The Congress Party is about to launch what it hopes is an election winner — an electronic cash transfer scheme (CTS) to send government payments and subsidies directly into the accounts of beneficiaries, instead of through existing channels bedeviled by […]
Real and imaginary problems of electronic cash transfers Read More »
The Gujarat election will revive charges that Narendra Modi killed a thousand Muslims in the 2002 Gujarat riots, with the BJP accusing Rajiv Gandhi of killing 3000 Sikhs in the 1984 Delhi riots. To get a sense of perspective, i
Declassify report on the 1948 Hyderabad massacre Read More »
Chief minister Nitish Kumar keeps demanding that New Delhi should make Bihar a special category state. But New Delhi points out that special category status-which entitles a state to get 90% of central assistance as grants instead of loans-is meant
A sandy solution for Nitish\’s revenue coffers Read More »
Chief minister Nitish Kumar keeps demanding that New Delhi should make Bihar a special category state. But New Delhi points out that special category status-which entitles a state to get 90% of central assistance as grants instead of loans-is meant
A sandy solution for Nitish\’s revenue coffers Read More »
Spending vast sums on elections is not an Indian speciality. The US just spent $7 billion in the latest election cycle, up from $5 billion in 2008, equally divided between the presidential and Congressional elections. Yet the outcome suggests that
Lesson from US: money does not buy elections Read More »
Most educated people say climate change threatens disaster. The few sceptics are denounced as climate deniers. All governments are firm believers. This consensus was underlined last week when Cyclone Nilam hit India and Hurricane Sandy hit the US. Greens, journalists and politicians declared this was proof
Adapting to climate change is less costly than spending trillions on emission targets Read More »
The UPA government\’s theme song for eight years has been that we have achieved record GDP growth but not been inclusive enough-poor people and backward states have not benefited enough. The very opposite is now evident. Backward states are advancing
Backward states surge even as India slows down Read More »
An expert panel appointed by the Supreme Court has suggested a 10-year moratorium on field trials for genetically modified (GM) crops, ending prospects of their cultivation in the foreseeable future. Chengal Reddy, secretary general of the Consortium of Indian Farmers’
GM foods considered safe in US, but not in India Read More »
Forget the notion that the government has recently produced an avalanche of reforms. The word \’reform\’ is being misused to cover everything from irrelevant fiddling to minor changes, to selling the family silver (in the shape of spectrum or minority
Ignoring small businesses and public service delivery a big mistake for government Read More »
The government\’s new Companies Bill will reportedly ask large companies to spend 2% of their net profit on CSR (corporate social responsibility). The theory is that corporates must aim for social goals, not just profits. It\’s unclear whether the 2%
CSR: a cloak for crooks Read More »
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