Do it yourself

Telangana was the first State in India to implement a basic income scheme for all the 6 million farmers of the state, in 2018. Under the Rythu Bandhu Scheme, the state government offers to pay Rs10000/year to the farmers of the state, irrespective of the size of landholding. The amount is given by a bearer cheque through Village Panchayat. Commendably, before implementing the scheme, the State made all land titled good, by completely digitizing the land records and issuing new fully secured title deeds (Land Pass Books) to all the farmers. All land holdings records are transparent and could be digitally verified by anyone. Subsequently, the state governments of West Bengal and Odisha, implemented their versions of the Telangana scheme. But these schemes lacked the basic ecosystem of clean land records like Telangana, hence were seen prone to leakage and misuse. Sensing the evolving trend at the state level, the Union Government, implemented a nationwide scheme of guaranteed basic i...

 The latest macro data indicates that the Indian economy may be standing at an inflection point. It may have survived a major accident in the form of Covid19 pandemic; luckily scraping through with couple of broken bones and some bruises. The economy is recuperating well and is perhaps ready for discharge from the hospital. Of course, for next few quarters the economy may still need to use the crutches of government spending, before it could walk on its own. The amount of bill for the recovery from pandemic would mostly be known in next six months. We would also know how the cost of pandemic would be shared between various stakeholders, i.e., government, citizens and businesses. Post pandemic, the challenges before the government are multifold; and so are the opportunities. A successful resolution of these challenges could trigger a virtuous cycle of growth and catapult the economy to the higher orbit. A failure may not be an option, as it could cause a disaster of unfathomable...