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 frequently do unpaid work such as childcare or housekeeping, providing them with a regular income does not count as giving them “free money”, but rather as recognising the work they already do. The second video, which is somewhat longer at over six minutes, deals with a research project on UBI which took place from 2011 to 2013, and with a recent follow-up to this which aimed to look at the long-term effects of the original experiment.
The India Network for Basic Income is the Indian affiliate of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN).
The second annual Basic Income Asia Pacific conference will be held in Taipei, Taiwan on March 17 and 18. This year’s theme is “Asia Pacific’s Economic Future.”
Keynote speeches will be delivered by Enno Schmidt, the Swiss referendum leader, and Dr. Sarath Davala, the lead researcher for the UNICEF basic income trials in India.
“The focus on Asia is necessary to understand how we are going to interpret the idea regionally – given Asia’s own specificities and peculiarities. This conference is going to open this much needed conversation. This event is yet another milestone achieved by the UBI Taiwan, one of the most dynamic national groups,” Davala said.
Leading thinkers in academia, government and NGOs from Taiwan, mainland China, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States will join the conference to discuss the challenges facing the Asia Pacific and potential solutions, such as basic income.
Dr. Hermann Aubie is a lecturer at Aston University in the United Kingdom. His research specializes on comparing basic income movements in East Asia and Europe.
“This conference offers a rare and precious opportunity in the Asia Pacific region to build upon the wave of renewed attention that Universal Basic Income gained in recent years to discuss actively how we can create a wider consensus and concrete initiatives that build upon existing basic income designs and pilot implementations across the world,” Aubie said.
The entire conference will be live-streamed on UBI Taiwan’s Facebook account, including both English and Chinese audio simultaneous translations.
Taiwan has recently lowered the threshold for referendums, which has opened the possibility for a UBI referendum in Taiwan. This will be a topic of particular focus for two of the presentations at the conference, including Schmidt who will present on how Taiwan can lead Asia with a UBI referendum.
“With the introduction of Direct Democracy this year in Taiwan, the UBI Taiwan proponents have the same chance and political tool to turn UBI into a nationwide discussion and to push it to a people’s vote like the Swiss have done,” Schmidt said.
The conference coincides with increased discussion of basic income in the Asia Pacific, with the UN Development Program holding roundtable discussions on basic income in Beijing, China last October and December, as well as Korea discussing designs for a a pilot program.
“With the second annual UBI Asia Pacific regional conference approaching, we have expanded into two days, allowing us to share our ideas of how to improve society through implementation of Universal Basic Income,” said Ping Xu, co-founder of UBI Taiwan and UBI Asia Pacific.
The conference will examine the economic and social challenges facing the Asia Pacifc region, and will assess what a basic income policy can do to address these issues, such as inequality, automation, globalization, demographics, and environmental issues.
Last year’s conference attracted 100 participants and thousands of online viewers. The conference helped bring attention to basic income in Taiwan, with the formation of a UBI summer fellowship program and discussions with the Taichung Social Affairs Bureau about a potential pilot program.
The event is organized by National Chengchi University’s (NCCU) College of Social Sciences, and NCCU’s International Master’s Program in Asia Pacific Studies. It will be held at NCCU on March 17 and NTU on March 18. The event’s volunteers and coordinating team are part of UBI Taiwan.
“At this juncture of history where poverty and inequality are rising rapidly, I think we urgently need a “new universalism” of the kind UBI promises. There’s a long road and a lot of work ahead of us to make it a reality, but as more and more people place their hope in UBI’s emancipatory potential to protect their livelihood, human rights and dignity, we just can’t afford to disappoint such expectations,” Aubie said.
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 release of the 2017-2018 Economic Survey of India. The Economic Survey is a regular report which examines the country’s current economic status, and attempts to make some predictions regarding future growth.
The last Economic Survey, for 2016-2017, gave some details regarding the possibility of India adopting a form of UBI. The survey explored the possibility of an income which would be quasi-universal, being distributed to approximately 75% of the population. This does not match BIEN’s own definition of UBI, but was referred to as a UBI within the survey. This was not the only scheme that the government entertained, if you want to know all schemes of indian government in hindi visit:- Sarkari Yojana UP Here is All Information of the government yojana.
While its approach to the subject was broadly positive, the 2016-2017 Economic Survey stopped short of recommending that a UBI be implemented across the country. Subramanian has spoken positively on UBI in the past, saying during an interview in April of last year, “There could be, potentially, several positive impacts – you provide people with a minimum wherewithal with which they can access credit, with which they can invest – and one of the things I think is worth emphasising about UBI is the kind of psychological liberation you can provide for people.” However, in the same interview, he also indicated some issues which could arise, stating, “You can’t pay for it [UBI] unless you get rid of something else.”
A recent report from Carnegie India, India’s Basic Income Bedevilled by Details, by Shaksam Khosla, praised Subramanian for bringing “substantial rigour” to the debate on UBI in India, but also recommended that, prior to any implementation, a large-scale experimental test of the system should be carried out. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) describes itself as a global network of policy research centres with the aim of advancing peace through analysis and development of new policy ideas, as well as direct engagement with government, business and civil society. Khosla is a Research Analyst with Carnegie India, the CEIP’s sixth international centre to be set up.
Arvind Subramanian took office in October 2014. He previously worked for the International Monetary Fund, and has also been a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Global Development in America.
The India Network for Basic Income (INBI) has released a video in order to promote unconditional basic income. The video, titled I also want to go to school, has been put out in advance of the 19th Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress, which is to be held in India and will be hosted by INBI.
The video shows a series of young children, the majority of whom are girls, looking directly at the camera. The words “I also want to go to school” are shown over the images, followed by the words “Basic income for me and my people”.
Although India does have non-fee-paying government-run schools, it can often be difficult for children of impoverished families to attend these, as they may be expected to help earn money to support themselves and their relatives, or to help with housework.
A short-term universal basic income (UBI) pilot in India has been found to have positive effects years after it concluded, according to a recent follow-up study. Researchers who returned to the villages involved in the original pilot study, which took place in 2012-2013, found that many of the improvements caused by a year of basic income had been wholly or partially maintained.
In a few cases, there had even been what are called “momentum effects”, in which behaviour changes due to the year-long UBI had continued to build during the intervening years. For example, in the original study, it was found that, prior to the provision of the UBI, women (or “the spouse of the head of the household” as it is expressed in the report) made decisions on how to spend money only about 9% of the time. At the end of the original study, women were making monetary decisions nearly a quarter of the time, while in the recent follow-up, this had gone up to virtually one-third of the time.
Other instances where positive and long-term effects have been maintained well after the end of the subsidy include an improvement in regular income (related to using the UBI to invest in farming equipment or to set up businesses), and a considerably larger percentage of girls in education.
However, there are also some areas where the effects of the UBI have been found to have been rolled back over the years. One of the most prominent of these is in the area of indebtedness. In the original study, the villagers who were provided with the UBI found that 70% had reduced their debt, but the new study found that there is no longer any statistically significant difference in indebtedness between those who had received the UBI and those who had not.
The study also includes a number of case studies and quotations, including one from the head of the village school, who stated, “The experiment gave a major push to the economy of the village in many ways. In front of my eyes, I could see things changing. Equally, I have also noticed a major positive behavioural change in these people because of that experiment.”
The original study, which was a pilot to test the effects of UBI, involved nearly 140 people in two villages, one of which was provided with a UBI and one of which acted as a control. Every precaution was taken to ensure that the two villages were as similar as possible in all socio-economic characteristics.
The study’s authors include Guy Standing, who is a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London and co-founder of BIEN, as well as Sarath Davala, a sociologist who co-wrote a book entitled Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India with Standing and Renana Jhabvala, another of the study’s authors. The report concludes by recommending that further UBI pilot studies take place, that existing welfare studies be analysed, and that an Independent Commission on Universal Basic Income is established.
Asked to comment, Davala provided the following statement: “We went back after four years to the same village that received Basic Income for a year in 2012. It was heartening to see that some of the effects still continued when we compared with the situation in the control village. So, what does that show? That unconditional basic income payments have a deeper psychological impact, and that even when they are given for a short period like a year, they do leave a lasting positive impact. They provide people with a sense of economic security. This is a very valuable insight for us and policy makers.”
