reforms announced by Singh include a 14% hike in diesel prices; permitting 51% foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and 49% in local…

Read full article Abstract: Large increases in revenues, made possible by accelerated growth, have allowed the UPA government to rapidly expand redistribution programmes — distribution of subsidised foodgrain, free elementary education, rural health and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). But only a small fraction of the benefits of these programmes actually reaches the intended beneficiaries. Leakages along various elaborate government distribution chains are endemic. In sharp contrast to China, the government in India is hopelessly ineffective and inefficient at the delivery of social benefits.