Sunday, November 30, 2014

No proof required : PDS or NREGA

No proof required: PDS or NREGA, corruption must go on

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The PDS facts are as follows: 50 per cent of the food disappears, and the poor receive only 24 per cent of the food that reaches the ration shop. (Source: Reuters) The PDS facts are as follows: 50 per cent of the food disappears, and the poor receive only 24 per cent of the food that reaches the ration shop. (Source: Reuters)
Written by Surjit S Bhalla | Posted: November 1, 2014 12:15 am | Updated: November 1, 2014 12:18 am.
There are several reasons why the case for retaining the NREGA employment system, as argued by 28 of India’s leading economists, should be dismissed.

First, India’s leading economists are likely to be just plain wrong, and naïvely so, in their assessment of the worth of the NREGA. While this job provision programme has been christened the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, I feel it is important to not besmirch the Mahatma’s memory with such a corrupt programme.

Evidence suggests that India’s leading economists have generally been on the wrong side of economics and economic history. When the developing world, especially in East Asia, began changing course in the early 1960s, many of India’s “leading” economists stayed behind — and behind enough to cheer political moves like the Emergency and economic views like bank nationalisation etc. No prizes for guessing that the dominant view of India’s “leading economists” (hereafter ILE) back in the 1960s was in favour of heavy state involvement in the affairs of the economy.

Though much has changed in the world and in India, the ILE view has remained broadly the same — with minor adjustments. The ILEs are not so brazenly left that they support import controls or industrial licensing — but they are left enough to support “dole economics”, or massive government intervention in the name of the poor (though not necessarily for the poor). For them, it is enough to stop all debate with the simple comeback line — yes, corruption is high, yes, there are problems of delivery, but at least some money reaches the poor. In their letter, the ILE state: “Recent research also shows that corruption levels have steadily declined over time… While corruption remains a concern, experience shows that it can be curbed…” I guess corruption, like beauty, is in the ideology of the beholder, or the economist.

It has been documented by several researchers (also see my article, ‘1960s thinking on poverty, only in India’, IE, July 18) that the public distribution system (PDS) of foodgrains is one of the most corrupt public delivery systems in India and perhaps the world. The extent of PDS corruption has been openly acknowledged by every government in power, including the UPA government. The magnitude of the corruption involved is mind-boggling even for those more knowledgeable about these matters, for example, Fifa and the BCCI. In the July 18 article, I documented that the poor (Tendulkar poverty line) in India received only 12 per cent of the money spent in their name. Further, about 50 per cent of the foodgrains allocated to the PDS just disappears into thin continued…

No proof required: PDS or NREGA, corruption must go on

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The PDS facts are as follows: 50 per cent of the food disappears, and the poor receive only 24 per cent of the food that reaches the ration shop. (Source: Reuters) The PDS facts are as follows: 50 per cent of the food disappears, and the poor receive only 24 per cent of the food that reaches the ration shop. (Source: Reuters)
Written by Surjit S Bhalla | Posted: November 1, 2014 12:15 am | Updated: November 1, 2014 12:18 am
There are several reasons why the case for retaining the NREGA employment system, as argued by 28 of India’s leading economists, should be dismissed.
First, India’s leading economists are likely to be just plain wrong, and naïvely so, in their assessment of the worth of the NREGA. While this job provision programme has been christened the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, I feel it is important to not besmirch the Mahatma’s memory with such a corrupt programme.
Evidence suggests that India’s leading economists have generally been on the wrong side of economics and economic history. When the developing world, especially in East Asia, began changing course in the early 1960s, many of India’s “leading” economists stayed behind — and behind enough to cheer political moves like the Emergency and economic views like bank nationalisation etc. No prizes for guessing that the dominant view of India’s “leading economists” (hereafter ILE) back in the 1960s was in favour of heavy state involvement in the affairs of the economy.
Though much has changed in the world and in India, the ILE view has remained broadly the same — with minor adjustments. The ILEs are not so brazenly left that they support import controls or industrial licensing — but they are left enough to support “dole economics”, or massive government interventio
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/no-proof-required-pds-or-nrega-corruption-must-go-on/#sthash.MOii5H2H.dpuf

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