The organisers say this about the webinar: The Web Lecture is being delivered by Professor Guy Standing, Professorial Research Associate, SOAS, University of London; Co-founder and Co-President, Basic Income Earth Network and Former Director of ILO's Socio-Economic...
India: numerous articles about Basic Income in the press
Numerous articles about Basic Income have appeared in the press in India, contributing to an already lively debate about Basic Income in the country. In March, Neil Howard and Sarath Davala wrote an article for Al Jazeera: Alongside securing a regular supply of food,...
India: The stars were not aligned in 2019, for basic income in the Indian continent
Night view from Coorg valley, India It seems the promise of a solid financial ground for all poor citizens in India was not enough to win the Congress Party a leading position on the Indian parliament in New Delhi. The country just counted its votes on the past...
India: UBI is likely to come to fruition in Sikkim, but not without contention
Flooded lands in Sikkim, due to dam construction. As reported before, the Indian State of Sikkim, through the political party Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), presently holding power, is “committed to bringing Universal Basic Income” (UBI). The state is currently under...
Can basic income ensure distributive justice in India?
UBI bypasses India’s weak system of existing welfare schemes which are riddled with misallocation, leakages, and exclusion of the poor.
India: Prem Das Rai: “Lazy people will be lazy people whether they get money or not”
Prem Das Rai (Wikipedia) The Morung Express newspaper has interviewed the sole Sikkim MP at Lok Sabha (central parliament in India), Prem Das Rai. On the 17th of February, excerpts of that interview were posted, where Rai clearly states that introducing a...
India: Congress party gets serious about basic income and reaches out to Thomas Piketty for policy design support
Thomas Piketty. Picture credit to: Books Live (Sunday Times) Details are being fed into Rahul Gandhi’s promise of a minimum income guarantee to poor Indians, an announcement made earlier this month. Thomas Piketty, an authority in economics, and particularly in...
India: The Indian government also promises basic income to farmers
Masked Narodi supporters, in 2014. Picture credit to: Aljazeera Just a few days after Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Congress Party, announced the intention of implementing a “nationwide minimum income for the poor”, Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s government now proposes...
India: A Minimum Income Guarantee is being promised to the poorest 20% of the population in India
Rahul Gandhi. Picture credit to: The Wire The main opposition party in India, the Congress party, has just promised to implement a “nationwide minimum income for the poor”, rolling out the unprecedent scheme starting as soon as May 2019, if it gets elected. The...
India: Farmers distress political response, explained
Indian farmer pouring fertilizer. Picture credit to: The National As indicated before, there is political movement in India in the direction of basic income. Particularly in the state of Telangana, which started the implementation of its Rythu Bandhu (Farmer...
India: Telangana, unconditional cash transfer to farmers and more
Road in rural India. Picture credit to: India TV. Farmers in India are under considerable stress. Uncertainty regarding weather, yield, prices and revenue, create the perfect conditions for distress and fragility over the exposure to shark lenders. That also means...
India: Sikkim state is on the verge of becoming the first place on Earth implementing a basic income
Flowers, on the way to the mountain. Picture credit to: Rookie's Journal Sikkim, the second smallest state in India, has grown a reputation, over the years, for environmental consciousness, ethnical diversity and tourism. It is also the home of one of the most...
India: 2019 General Elections and basic income
Indian woman worker with spectacles. Picture credit to: Sarah Day New ideas seem to be running dry in the Indian political context. Within Congress, Government (BJP – Bharatiya Janata Party) and opposition parties (ex.: AAP - Aam Aadmi Party). Tweaking with the...
Farmers’ Distress, Electoral Democracy and Basic Income Discussion in India
In the last two weeks, there has been much speculation in some sections of media about Prime Minister Narendra Modi seriously considering basic income as a policy option..
India: IMF supports basic income, recognising existing welfare programmes as “inefficient”
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published a report suggesting that basic income would be better than their welfare system at supporting low income households in India. Similar evidence has been found for both Indonesia and Peru, where basic income was found...
India: Muhammad Yunus says it’s time to introduce basic income
Muhammad Yunus. Picture credit to: Yunus negócios sociais (Brazil) Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Peace Nobel Prize laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank, is very concerned about artificial intelligence (AI). His fear revolves around the prospects of generalized...
INDIA: The devil is in the details – a new report on Basic Income for India
Saksham Khosla, a research analyst at Carnegie India, has written a detailed report on the implementation of basic income in India. His research focuses on the political economy of administrative, economic and welfare reforms in India. Less than a year ago,...
India Network for Basic Income releases YouTube videos
The India Network for Basic Income recently released two new YouTube videos aiming to highlight issues around universal basic income (UBI). The first, which lasts slightly over one minute, addresses the payment of UBI to women, and makes the argument that, as women...
Indian government advisor suggests some areas of the country may soon introduce UBI
India's Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Subramanian, recently told reporters that he would "bet" that one or two Indian states would be implementing universal basic income (UBI) by 2020. The high-level government advisor's comments occurred within the context of the...
INDIA: India Network for Basic Income releases video
“I also want to go to school”