Economy
Poverty, human development and dropout rates
IN 1929, Sir Philip Hartog submitted to the then British Government a report on the problem of wastage in primary education. According to the report: ``So far we can judge that the vast increase in numbers in primary schools produces no commensurate incr
ease in literacy, for only a small proportion of those who are at the primary stage reach class IV, in which the attainment of literacy may be expected.
Editorial
Sinha's script
LIKE THE FILM-MAKERS of Bollywood, the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, is quite unsure of what makes a hit script but would verily like his February 28 story to earn the applause of board-rooms and bourses. Twice this month, Mr. Sinha talked of a t
ough Budget, and the Sensex leaped over the 6,000 mark when in previous years shares kept quiet in the Budget run-up.
Miscellaneous
Technopreneurship
IT IS no secret that technology is going to drive the world in the 21st century. Nations are vying with each other to have a piece of the technology cake, with all kinds of parks, corridors, super highways, valleys and the like.
Development and freedom
PROFESSOR Amartya Sen's latest book (1999) is entitled Development as Freedom in which he discusses what the term `development' really denotes. In his words - to be found right at the beginning of the introduction - ``development can be seen... as a pr
ocess of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy''. A couple of sentences later, he writes that the ``freedoms depend also on other determinants (apart from GNP growth, etc), such as social and economic arrangements... as well as politi
cal and civil rights... He also considers the ``mutually reinforcing connections between freedoms of different kinds'' and suggests that ``it is because of these interconnections... that free and sustainable agency emerges as a major en
gine of development''.
Power
Restructuring SEBs: The dilemmas
THE Uttar Pradesh Government's decision to unbundle the State electricity board (SEB) into generation, transmission and distribution, and hydel generation companies has received strong protest from power engineers and staff. They are opposed ideologicall
y to the reform process in the State and are unwilling to allow privatisation of SEBs.
Taxation
Vision 2020 - For a robust and rational tax system
Regardless of whether income-tax can be replaced by an exemption-free payroll tax, it cannot be argued that the tax-base should be so transparent that it cannot be disputed. Arguing for giving tax-payers a say in the way the funds are spent, P. V. I
ndiresan suggests that it is time taxation is treated more as a technology of management than as a theory of economics.
