[First farm loan waivers in three states, backed up with the commitment for the whole country. Now, promise of basic income for the poor.
《The Congress, earlier accused of simply being opposed to Narendra Modi with no vision of its own, has now taken the lead in declaring its vision for how India’s welfare system would change if it came to power. Its 10-year period at the head of an alliance between 2004 and 2014 was also built on the back of an expanding welfare state, with schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Food Act. Now it is promising both a national farm loan waiver and a minimum income guarantee – which some have already dubbed “NEWREGA” – though the latter has yet to be properly explained.》] https://scroll.in/article/911201/newrega-what-we-know-so-far-about-rahul-gandhis-minimum-income-guarantee-promise?fbclid=IwAR3L-6456vlxJkygFBOrQ18lYchhKDhyvg6_yQ-e9qgcIjo5kgRC4h8deJU ‘NewREGA’? What we know so far about Rahul Gandhi’s Minimum Income Guarantee promise The Congress is already calling it a gamechanger, though details are yet to come. How will Narendra Modi respond? ‘NewREGA’? What we know so far about Rahul Gandhi’s Minimum Income Guarantee promise Ashok Gehlot, Rahul Gandhi and Sachin Pilot at the rally in Jaipur. | Congress/Twitter 8 hours ago Rohan Venkataramakrishnan Days ahead of what was expected to be an interim budget with some major pre-election announcements from the government, Congress President Rahul Gandhi struck first, saying on Monday that his party is “committed to a Minimum Income Guarantee for every poor person”. This, along with a promise of a national farm loan waiver, gives the Congress a clear welfarist image going into an election that will likely revolve around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic performance. The ball is now in the government’s court. We cannot build a new India while millions of our brothers & sisters suffer the scourge of poverty. If voted to power in 2019, the Congress is committed to a Minimum Income Guarantee for every poor person, to help eradicate poverty & hunger. This is our vision & our promise. — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 28, 2019 It is yet unclear exactly what the Congress has in mind. The party has said that its manifesto will include full details about exactly how this income guarantee scheme will work and how the government would be expected to pay for it. But here is what we know so far: This is not Universal Basic Income A popular approach in development circles over the last few years has been the idea of a Universal Basic Income, which would entail giving every citizen a periodic payment from the government regardless of how rich or poor they are. The idea was most notably put forward in former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian’s Economic Survey of 2016-’17. There were some suggestions at the time that the government would at least consider some version of it, but that did not happen. Read an explainer of Subramanian’s proposal here, and how Universal Basic Income would actually work. Instead, Gandhi has promised a Minimum Income Guarantee for the poor, which by definition means it will be some form of periodic payment but not “universal”. The principle of Universal Basic Income (UBI) has been discussed extensively in the last two years. The time has come to adapt the principle to our situation and our needs and implement the same for the poor. We will explain our plan in the Congress Manifesto. — P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) January 28, 2019 This means it will have to be targeted. One of the chief advantages of the Universal Basic Income is that the government does not have to go through the often arduous process of identifying who will be a beneficiary of the scheme. Instead, UBI is built on the idea that everyone is included, with the presumption that richer people might be convinced to exclude themselves. But a Minimum Income Guarantee for poor households would mean the Congress having to define who exactly is poor. That is a fraught question in India, as the debate over the poverty line during the Congress years proved. And once poverty is defined, the government will have to figure out how to identify households that fit into the category, and how to ensure that no one is excluded, an immensely complicated task. The socio economic census can help in identifying beneficiaries to be targeted. The Niti Aayog had also recommended its use for identifying beneficiaries to be targeted for various programmes/schemes of the Modi government. https://t.co/pgkTa4nfWP — Puja Mehra (@pujamehra) January 28, 2019 Will it replace subsidies or supplement them? This is the fundamental question when it comes to income guarantee schemes, or Universal Basic Income. There are two broad ways to pay for either of these schemes. The government could raise taxes, but economists believe that would simply lead to inflation – reducing the value of the actual income paid out to the beneficiaries. Or it could pay for the income by taking money out of its current subsidy budget, which would mean ending other targeted welfare schemes like the public distribution system for food. Many believe the latter approach is likely for India. Economists on the Right believe it would end leakage and inefficiencies in the welfare state as it currently exists, but that comes with many other pitfalls. If the government withdraws from delivering welfare services like food, healthcare or guaranteed employment, what will the income itself achieve? There are concerns that a poor country like India would not be able to give out much in the way of income, while also gutting its existing welfare systems to be able to pay for the scheme. An ideal version of an income scheme would be as a supplement to the existing welfare net, but the fiscal space for that may not exist. There have been some experiments at very local levels, where targeting may have been easier, but expanding this across the country is another matter. Some have suggested that simply universalising current benefits, like pensions and maternity entitlements would do the job without having to take an axe to the welfare state. We calculated that funds for this virtually minimum income guarantee scheme could be raised by removing corporate exemptions, removing some existing wasteful subsidies, imposing a wealth tax of 1-2% on the wealthy, and 20% inheritance tax and gift tax.Would create a welfare State — Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) January 29, 2019 How will the government respond The Congress, earlier accused of simply being opposed to Narendra Modi with no vision of its own, has now taken the lead in declaring its vision for how India’s welfare system would change if it came to power. Its 10-year period at the head of an alliance between 2004 and 2014 was also built on the back of an expanding welfare state, with schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Food Act. Now it is promising both a national farm loan waiver and a minimum income guarantee – which some have already dubbed “NEWREGA” – though the latter has yet to be properly explained. Starting Thursday, the government is unlikely to unveil its own vision for India’s future. On Thursday, the President will address Parliament, in a speech which is likely to cover all the Modi government believes it has achieved so far. Then on Friday, the interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal will deliver the Budget speech. Though convention suggests Budgets right before elections should not include major announcements, it may yet be an opportunity for the government to make grand promises about what it would do if it came back to power. The government did not announce a Universal Basic Income, despite Subramanian’s pitch for it two years ago. On Monday, in a piece jointly written with two other economists, Subramanian once again made the case for a Quasi Universal Basic Income scheme that would cover all rural households and would be financed by eliminating certain subsidies. Whether this will be picked up by the government remains to be seen. Modi also began 2019 making the argument that farm loan waivers are bad for credit culture. His government’s first big gambit was the 10% quota for the upper-caste poor, but more is expected to help shore up the rural economy. How its ideas will stand up against the Congress’ grand promises may help define the policy element of the upcoming election campaign. This is 'NEWREGA' Universal Basic Income is an idea whose time has come.#CongressForMinimumIncomeGuarantee will help us move from a government that focuses on Ambani to one that works for the poor. #VisionOfRG pic.twitter.com/FLoTXKLBHJ — Srivatsa (@srivatsayb) January 28, 2019 -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
