Month: June 2011
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the importance of hedging despite the alleged incorruptibility of the lokpal
What is the best institutional architecture for fighting corruption? Should India have one, all-powerful anti-corruption watchdog or should it have several smaller ones? What if the Lokpal gets corrupted the way other institutions have? Are we better off with a strong Lokpal? Or are we better off making the CBI more independent of the government, […]
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Cash Trance
In his speech this year, the Indian finance minister announced that India would deliver the fertiliser subsidy directly to farmers from next year onwards. Shortly after the budget, the government’s National Informatics Centre insisted that it be allowed to develop the necessary software. A small update from the trenches here. This software, sources in the […]
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On the crisis in India’s dryland areas…
The green revolution came in the sixties. Tasked with ensuring food security, it pushed high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of wheat and rice over jowar, bajra et al. It began in the floodplains of the north. Where, as canals came up, farmers, realising rainfall risk was a thing of the past, switched to HYVs. In the drylands, […]
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MFI regulation: Part Three
With SKS Microfinance challenging Andhra Pradesh’s controversial microfinance law in the Supreme Court, India might soon have an answer to the question: who should regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs), the Centre or the states? This is a question that needs an immediate answer. As non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), MFIs are regulated by the RBI. Being financial […]
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Baba Ramdev sets out to cure corruption
On Thursday, more out of curiosity than anything else, I tagged along with a friend who was heading to Delhi’s Ram Lila Maidan. Baba Ramdev who was, till now, trying to clean the body through yoga, is now out to cleanse the body politic (thanks for the line, rama). And has consequently announced that he […]
Fractured/Earth 