Policy Wise

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Recently, after Brangelina gave up on adopting an Indian baby, Indian adoption laws have been the focus of a lot of attention. [...]

In recent weeks, we have written a lot on issues of governance and corruption. An article in India Knowledge@ Wharton raises an important question: Will reforms necessarily decrease corruption?
“The paradox,” Ramamurti said, “is that even though India’s faster growth in recent years is the result of fewer government controls, most Indian managers would tell you [...]

Voters Must Ask The Right Questions

In the first part, we had argued that the political establishment has little or no incentive to carry out reforms in the public delivery system. Why is that so?
In a democracy, elections offers the best opportunity for the common man to influence public policy. While the very nature of representative [...]

A Question of Incentives

The latest issue of Pragati: The Indian National Review looks at the some of the important challenges facing the Republic as it gets ready to celebrate its 60th birthday. The challenges are myriad: urban reforms, education, politics, public health e.t.c but the underlying theme is the same: poor governance. India’s inexorable [...]

Searching For A New Balance

Public health is concerned with the health of the community as a whole. Its key goal is to reduce a population’s exposure to disease. It has been said that: “Health care is vital to all of us some of the time, but public health is vital to all of us all [...]

Professor Ila Patnaik has a fine post on the public distribution system.
In 2003-04, 14.07 million tonnes of subsidized grain was issued to the 16 large states for delivery to BPL families. Only 5.93 million tonnes was delivered to BPL families. A whopping 8.14 million tonnes of subsidized foodgrain did not reach the poor. In states [...]

Two recent government decisions draw attention to the muddled thinking that has characterized health policy in India. One, the government has decided to open seven new ‘’AIIMS’’( All India Institute of Medical Sciences) in different parts of the country. Second, it has made one-year rural service mandatory for medical graduates as a pre-requisite [...]

The state owned oil companied subsidize the domestic gas cylinders while commercial users have to pay the full market price. Since the price differential is substantial, there is large scale diversion of gas cylinders meant for domestic use to the commercial sector. The government has now decided to install RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) [...]

In an article in The Economic and Political Weekly, noted demographer Ashish Bose argues that India’s demographic dividend can easily turn into a demographic bomb. By 2026, of the total estimated population increase of 381 million, share of workers in the 15-59 age group would be 83%. Professor Bose points out that providing employment [...]

Immigration has suddenly become a hot button topic in the U.S. political scenario and even Senators from northern and midwestern states vying for the Presidential position are trumpeting their views on strict immigration control. The Democrats have been largely silent or at least ambivalent about immigration control. While most of them believe that the issue [...]