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General Interest Archive
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What is NREGA-2?
Posted on September 11, 2009 | No CommentsThe Minister for Rural Development, Mr C P Joshi has announced that he will revamp NREGA with some major changes, and the new scheme of things has been informally labelled “NREGA-2”. News reports have indicated that the new scheme will be unveiled on the birthday of Rajiv Gandhi. As of now the Ministry has not made available for public discussion the set of changes that will be made, but some ideas have been making their way to the media periodically. This article synthesizes these ideas, and provides links to articles debating the so-called NREGA-2. -
Zotero: The best citation tool around, and it’s free
Posted on September 7, 2009 | 1 CommentZotero is a free-software to manage bibliographies and citations with advanced functions and an easy interface As a doctoral student a lot of my time goes into managing my references. Thankfully there are many tools around to help me manage my references and to speed up the process of inserting citations while I write my papers. After a lot of trial and error I settled on Refworks that I was really happy with. Unfortunately it is a paid software with a stiff fee that I may not be able to afford once I leave the university. Thankfully, a friend told... -
Salsa in Madras: Social dance in a conservative city
Posted on September 3, 2009 | No CommentsMadras is one of those conservative cities that likes to keep its boys and girls at a safe distance. To take an example, parents clamour to get their children enrolled in colleges that are rather strict about this, and colleges have responded to this with enthusiasm. One famous college made a rule that girls will sit at the front of the college bus and boys behind and there will be a firewall of teachers in between. To counter this attraction other colleges have come up with separate roads and staircases inside the campus for boys and girls. In this context... -
Who cares about quality in NREGA?
Posted on August 30, 2009 | No CommentsNREGA has been relatively successful in many states in creating a large volume of employment, but critics have pointed out that the quality of projects is often poor. I agree with this assessment and argue that employment tends to be provided since there is a pressure for creating work and paying wages on a timely basis. But there is little pressure for quality from any source, be it administration, social movements or people at large. Unless we get some pressure group for ensuring quality, it is likely that quality of work in NREGA will continue to be poor in the years to come. -
Thinking of NREGA from the beautiful Adirondacks
Posted on August 30, 2009 | No CommentsMost great parks of the US were created by NREGA-like public works programmes. Here are some dreams for NREGA in India. -
Jaswant’s Obama-like interview on his Jinnah biography in CNN-IBN
Posted on August 17, 2009 | No CommentsIn an Obama-like interview Jaswant Singh deals with a complex and polarizing topic like India-Pakistan partition with sensitivity and statesmanship that is rarely seen in Indian politics. -
NREGA for the disabled
Posted on August 15, 2009 | No CommentsNREGA presents an unprecedented opportunity for disabled persons across India to earn a living and to showcase their talents. But as things stand, NREGA is not designed for disabled people to participate in it, but we can change it all with some tweaking. -
Will trained workers in Panchayats improve the quality of NREGA?
Posted on August 15, 2009 | 3 CommentsMihir Shah argued in a recent article that trained workers should be appointed in each Panchayat if NREGA has to fulfill its promises. While Panchayats need personnel to implement NREGA, I argue that for the purpose of planning it would be better to create nodal agencies that take up planning sound works in a campaign mode. -
Politics, technology & accountability II
Posted on July 27, 2009 | No Comments“To be ruled is to be kept an eye on, inspected, spied on, regulated, indoctrinated, sermonized, listed and checked off, estimated, appraised, censured, ordered about…to be ruled is at every operation, transaction, movement, to be noted, registered, counted, priced, admonished, prevented, reformed, redressed, corrected”. Proudhon quoted by James Scott in Seeing like a state. The power of information is often used by those in powerful positions to control others. The right to information movement inverts this principle and turns the gaze on those in positions of power by making their actions visible and thus amenable to democratic control. Sharing information... -
Usability: Giving information is not enough
Posted on July 16, 2009 | No CommentsData, data everywhere, not a bit to use: Why the Budget website is informative but nearly useless, and how to make it usable The Government of India (GoI) has an informative website with all budget speeches and the complete set of budget proposals. Consider these simple questions: 1. Which department got the highest outlay? 2. What has happened to expenditure on child-related schemes over the last 10 years? 3. Which states are getting money for laying roads? 4. Which states have not used allotted money for primary education? 5. Do reserved constituencies get less allocation? These are reasonable questions people...
