With discussion around universal basic income in India heating up several politicians around the country have expressed varying opinions. One class of people say we should move completely to UBI and stop all subsidies. Another class of people say we should continue with the current system and try and include as many as possible within the welfare mechanism. Another class of people say that we should have DBT coexist with UBI and UBI should be in addition to DBT.
I am neither an economist nor studied commerce but want to suggest a few ideas.
Poverty in India is so debilitating that I have this cringe and guilt feeling about all the comforts I have.
I also want absolute poverty to end as soon as possible.
Hence it is my duty to suggest alternatives before the government. We could keep discussing for ages but only when things on ground start moving is when real changes happen.
Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) is expanding at break neck speed and covering almost all schemes of the central government. Since aadhaar is being insisted upon all of these schemes a thought occurred to me that we could have both DBT and UBI co-exist.
Every person should be entitled to some basic income which is redeemable by subsidies that person receives. If the person does not receive any subsidies then he should be earning a universal basic income. This concept necessitates measuring how much benefit every person receives. It looks to be the right approach.
Every person should be free to choose UBI or in kind benefit or choose to opt out.
Also subsidies are a concept unique to India and it definitely is a dying concept. What we should be doing is to enable people to earn decent amounts of income. So a life cycle approach and long term view of ending all subsidies need to be taken.
As regards the economics of subsidies, the UBI+DBT combo does not put too much additional burden on the exchequer and solves a big dilemma in front of the government. It has to take a decision on UBI soon and it also wants subsidies to be limited to the absolutely needy.
Every person should be entitled to some basic income which is redeemable by subsidies that person receives. If the person does not receive any subsidies then he should be earning a universal basic income. This concept necessitates measuring how much benefit every person receives. It looks to be the right approach.
Every person should be free to choose UBI or in kind benefit or choose to opt out.
Also subsidies are a concept unique to India and it definitely is a dying concept. What we should be doing is to enable people to earn decent amounts of income. So a life cycle approach and long term view of ending all subsidies need to be taken.
As regards the economics of subsidies, the UBI+DBT combo does not put too much additional burden on the exchequer and solves a big dilemma in front of the government. It has to take a decision on UBI soon and it also wants subsidies to be limited to the absolutely needy.
