An Open Letter to the Chief Economic Advisor of India (original) (raw)

Lords of the Files: Battling Babudom

India Today, 2018

'Lords of the Files', which looks at how a bloated and corrupt administrative culture borrowed from the British Colonial Raj era is choking the Indian administration today. The Indian bureaucracy is an anachronism. A bullock cart of statism in an age where even automobiles are poised to go driverless. In fact, a time-travelling civil servant from the British Raj a century ago would feel at home in a government office near the end of the second decade of 21st century India - armies of peons, musty offices and the slow, enervating pace of decision-making where the march of a nation's progress is measured one file at a time. Failure to transform the Indian civil service from a colonial rent-seeking institution of the British Raj era into one focused on economic development, poverty alleviation and social transformation is the biggest hurdle on India's road to progress.

Impact of Social Schemes on the Empowerment of Aam Aadmi - A Study on MGNREGS and Food Security Bill

Aam aadmi has achieved tremendous transformation from the stage of isolation to the stage of decision maker in the era of globalisation. Increasing political concerns, neglecting the confidence on Aam aadmi has resulted in huge loss to the dictators. In view of the importance of Aam aadmi, a great change has occurred in terms of concern for Aam aadmi in the present era. Increasing initiations of social schemes including Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and National Food Security Bill, 2013 are some of the best examples which show that the government is highly concerned for the development and as well as empowerment. In view of the emergence of two of the most popular schemes by the government, the present paper will critically examine the need for social schemes for Aam aadmi. Further, the paper also contributes the benefits of the schemes. Further, the challenges ahead for the successful implementation of the scheme have also been presented in the paper. The present paper is mainly based on the secondary data. The data pertaining to the opinions of the common people especially in rural India have also been considered. The paper provides the valuable observations on examining the impact of social schemes for the upliftment of Aam aadmi.

Plight of the Indian Farmers and way ahead for their resurrection

Agricultural activity in India for small and marginal farmers currently is unsustainable. This phenomenon stems from: 1. Fragmented lands that cannot absorb technology nor mechanisation 2. Suffer from perpetual indebtedness that incapacitates input provisions 3. Difficult to source labor; if sourced, tough to get productivity 4. Poor storage to keep produce safe from parasites and price variations 5. Strings of middlemen who deny the worth of farmer's meager produce 6. Bureaucratic ineptitude, to tackle their problems, to mention a few Central and State Governments provide help and assistance to these farmers through consistent budgetary allocations every year besides providing ad-hoc reliefs when either floods or droughts strike. However, the relief is slothful and corrupt. This is one big reason for the abysmal state of these classes of farmers. Ironically, some Government staff becomes rich at the cost of poor. This is pathetic. It is time that the Government turned their focus differently on agriculture. Instead of the dole, the government would do well to move on to provide enduring infrastructure in the form of building roads, connecting rivers, building reservoirs at appropriate places, build canals, from these canals create an intelligent network of rivulets to ensure irrigation for all lands. In addition, provide adequate and quality power supply and provide power connection without harassing farmers. Further, simplify and hasten the process of land registration / transfer, bring the digital technology of the Internet browsing and the like. The money spent on these measures will benefit the farming communities a great deal more than any other help or assistance. These efforts will build capital assets and avoid revenue expenditure (loss) through dole. With these measures, the farm sector will begin to look up. Small farmer will contribute to GDP growth like never before. Done in right earnest, the need for subsidy will peter out. The other worrisome factors that encumber farmers are unpredictable weather, depleting water resources (60% of the cultivable land, is still under rain fed farming), adulterated seeds, inefficient power supply, lack of availability of the farm labor and hounding farm debts. All these collapse the farmer. With disillusionment, the farmer takes to extreme steps and even commits suicide. The youngsters desert their older ones in the villages to migrate to larger towns, ostensibly to seek employment. With poor education and lack of skills, they are unable to get suitable jobs and end up to fall a prey to tumultuous activities. Farmers with bigger lands also suffer from similar predicament. A plethora of local NGOs, many with foreign origins have been in agri-space. All of them are engaged in advising farmers on how to do farming, how to make use of modern technology, how to improve farming methods and how to develop managerial abilities to run their vocation better. These advices do not help these classes of farmers. These advocators forget that farmer's deep impoverishments, added with their lack of resources, education, competencies and comprehensiveness do not enable farmers to adapt to these measures, however right these may be. In fact many narrative exist about fund misappropriation by the NGOs barring a very few. Thus, piles of such measures have failed to alleviate the miseries