Be Happy, Share & Help Each Other!!! Study-IQ education

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Tabitha Manning
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3 Delhi Edition of The Hindu

Let s talk about a supplemental income Concept of a basic income must be qualified to restrict beneficiaries to groups that are easily identified.

8 Let s talk about a supplemental income Concept of a basic income must be qualified to restrict beneficiaries to groups that are easily identified. There has been a lot of discussion on universal basic in-come (UBI) in both developed and developing countries. Primary objective is to enable every citizen to have a certain minimum income. Term universal is meant to connote that the minimum or basic income will be provided to everyone irrespective of whatever their current income is. Adoption of a UBI can impose a burden on the economy which is well beyond the capabilities of most developing countries, including India. Applicability of concept of basic income to India, three questions arise. First is whether it should be universal or restricted ; Second is what the level of minimum income is and how this is to be determined; and Third is about the financing mechanism for implementing such a scheme

9 Cash versus services In the provision of services, the concern is about leakages and quality of service. Some countries have adopted a middle path of conditional transfers. Which means that transfers in the form of cash are subject to the condition that they are spent on meeting defined needs. India is concerned, we are not starting with a clean state. There are a whole lot of services provided by the state-> 1)-It would be impossible to knock them of and 2)-Substitute them with general income support. We need to think of income support as a supplement to services already provided. Poor quality of services from government-run institutions has become a matter of concern.

10 Universal or restricted? UBI-> Necessary to first decide whether income supplements should be universal or limited to certain easily identifiable groups. All are beyond the capabilities of the present Central government Budget unless. It is extremely difficult to cut subsidies Attempt must be to think in terms of reducing the number of beneficiaries using easily definable criteria. Elaborate exercises-> Strict targeting will run into complex problems of identification. One alternative would be to determine the required income supplement from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The total annual income supplement can be equivalent to 100 days of the wages prescribed under the MGNREGS. This is equivalent to 20,000 per year-> This amount can be treated as the income supplement.

11 Continue Even providing one person per household with this income will mean 5 lakh crore per annum, which is 3.3% of GDP. Perhaps what is feasible is a scheme which limits the total expenditure to around 1.5 to 2% of GDP, which is between 2 lakh crore and 3 lakh crore. We need to evolve a criterion which can restrict the total cost to this amount. One way of doing it will be to limit it to all women above the age of 45. This is an easily identifiable criterion because Aadhaar cards feature the age of the person. However, this is only one alternative. Restricting the beneficiaries to the elderly or widows or those with disabilities may have only a limited impact. Making available a minimum of 20,000 per year for almost 10 crore people which means a total expenditure of 2 lakh crore.

12 Financing the scheme Feasibility of raising even 2 lakh crore is not easy. 1)-Some analysts have suggested that we can remove all exemptions in our tax system which would give us enough money. Tax experts advocate removing exemptions so that the basic tax rate can be reduced. 2)-Out of-> 2 lakh crore-> 1 lakh crore can come from the phasing out of some of the expenditures while the remainder must come from raising additional revenue. Perhaps, one can phase out the MGNREGS, which will realise close to 40,000 crore. Fertilizer subsidies are another item of expenditure which can be eliminated.

13 Conclusion To conclude, introducing the UBI is unrealistic. Concept of a basic income must be turned essentially into a supplemental income. Such a scheme will be feasible provided we restrict the beneficiaries to groups. Restricting -> burden to 1.5 to 2% of GDP seems desirable and feasible. Half of this can come from phasing out some of the existing expenditures While the other half can come by raising fresh revenue. Similar e orts can be made by the respective State governments, if they so desire.

15 Private power, public apathy Modify landmark labour laws to bring domestic work under the purview of state regulation

16 Continue Domestic workers are among the most exploited sections of the Indian workforce. In the past, domestic work was with feudal structures of labour extraction, such as begar. Typically, such work was unpaid, or was paid for at a nominal rate in kind. The 1931 Census recorded a large pool of labour, i.e. 27 lakh, as domestic workers, or servants as they were then known. They were then predominantly male workers. The 1971 Census recorded only 67,000 domestic workers. However, this trend has been reversed since the early 1990s when India s economic policy pushed forward with liberalisation. The 1991 Census recorded 10 lakh domestic workers. Subsequent National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data of the post- liberalisation period has mapped a continuous increase in this figure.

17 Continue The NSSO data of , for example, has recorded 47 lakh domestic workers in India; the majority of whom, i.e. 30 lakh, were women. Today, a large number of these workers are inter-state migrant labourers. Female domestic worker who went missing-> The recent confrontation(आमन -स मन ) between this docile workforce of domestic workers and their wealthy employers in Noida (Uttar Pradesh) brought to light, Yet again, the widespread exploitation of domestic workers. Police & employers- Arrested some workers-> does not take into account the First Information Report lodged in this case

18 Continue Incident, yet again, exposes the crisis nurtured by the Indian state s unwillingness to ratify the International Labour Organisation s Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, and thereby, to modify landmark labour laws so as to bring domestic work under the purview of state regulation Irregular payment of wages by employers, Extraction of more work than agreed upon at the start of employment, The practice of arbitrarily reducing wages are rampant problems that breed overexploitation of domestic workers.

19 Conclusion Such vulnerability and overexploitation cannot be ignored any further, Especially with the continuous growth in the number of women and children entering the domestic services industry in the post-liberalisation era. Lack of redressal machinery for workers in this rapidly developing industry is compelling desperate workers to resort to violent forms of agitation. Such a scenario we may witness the recurrence of Noida- like incidents in the future

20 News Analysis Page-1,16- Justin Gatlin ruined Usain Bolt s farewell party when the 35-year-old American won the world 100 metres title on Saturday, beating the Jamaican superstar

Continue Page-1- Subsidise rail losses: PMO Prime Minister s Office (PMO) has directed the Ministry of Finance to fund the losses incurred by the Indian Railways in operating non profitable trains on

21 Continue Page-1- Subsidise rail losses: PMO Prime Minister s Office (PMO) has directed the Ministry of Finance to fund the losses incurred by the Indian Railways in operating non profitable trains on strategic lines and backward areas. Directive ends a tussle that began following the merger of the Railway and Union Budgets, as the Ministry of Finance had discontinued the practice of providing an annual subsidy to the Railways PMO in a meeting held last month has directed Ministry of Finance to reimburse(प रत प त ) the losses incurred on strategic rail lines discontinued following the merger of Budgets,

Continue Page-1- Revealed: 4,000-year-old bone jewel fashions Ancient jewellery and decoration has a new meaning, with the discovery of bone ornaments in Telangana that go back

22 Continue Page-1- Revealed: 4,000-year-old bone jewel fashions Ancient jewellery and decoration has a new meaning, with the discovery of bone ornaments in Telangana that go back about 4,000 years. In a find that has excited archaeologists, 50 pieces of bone ornaments have been found in a hamlet of Narmetta, an agricultural village on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

Continue Page-1- Nandankanan zoo to get 12 vultures Zoological park had been struggling for 5 years to find birds for its conservation breeding programme With the Central Zoo Authority (CZA)

23 Continue Page-1- Nandankanan zoo to get 12 vultures Zoological park had been struggling for 5 years to find birds for its conservation breeding programme With the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) directing authorities of the Gandhi Zoological Park in Gwalior to provide 12 rescued longbilled vultures to the Nandankanan Biological Park (NBP), its conservation breeding of white-backed vultures is expected to be back on track soon

24 Continue Page-1- After SC order, focus on chemicals in firecrackers Court barred manufacturers from using five specified chemicals in any form whatsoever to prevent air pollution.

25 Continue Page-9-

26 Continue Page-11- Nine High Courts oppose all-india judicial service Nine High Courts have opposed a proposal to have an all-india service for the lower judiciary, eight have sought changes in the proposed framework and only two have supported the idea, a Law and Justice Ministry document says The document, sent to all members of the parliamentary consultative committee on law and justice, also says that most of the 24 High Courts wanted control over the subordinate judiciary.

27 Continue Page-13- ATM expansion slows due to note ban

28 Continue Page-14- China s RCEP push veils grand plan Community social media platform Local Circles recently did a survey on the Indian consumer s perception about items imported from China. The results gave a peek into the minds of Indian consumers. It showed 52% of participants were of the opinion that for the same product, the quality of a Made in India version was superior to the one from China. However, 83% said they buy Chinese products as those items were the cheapest. On the issue of addressing quality concerns about imported Chinese items, 98% said there should be better screening of such products before they enter the Indian market including ensuring that only those imports meeting the Indian (BIS) standards are allowed.

29 Last Day- Q s- Ans 1. Pulikkat Lake - Boarder of Andhra Pradesh & Tamilnadu on the coast of Coromandel 2. GPS China - BeiDou EU - Galileo 1. Budge merger committee - Bibek Debroy

Social Security Provisioning in Bihar: A Case for Universal Old Age Pension

Social Security Provisioning in Bihar: A Case for Universal Old Age Pension First Author: Dr. Manjur Ali (Research Officer) Second Author: Nilachala Acharya Authors Organisation: Centre for Budget and