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People without a crisis
Posted on April 8, 2013 |Some people are in a crisis and others are enjoying prosperity...who should the government help? A serious policy debate. -
Poverty as a choice: Response to a friend
Posted on August 9, 2012 |This is a response to a long and rambling comment by a dear friend. Dear Venki: thank you for being an avid reader, even if it is against your best instincts J I can always take some words of encouragement from a “senior” of my high-school days. Your words were encouraging and I am keen to accept the personal remarks. That said, I will have to respond to your worldly wise(?) comment about poverty being purely a choice. That is a little too tempting, considering that much of our relationship is built on arguments. Let’s get an argument out of the way. If you... -
The politics of PDS “reforms”
Posted on May 9, 2012 |This is a part of a series of articles on the proposal to shift from PDS to coupons or cash transfers. To see the introduction, click here . Some scholars have pointed out that the motivation to dissolve the PDS comes from the ideological belief that the government should not be engaged in providing public services, and of course the material appeal this has for the rich. The quest for PDS reform started in the context of India’s liberalization and globalization. Pushed by multilateral agencies, the PDS was converted into a targeted system in 1997. The motivation of these reforms was not... -
Poverty-line debate: Time for Montek to criticize Montek
Posted on March 23, 2012 |India’s Planning Commission fixed the poverty-line at Rs. 29 per person per day (around ½ USD at today’s rate) attracting severe criticism that the amount is unreasonably low. The Commission’s Vice Chairperson, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, mounted a spirited defence of the poverty-line in CNN-IBN recently. He argued that the poverty line is used only to measure the trends in poverty over time, and it does not indicate the level of poverty, and so the level of poverty-line does not really matter. In other words, this number is only a benchmark based on which we can find out whether the number of people... -
Classrooms without walls
Posted on December 9, 2011 |After watching a news report on the appalling number of schools in India without even a building to house it in, I saw an advertisement mentioning “My classroom has no walls, I have no ceiling”. I would have thought that it were a fundraising advertisement to build schools, but for the white smiling face in the ad. It turns out in this strange world that classrooms without walls can also be sold as an opportunity. -
The PDS does not work, let’s shift to coupons or cash transfers
Posted on May 9, 2011 |This is a part of a series of articles on the proposal to shift from PDS to coupons or cash transfers. To see the introduction, click here . In evaluating alternatives including cash transfers, it is first important to identify both contributions and failures of the system. Proponents of reforms today have focused exclusively on the problems, without dwelling on the things that it has done. There is a reason why the PDS is so popular in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra and increasingly in other states including Chhattisgarh. In all these cases the PDS has worked and means a lot to the... -
PDS does not reach the right people, let’s shift to cash transfers or coupons
Posted on May 9, 2011 |This is a part of a series of articles on the proposal to shift from PDS to coupons or cash transfers. To see the introduction, click here . Many have argued that half the PDS entitlements reach the “non poor”. I believe that resources are scarce, and the government should spend the money on people who need it most. We should thus be concerned if resources are being spent on those who do not need it. In considering whether resources reach the right people, we should remember that we have a rather poor system of identifying the poor. The poverty-line based on... -
Shifting from PDS to coupons or cash transfers: Assorted arguments
Posted on May 9, 2011 |This is a part of a series of articles on the proposal to shift from PDS to coupons or cash transfers. To see the introduction, click here . Please read other articles in this topic before getting here… The cost of administering the PDS is high Some economists have pointed out that the cost of administering the PDS is very high, and it is now possible to transfer cash to people at a cheaper rate. This is one of the strongest arguments for a shift from PDS to cash transfers, in my opinion. The amount of money that could be transferred just... -
Corruption in the PDS & will coupons or cash transfer work better?
Posted on May 9, 2011 |This is a part of a series of articles on the proposal to shift from PDS to coupons or cash transfers. To see the introduction, click here . The level of corruption in the public distribution system has been one of the rallying points in the cry for change. The following are some of the corruption related arguments for change: There is large scale corruption in the system It is undeniable that there is a lot of corruption in the PDS, and something needs to be done about it. In arguing that we should shift from PDS to coupons or cash transfers,... -
Shifting from PDS to coupons or cash transfers: FAQs
Posted on May 8, 2011 |The Public Distribution System (PDS) in India has come under a vigorous attack in the recent months. There have been calls to dismantle the system and to replace with alternatives such as providing coupons or cash transfers. Without any doubt the PDS has serious problems, and performs abysmally in some parts of India. Unfortunately, these are also among the poorest regions where the need for protection from hunger is the greatest. Considering that the PDS is supposed to contribute to something as fundamental as food security, such poor functioning must be addressed. In the recent past there have been discussions...
