Centrally Sponsored Schemes and India’s Shifting Federal Balance
The State governments across India are increasingly facing backlash when it comes to welfare provisioning, with the most criticism centered on finances and fiscal stress on individual States. While concerns about shrinking fiscal space are often raised, these are not unusual. In fact, this is how States are meant to function. In our fiscal federalism, […]
The Economic Survey 2020-2021: Growth Does Not Necessarily Work for the Poor
Dedicated to the Covid Warriors, the 561-page-long Economic Survey of India for the year 2020-21 was placed before the Parliament of India on January 29, 2021. The survey, being an analysis on the macroeconomic status of the economy, estimated the Covid-induced economic contraction at 7.7 percent of the GDP during FY 2020-21, with the GDP […]
Indian women work much harder than men – is anyone listening?
All women work. Even those who are not considered ‘working,’ work, and work hard. That is because they are the ones who are usually responsible for all care work in the family. This is true for the entire world but truer for India and other South Asian countries. According to a global report published by […]
Supreme Court Ruling on Aadhaar and Right to Education Admissions in Karnataka
On 26th September 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the use of Aadhaar for availing any government benefit or subsidy but made the use of Aadhaar non-mandatory for the purpose of education for those in the age group of 6-14 years. Prior to this ruling, a number of government departments had made Aadhaar mandatory for availing […]
‘Casteless hostels’: limits and possibilities
Spaces of formal education, whether they are schools, colleges or universities, are never about classroom learning alone. While the political activism of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, and University of Hyderabad (to some extent) may have caught the attention of national media over the last few years, it is important to recognise that in different […]
Precarity in Education: Insights from a study on the vocationalization of secondary education in India
Vocationalization of education in India was introduced fairly early in 1988 to offer vocational courses for two years alongside other subjects in higher secondary education. The programme was revised to the VHSE (Vocationalization of Higher Secondary Education) in 2011 with a view to cater to India’s economic growth and a growing demand for labour in […]
Development as Hegemony
Recently I attended a workshop on Indian Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) participation in developmental activities abroad. The meet was to discuss the implications of and the way forward for Indian civil society’s participation in regional and pan-regional development and cooperation activities. A number of reputed organisations who have had a long history in the development […]
Bengaluru Rural District or Bangalore Feeder District?
Bengaluru Rural district is an administrative unit but lacks an identity; it is a district only in name. Bangalore district was bifurcated into two districts, Bangalore Urban and Bangalore Rural in 1986. It was further bifurcated in 2007 after Ramanagar district consisting of 4 taluks was carved out, leaving Bangalore Rural with only four taluks: […]
It is Quite Simple, Really
Everyone agrees that there is a lot of black money in the country. Some say it is 50% of Gross Domestic Product. Black money is generated when a transaction is either illegal, or is hidden from tax authorities. The easiest way of doing this is through cash transactions. Hence the popular notion of ‘suitcases’ of […]
It Takes Two to Tango
Governance is often seen as what the government does, which is only partly true. Although governance has been variously defined, most of them recognize that governance has two aspects – one, it is exercise of power and authority and two, it is about the government’s ability and capacity to effectively fulfill its mandate (for a […]
If it is broke, fix it!
They say ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, meaning leave alone anything that is working fine. But if something is broken, it would be unwise not to fix it. Unlike in the west, we do not have a throw-away culture; from Apple Macs and Blackberrys to mixer grinders and umbrellas, everything is repaired. But, […]
Comprehensive Government Finance Architecture – the Australian Example
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” ~ Abraham Lincoln The Financial Rules, the Treasury Rules/Code, the Accounting Codes and the Civil Services Rules broadly provide internal controls in the Government of India and the state governments. These rules and codes comprise basic […]
Conflict of Interest – The Bottom Line
The Asian Development Bank defines corruption quite concisely as ‘abuse of public office for personal gain’. Conflict between personal interest and the public interest is implicit in all incidents of corruption. Any corrupt act invariably compromises the larger public interest. Whether it is the frauds in Commonwealth Games, the allocation of 2G, denotification of government […]
The Cost effectiveness of Radio Programs in Primary Schools of Karnataka
Centre for Budget and Policy Studies recently undertook a study called Cost effectiveness of the Radio Programs in the state of Karnataka. This blog has been written from experiences the author had while conducting the impact evaluations of the Radio programs in 20 schools of Karnataka. Radio Programs (Interactive Radio Instructions) have been the chosen […]
The Incentive Mechanisms of the Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojana (RSBY) – Are They Geared for Service Delivery? The Case of Karnataka
This article was written after the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies completed a household survey in the district of Shimoga in Karnataka in November 2010. The team had been interacting with various stakeholders – the department of labour, the insurance company, the district officers, hospital administrators and the beneficiaries of the scheme over the […]
The Elephant in the Insurance Controversy Room
I have been witness to many instances where hospitals overcharge as soon as they know you hold an insurance policy. A friend of mine was charged around Rs 250/- for a simple Out Patient Discharge because she happened to mention she had insurance. If she hadn’t, it could not have cost more than Rs 100/- […]
Ensuring Women’s Representation in Parliament and State Legislatures
The proposal to reserve one-third of the seats in Parliament and the state assemblies for women has passed in the Rajya Sabha, but has stalled in the Lok Sabha. The opponents of the Bill want ‘quotas within quotas’. But this is a polite way of opposing the Bill. The men are worried about having a […]