Tag: Welfare

Welfare, is not a bad word?

Welfare has unfortunately turned into an undesirable word in the political discourse from Delhi to Athens. The Greek public had an emphatic no vote to the EU Deal in terms of voting in the leftist Syriza. The Maverick Academic Finance Minister of Greece later had to tone down its rhetoric of leaving the EU. But, a bold voice never the less. A fresh breath in the hackneyed discussion. There are a few factors which brought Greece to its tether such as a huge bureaucracy but the structural transformation program (read brutal cost cutting) is simply humiliating for an ancient civilization. The Goldman Sachs instruments only added insult to injury. Since Narendra Modi’s BJP Government has come to power, Welfare has taken back seat. The Work for Employment Scheme aka MNREGA has been slashed as the Food Security Bill. While, Corporate Tax Holidays has increased in the words of Development Journalist P Sainath.

Even, the proposed projected 25.5 Billion Dollar outlay (Livemint, 27th March 2015) for the Universal Healthcare Plan in India on the lines of ObamaCare has been halted in the tracks. Billions of dollars can be spent for Defense and Tax Breaks but for treating a poor man for his heart ailment in a hospital is simply not worth it as is putting food on the table of the hungry, only to be feted by awards from the Davos Elite while sipping flutes of champagne. The AAP Victory is Delhi was a vote for welfare and compassionate capitalism where the urban poor in Mahipalpur near the airport wanted to have a voice in the discourse rather the  chic GK’s, ironically both in South Delhi. I have very been pro welfare in stance since a while especially on Food Security in October 2013 when I came on Al Jazeera to make a moral case for Food Security. Welfare is often the last resort of the poor and, inefficiencies and pilferage in the political economy of service delivery should not be used as an excuse to snatch away access to basic health care from the marginalized and subaltern. The Indian State is often a far away entity to the common man on the street and a void is often filled by faith based or community organizations in healthcare. There is a point to start and then iterate with the mechanics but do not deny the facilities if proper service delivery mechanisms cannot be constructed and maintained.  Building systems takes time and great systems such as the NHS in the UK and Social Security in the US have taken their own time. ObamaCare  or The Affordable Care Act has brought in 16 million additional people healthcare solutions. In a recent Atlantic article it has been argued that the social security cover has made America more risk taking and entrepreneurial. In this years Budget, Singapore which has been a poster-boy of free-market capitalism in Asia has nudged to the left with increased social protection platforms for its poor. The media coverage in the Singaporean press has been covering a lot of social stories including migrant worker food issues and ways to get the urban poor at better shot at social mobility. A new social contract for a left leaning Global City as a recent Strait Times Op-Ed quipped, should be real cool.

It can be said that the author has had a comfortable upbringing and what do i know about being poor. It needs empathy as the Middle Class is three skipped mortgage payments away from developing a class consciousness. Ask about being very little money in my account and without work and I do know what it feels like in that desperate situation. Corporate Tax Breaks and access to state infrastructure to develop industry and then call for government to be not in the business of business is a flawed argument. A lot of corporate profits are cross subsidized by the state ask the Gulf Owned Air Carriers. Private profits are just but feeding a poor man is a waste of money?

Welfare with proper checks and balances creates a more equitable society over the long term. Lets create more humane communities, one neighborhood at a time. A policy push sets the direction, and welfare plays a major role.

Beyond ‘Growth-ism’ : unearthing a narrative beyond the bottom line

There is a world beyond the Shenton Way, Bandra-Kurla Complexes and DLF Cyber City’s of the world. There is a peri-urban India and a rural India that might be influenced by its urban cousins due to the dominant, hegemonic discourse crafted by the elite but their world is still rooted in tradition and Asian values.  As ‘Metros have been transformed in to financial products’ in the words the authors of the mightily influential treatise on development sociology in India: ‘Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India’, the role of the City as an overpowering entity is articulated as the village cedes control to the city and farmers lose agency in the process. A farmer with limited resources but most importantly dignity denigrates himself into a commodity in the market when the government or a private developer acquires his land hopefully for a fair compensation package.  The new land acquisition bill makes robust Relief & Rehabilitation provisions for the Project Affected Families. The farmer does not have any other skill set apart from farming and money management is not one of them. It might be a barely literate famer moving from his second hand motor-bike to an Audi the next day, it will not be far way that, he will be a security guard at a shopping mall built on his land holding that he sold off (remember the Bollywood Film Shanghai?).  This might be Jairam’s single largest contribution to the policy landscape of the country.  Might delay projects and escalate costs, but the farmer is at the heart of the story and not the developer. The vulnerable and the marginalised should be the ones protected by the legislative architecture of the State and not act as an agent of the Capitalist classes. The line is often blurred beyond recognition with Industrialists populating both houses of parliament and siting on JPC’s with severe conflicts of interest. Great in one way as they have the ability of project execution but in another fashion take away the essence of grassroots commoner.

The semantics of the rhetoric of Mint Street unfortunately influences corporatized media boardrooms and sometimes North Block.  Umair Haque, who writes a popular column in the HBS Blogs website recently wrote a hard hitting post on the ills of American Capitalism in what he captures as ‘Capitalist-Stan’. American Capitalism was known for its ability as a power social escalator for the mobility it used to provide for all irrespective of ones birth. Opportunity equality was the byword. In the present times, the cliques of the ‘Lords of Finance’ on Wall Street rule the finance arena, influencing public policy that a former Goldman Sachs CEO becomes the treasury secretary under Bush ’43.  No wonder they are the highest campaign contributors to Presidential/Senate contests in the USA. Obama is no exception too.  The decrease in social mobility in hyper charged globalised capitalism is not surprising as ‘only the folks with the correct connections and skill sets’ are able to crack the ivory towers oops the glass tinted buildings of Central Business Districts of Global Econohubs.  It’s the same situation in India, as only 20% of engineering graduates being potentially employable. Many of the younger engineers I know cannot compose a proper mail in business English. English is the Lingua Franca is the Modern World of commerce. This is a pre-requisite as problem solving is in engineering. If you cannot communicate, then you do not know your stuff, if you cannot express.

‘Market-ism’ being the central ideological construct of the bankers and the capitalist classes has led to ‘Growth-ism’. This Growth-ism has led to the culture of the bottom-line and ‘Quarter se Quarter Tak’ (from one quarterly results reporting to the other) ethos.

Take the long term view, because concrete value cannot be created overnight. Mohenjadaro as Rome was not built in a day. Capitalism includes economic growth, and market is a vehicle for channelize the ‘animal spirits’ to create wealth.  But capitalism is also about meritocracy and wealth creation. More importantly its about pursuing ones calling in the sentiments of Weber.

 Growth-ism stands for parochial wealth creation unfortunately now days. When wealth is created, it is distributed for welfare of the poor, so that they can a more playing field can be created. This element is sadly missing from the conversation. I was on an Al Jazeera International’s show – ‘The Stream’ on the 9th of October 2013, speaking on an esteemed panel on the Food Security Bill. I spoke in favour of the bill that a welfare legislation is a public policy innovation and is a start, might be flawed but is a start.  A policy pundit, a very knowledgeable Think Tank honcho and friend shouted me down espousing his beliefs in ‘Market-ism’.  Market is a great slave but a terrible master; my friends from Dalal Street should understand.

 

Infrastructure, Welfare & the Rhetoric of Development

A few days back, Mr. L K Advani praised Shivraj Chouhan for his exemplarily efforts in transforming his ‘BIMARU’ state into a development hotbed. The locus of comparison was centered upon the notion that Narendra Bhai’s Gujarat was already progressive as Gujaratis have been culturally entrepreneurial by character. There is a grain of truth certainly in this argument.  Chouhan ji has developed Indore has an industrial hub of central India with major automotive and manufacturing majors operating out of the region. Indore has a fantastic urban transportation system too. Amdavad also has a cool BRT system in place with the Metro project under way. BJP Governments have often equated ‘infrastructure development’ with the paradigm of development. Infrastructure catalyzes regional growth by connecting the rural with the urban; the producers with the consumer. It is a growth multiplier indeed. Welfare hand-outs to the poorest of the poor such as the Right to Work Scheme helps the poor as well as yields political dividends as the UPA win in 2009. Effective public good delivery requires robust infrastructure and institutional controls to seal the leak called graft. The poorest of the poor cannot simply depend on the cruel ‘market’ for the benefits of trickle down to seep down to them. Government welfare schemes are the only way out for the weakest of our society to survive with dignity. The Right to Food Bill is vital although it accounts to humongous expenditure. In the aftermath of the Bastar carnage, the rights of the poorest are again back on the front burner of national conversation. I am just sick of the Spot Fixing Coverage. BCCI and IPL are trivial issues being used to divert the people’s attention from critical issues such as Women’s Rights, Systemic Graft and essential legislative business. India is a sub-continent in terms of religious and ethnic diversity and different solutions will be needed to deliver inclusive development. No Gujarat Model, no MP Model matters as Chairman Mao quipped as long as the cat catches mice, it does not make a difference if it is white or black.

 

Welfare 2.0 : Direct Cash Transfer as a Killer App?

When Nandan Nilekani’s Biometric Identification card initiative : Aadhar commenced in 2009, it seemed to be an ambitious public information infrastructure project, without any political pay off for the ruling establishment. Well, it was Nandan Nilekani- India’s celebrated IT CEO turned cabinet minister level technocrat, having repeated run in’s with the Home and Finance Ministry’s over security concerns and budgetary allocations. Turf Wars in the Bureaucratic mess of Delhi.

I am an advocate of State based welfare schemes and have been pro MNREGA and other big ticket schemes (folks might call them mega scams generating options too). Well, because scams might take place because of leakages in the system, the state should not abandon its  Public Goods Deliverable’s. Welfare is often the only resort of the poorest of poor.

Steps might be implemented in terms of plugging in the leakages via adequate implementation of existing policies or even introduce a legislation such as Lok Pal. One of the four basic services which the Government should provide are Public Goods such as Subsidy. Diesel subsidy for running SUV’s is a blatant exploitation of the loopholes.

Applying large scale IT solutions can help track loop holes, but local level innovative solutions are required to monitor graft and leakages. Manpower is in shortage to implement existing programmes, so additional heads are required that such a mega project can work. Announcing a scheme and executing it with the allocation of relevant resources; local and central are a pre-requisite. Involvement of civil society and private sector are paramount in bridging the skills shortage.

Direct Cash Transfer can help cut out the middle man in disbursing pensions and scholarships where financial infrastructure is absent. I am not really confident if it can replace the Public Distribution System for Subsidized grains in the near future. Entitlement based welfare has to be multi pronged in strategy.

This initiative has given Nandan Nilekani’s project a political life and Congress a life line for 2014. Aapka Paisa aapke haath, sounds empowering to the common man but it leaves him also at the mercy of the market forces of demand and supply as the cash transfer is a rigid and finite event.

Who said Technology cant drive political innovativeness? never underestimate the likes of Jairam and PC to pull out a trick out of their hat. Did i mention that Jairam and Nandan were batchmates at IIT Bombay?