On Publicly-Financed Health Insurance Schemes

It is a methodological fl aw to conclude from data which shows a rise in the incidence of out-of-pocket medical expenses that the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana is ineffective. A response to Sakthivel Selvaraj, Anup K Karan, “Why Publicly- Financed Health Insurance Schemes Are Ineffective in Providing Financial Risk Protection” (EPW, 17 March 2012). 

 Revolutionary Movements in a Post-Marxian Era

The key to revolutionary change in today’s world lies beyond the traditional Marxist conceptual framework or the leadership of Marxist political parties. In India, four broad areas of protests constitute the major components of a new revolutionary strategy in the post-Marxian era – (i) movements by forest dwellers against both the state machinery and predatory commercial forces; (ii) protests by villagers against the establishment of industrial estates, big dams and nuclear plants that threaten to oust them from their lands and homes, and endanger the environment; (iii) civil society campaigns against corruption and crime; and (iv) secessionist struggles on the issue of self-determination in the north-east and Kashmir. How will a new generation of post-Marxian revolutionary theoreticians and practitioners invigorate these movements with a progressive ideological core and a comprehensive coordinated programme of socialist change?

Media Follies and Supreme Infallibility

The Supreme Court has taken steps to lay down a code for media reporting. This attempt at prior restraint on the media is a dangerous move with precedent from authoritarian polities. In a context where the judiciary has been lax in defending the media from attacks which seek to curb its freedom, such unilateral moves will not remedy bad reporting but rather make conditions worse for the media to play its role. The way to cure the ills of a media corralled within corporate and political interests is to give it greater freedom from curbs.

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 His and Hers

At the centre of the controversy over the government’s proposal to amend marriage laws are issues related to situations when there is an irretrievable breakdown of a marriage and to division of property at the time of divorce. The ambiguity and lack of transparency in the proposed amendment are hardly conducive to rendering a divorce easy in the event of a breakdown of a marriage and may have exactly the opposite effect. There are other allied questions regarding the woman’s right to the husband’s property as well as the rights of women belonging to the minorities. The government must address all these aspects before enacting the amendment.

 Nonadanga Eviction Questioning the Right to the City

The recent eviction in Nonadanga in Kolkata can only be understood against the wider backdrop of the implementation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, which has been denying the poor of their right to the city, whether in Mumbai, Delhi or Kolkata.

Growing Military Assertion

What has made the country’s military top brass increasingly more forceful vis-à-vis the civilian authority?

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Judicial Control of Policymaking and Implementation

The Supreme Court has handed down an extraordinary decision with some extraordinary arguments directing the central government to execute the “river interlinking project”. How could the Court which says “it can hardly take unto itself tasks of making of a policy decision or planning for the country on the need for acquisition and construction of river linking channels” then go on to actually take the very same policy decision and create an implementing mechanism that cannot open the policy decision itself? Should not the judgment be reviewed?

Punjab Elections

The apparently unanticipated victory of the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in Punjab appears less surprising if the political and social trends since the late 1990s are read carefully. The coming together of the SAD and the BJP has united the dominant castes among the Sikhs and Hindus into a stable political alliance and replicates the social structure of the Punjab village in its legislative assembly.

 The BJP Tidal Wave in Goa

Careful political management, built on Congress’ misdeeds, brought in a Bharatiya Janata Party tidal wave that more or less decimated the ruling party. The BJP has managed to woo the minorities as well, but what impact will soft Hindutva have on diversity in the state?

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The Koodankulam Struggle and the ‘Foreign Hand’

The Government of India is bent on maligning the struggle against the Koodankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu because it cannot comprehend that ordinary citizens can understand issues and wage a spirited struggle to protect their lives and livelihoods. One of the leaders of the movement writes about their struggle and addresses the allegation that the protests are being funded by foreign organisations.

Relevance of Congress’ Victory in Manipur

The results of the Manipur elections point to an interesting theme paradox – the Congress was voted back to power despite its all-round failure in governance. The voters perhaps felt the need to vote the party back to power in the state contiguous to its reign in the centre, conditioned by incidents in history pertaining to centre-state relations. The rise of the Trinamool Congress as a force in the state and the marginal victories for the Naga People’s Front also carried important local messages.

Multinationals and Monopolies

In January 2005, drug product patent protection was reintroduced in India to comply with the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. How are the multinational pharmaceutical companies responding to the new policy environment? Is India likely to see monopolisation of the industry and high prices, which was the pattern before 1972 when India had product patent protection? Will the positive features of the post-1972 process patent era be diluted or negated? This study finds that the MNCS have started marketing new patented drugs in India at exorbitant prices particularly for life-threatening diseases such as cancer. The manufacturing and importing behaviour of the MNCS since the 1990s bear a close resemblance to that before the 1970s. Imports of high-priced finished formulations are expanding rapidly with manufacturing investments lagging far behind. The MNCS are also expanding vigorously in the generic segments and are trying to grow not only organically but through mergers & acquisitions and strategic alliance with Indian generic companies.

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Please find below the titles, abstracts and links to a few articles from the Economic and Political Weekly of  February 25, 2012 that you may find of interest.

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Repairing the Lokpal Bill

There are many problems with the Lokpal Bill 2011, the most serious being the lack of independence to the anti-corruption wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation. There have been problems as well with the civil society approach to the negotiations with the government. Civil society should now put down the non-negotiable demand of a Lokpal with full control over investigation and prosecution, and for one law to operate nationally. However, it should accept differential methods of dealing with lower level corruption and citizen charters, giving the Lokpal a supervisory and advisory role in these areas.

Growth in India’s States in the First Decade of the 21st Century: Four Facts

This paper is the first attempt at examining the growth performance across Indian states during 2001-09, a period also marked by the global financial crisis. We report four key findings. First, consistent with the fact that the decade was the best one for Indian macroeconomic performance, growth increased across almost all major states in 2001-09 compared to 1993-2001. Second, nevertheless, we continue to see the phenomenon of divergence or rising inequality across states: on average the richer states in 2001 grew faster in 2001-09. Third, during the crisis years of 2008 and 2009, states with the highest growth in 2001-07 suffered the largest deceleration. Since high growing states were also the most open, it seems that openness creates dynamism and vulnerability. Finally, although the demographic dividend – a young population boosting economic dynamism – was evident before 2000, there is little evidence that there was any dividend in the 2000s. Demography alone cannot be counted on for future economic growth.

Looking beyond Durban: Where To From Here?

The lesson for India after Durban is that it needs to formulate an approach that combines attention to industrialised countries’ historical responsibility for the problem with an embrace of its own responsibility to explore low carbon development trajectories. This is both ethically defensible and strategically wise. Ironically, India’s own domestic national approach of actively exploring “co-benefits” – policies that promote development while also yielding climate gains – suggests that it does take climate science seriously and has embraced responsibility as duty. However, by focusing on articulating rigid principles rather than building on actual policies and actions, it only weakens its own position.

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Haren Pandya’s Murder: Questions without Answers

Gujarat’s former Home Minister Haren Pandya is long dead. What refuses to die is the speculation over who killed him, how and why. Three of the four elements that make for a murder are missing. These are: the murderer, the motive and the murder weapon. The only certain element is the murder victim.

The Information Deficit: Use of Media in a Deliberative Democracy

This study of more than 40 gram sabha proceedings in West Bengal finds that villagers use information on people’s entitlements to challenge local governments. The media is a significant source of information: out of 27 meetings in which villagers speak up, the media is cited in nine. But the “thinness” of information on entitlements in the media makes it easy for gram panchayat members to refute legitimate claims. The information deficit in the public sphere, arising from media apathy and political collusion, translates into inability of the poor to assess local governments. While the role of the media in strengthening the functioning of electoral democracy is acknowledged, media indifference to deliberative democracy limits poor people’s capacity to translate immediate demands for goods and services to aspirations for a good life.

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 Mullaperiyar: A Plea for Sanity

The safety of the Mullaperiyar dam is not a matter for judicial determination. This dispute is eminently a case for an agreed settlement by amicable talks between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Talks at the intergovernmental level must be supplemented by civil society moves to bring the people concerned in the two states together.

FDI in Retail: Misplaced Expectations and Half-truths

The central government claims that allowing foreign direct investment into India’s retail sector will benefit small farmers, expand employment and lower food inflation. What has been the experience in India with organised retail so far and what has been the global experience with FDI?

Hegemony in Contemporary Culture and Media and the Need for a Counter Initiative

Gramscian hegemony, more than overt imperialism, characterises contemporary mass culture and media. A paradigm shift in the way we understand, represent and experience the world subserves a new and aggressive corporate teleology. Technological convergence and digitisation, which held an initial promise of and potential for democratisation, collapse into vertical integration and monopolisation. In the process, cultural sovereignty is abstracted into a homogenised, make-believe, global marketplace, which reduces every individual to a consumer and excludes the real and abiding concerns of vast swathes of humanity. An intellectual resurgence must counter the counterfeit revolution of the information era.

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Turning the Page in Forest Governance: Science and Bureaucracy

Despite the legal provisions for the functioning of expert bodies like the National Board of Wildlife and the Forest Advisory Committee, the forest bureaucracy disdains the experts and often overrides scientific evaluations. The training course of the India Forest Service too lacks a social science component that can help new foresters understand the social ramifications of forest-related issues. It is time to create space for scientists and conservationists to liaise with the forest departments in the country.

 Urban Commons

From an understanding of the commons as a rural artefact, the concept has expanded to include urban spaces and practices. The destruction of common resources and the communities that depend upon them is a long-standing outcome of capitalist expansion. It is also a cause for concern, given the ultimate centrality of the commons to the reproduction of urban populations and ecosystems.

Hunters, Gatherers and Foragers in a Metropolis: Commonising the Private and Public in Mumbai

Mumbai is in reality a city of places that are not a part of the current set of fantasies that rule the minds of urban planners but are yet integrally linked to capitalist processes, to urban practices of place-making and to urbanism itself. From this perspective, this enquiry seeks not only to better understand and explain the processes that are forcing out the city’s less privileged from its commons, but also imagine how a more inclusive future could be achieved.

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Revival of the Public Distribution System: Evidence and Explanations

Contrary to a common belief that India’s public distribution system is irreparably dysfunctional, a nine-state survey of the pds finds that the respondents received 84-88% of their full entitlement. The implicit subsidy for households below the poverty line from pds foodgrains alone is roughly equivalent, in many states, to a week’s nrega wages every month. The revival of the pds can be traced, in large part, to a renewed political interest which manifests itself in state initiatives such as expanded coverage, reduced prices, computerisation of stock management, etc. A large majority of the respondents preferred to receive in-kind food transfers rather than cash transfers, except in Bihar where the pds is still in very poor shape. Their testimonies, and the survey findings, point to many good reasons to be wary of a hasty transition to cash transfers. Further improving the pds seems like a more sensible way forward.

An Asian Clash of Civilisations? Revisiting the Sino-Indian Conflict of 1962

Nearly 50 years ago, India and China met in a brief, bloody border clash. This essay analyses that conflict in terms of its impact on the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru. It explains the roots of Nehru’s interest in China, his hopes for relations between the two new nations, the origins of the border dispute, and its escalation into a full-fledged war. Nehru’s policies are assessed from the viewpoint of his critics and admirers. The deeper structural reasons for the conflict between India and China are analysed. Finally, the essay also speaks to the shadow cast by the war of 1962 on the geopolitics of the present day.

Paramakudi Violence: Against Dalits, Against Politics

The killing of six dalits in police firing in Paramakudi in September again exposes the manner in which state institutions work to enforce the social dominance of certain castes. In the southern districts of Tamil Nadu there is an upsurge within dalit castes, but there is also a continuing complicity between the dominant castes, political parties and state institutions to beat this back.

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A Lot of Scepticism and Some Hope

The new Land Acquisition Bill makes the acquisition process easy for industry and allows the State a larger role. Various analyses of what this means for the “affected families” and a proposal for a radically different solution.

Dismantling ‘Dalit’ with a Poisonous PIL

Will the removal of the “forward” scheduled castes from the list of SC reservations benefit the “backward” SCs?

Microfinance Industry in India: Some Thoughts

Y Venugopal Reddy

The proposed legislation for regulation of the for-profit microfinance sector has a number of problems. It makes the Reserve Bank of India the sole regulator of the sector when this is the domain of the states rather than the central bank. The proposal will permit a back-door entry for the MFIs to collect savings which is not a healthy idea. Any proposal should be drawn on the experience of the states and the for-profit MFIs should be regulated as moneylenders.

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Was the Mandal Commission Right? Differences in Living Standards between Social Groups

Ira N Gang , Kunal Sen , Myeong-Su Yun

Affirmative action has been at the heart of public policy towards the socially disadvantaged in India. Compensatory discrimination policies adopted for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes since independence are now available to Other Backward Classes. This paper examines why the obcs have lower living standards, as measured by per capita household consumption expenditures, relative to the mainstream population, and whether these reasons are similar to those observed for scs and sts. It finds that while the causes of the gap in living standards for the obcs are broadly similar to those for the scs and sts, the role of educational attainment in explaining the gap is particularly important for the obcs.

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