Rationalise subsidies and explore their alternatives
In the interim pay the food and fertiliser beneficiaries through DBT. Doing away with subsidies and instead extending income support...
Subsidies for whom?
Despite several inadequacies, it appears that status quo will prevail for quite a while. An interesting revelation in the just...
Will Budget revive jobs, incomes at the bottom of the pyramid?
At under 15% of GDP, the Union Budget by itself, even after taking into account smaller state budgets, can tackle...
How to make the most of a resource constrained budget
Given the state of the economy and the limited room for further taxation, the government will do well to concentrate...
Nirmala Sitharaman has unenviable task at hand
Reckoning with the constraints in Union Budget 2021-22. In balancing the numerous contending demands for financial and other state support...
Vaccinating Bharat: The nuts and bolts of an effective rollout
The fortnight-long US experience rolling out the vaccine has already shown that global availability will be a critical issue to...
Vaccinating Bharat: A public health challenge of epic proportions
The first task at hand, and already underway, is identifying the vaccine most appropriate, available and affordable for India. ...
Nuances of becoming Atmanirbhar Bharat
There should be a concrete draft of intentions that invites informed comments. No one can argue against the proposition that...
Let’s assess the feasibility of an Atmanirbhar Bharat
If the emphasis is going to be on reverting back to the Nehruvian-Indira Gandhi era of high import duties and...
Creating a safety net is a prerequisite to labour flexibility
Greater labour flexibility also demands the strengthening of social security to workers; both in terms of its applicability and in...
The new labour codes: For whose benefit?
Most employers have broadly welcomed these codes, hoping that they would make production more competitive. Conversely, most workers, unions and...
Use new agri-laws to help double farmers’ incomes
At the end of the day, the Indian farmer must be enabled through regulatory and other policy support, to get...
Time to allay farmers’ fears on new agri-market laws
For decades now, most political parties had been vocal about ending the monopoly of APMCs in buying farmers’ produce. Now...
Revenues and responsibilities of states must move in tandem
The time has come for revisiting the entire gamut of issues concerning the Centre-State financial relationship. Several recent developments...
States must be given more responsibilities
Our Constitution is more unitary than federal. History was written on 26 January 1950 when India was declared a...
Making secondary school and higher education more autonomous
We need to remain cognizant that no countrywide silver bullet to our higher education problems exists given the great diversity...
Getting primary education right
With NEP20 suggesting five years of formalised foundational education for all the 73 mn children, plus 10 years of regular...
Pushing the pedal on universal health care in India
A rare silver lining of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is the attention it has forced to addressing the public health...
Universal health care: A chimera or a reality?
Perhaps most worrisome is India’s gross inability to spend more on health, the starting point for any change. Policymakers...
Policy changes and actions needed for employment-creation
While the role of private enterprise will be paramount, the State must act unhesitatingly as an active enabler for the...
Recognise employment as essential for development
We need to reframe ‘development’ away from aggregate measures of growth towards a sharper, more telling focus on the advancement...
Needed, surgical strike against Chinese economy
While the Chinese economy may be four and a half times India’s, it is still a developing nation, and similar...
Public policy must be more people-centric
The overarching design of policies must start with the bottom of the pyramid. New Delhi: For far too long,...
