Switzerland recently held a referendum on a Universal Basic Income (UBI) for all citizens. Voters rejected the proposal 77 per cent to 23 per cent because of its prohibitive cost and implicit reward for idleness. But the idea has caught […]
Universal Basic Income is neither desirable nor practical Read More »
For decades I have argued that the railway budget is a colonial aberration that should be abolished. Wonder of wonders, the government now agrees. Arun Jaitley’s next budget will incorporate all railway revenue and spending, so there will be no
End the rail budget, run railways on commercial lines Read More »
Kalikho Pul, who split the Congress party and manipulated a friendly governor to become chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh last February, committed suicide earlier this month. The Supreme Court had struck down the governor’s actions, ousting Pul. Finding the humiliation
Suicide’s no crime, and you can’t drive someone to it Read More »
Analysts have warned for years that India risks being isolated from global trade negotiations because its stalling tactics in the World Trade Organization (WTO) have caused Western powers to lose interest in that organisation. Instead, they have shifted to bilateral
India gets breathing space as regional mega-trade agreements stall Read More »
The Rajya Sabha has just amended the Maternity Benefits Act, mandating 26 weeks of paid leave for mothers against the existing 12 weeks. Many feminists will cheer. But as a feminist myself, I view this as highly flawed. Feminism should
State should foot bill for maternity, paternity leave Read More »
The Constitutional amendment to facilitate a goods and services tax has been called the greatest economic reform since 1991. Political scientists have hailed the new “co-operative financial federalism, and “one nation, one tax, one market”. Trucks in India average just
GST’s a great idea. But making it work is not going to be easy Read More »
The high price of dal is big news. Rahul Gandhi says arhar dal costs as much as Rs 180 a kg, more than even the cost of chicken, and sneers derisively that the BJP chant of ‘Har har Modi!’ should
The future of dal should be high-protein soya — with the right price Read More »
An anti-corruption agitation by NGOs in 2011 forced the government to enact a law setting up a lokpal. In an outrageous twist, the government now seeks to use that same Lokpal Act to harass NGOs in ways unprecedented in democracies.
Do not misuse Lokpal Act to harass NGOs Read More »
How well has Narendra Modi fared in two years? On the economic side, he has not been the radical reformer liberalisers hoped for. On the socio-political side, he has not been the communal ogre that many liberals feared. He has
PM Narendra Modi at mid-term is good enough for re-election in 2019 Read More »
In a forthcoming paper for the Cato Institute, I have summed up the 25 years of economic reform as an era of private sector success, government failure, and eroding institutions. In 1991, many analysts warned that opening up the economy
25 years on, the good, bad and ugly of reforms Read More »
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