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Yamini Aiyar

Articles by Yamini Aiyar

To restart, revise national strategy

Rework migrant policies; reset the Covid-19 crisis management set-up, and improve communication

Migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar take rest before they start walking back to their home states, Navi Mumbai, May 10, 2020(PTI)

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Updated on May 11, 2020 06:07 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

The State needs to step up, urgently| Opinion

Provide food; improve Centre-state mechanisms; communicate better; and show compassion

It is crucial that the mistakes of the last 21 days are not repeated in the next phase of the lockdown(Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

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Updated on Apr 16, 2020 07:23 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Covid-19: Centre and states must work together | Opinion

Coordinate on finance, procurement and supply chains. Activate inter-state coordination systems

Migrant workers head home on Day 5 of the 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed by the government to curb the spread of coronavirus, New Delhi, March 29, 2020(Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

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Updated on Apr 01, 2020 07:29 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar and Mekhala Krishnamurthy

Covid-19: An emergency economic manifesto

To prevent distress, the State must manage the movement of people, food, money, schemes

India needs uniform outcomes, not uniform measures. Command and control won’t work. Be flexible, work with states(Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

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Updated on Mar 25, 2020 08:07 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar and Mekhala Krishnamurthy

Covid-19 will test, reshape the State

Today’s choices will determine the future of the Indian State’s relationship with citizens

Test aggressively, prepare hospitals, deploy human resources, and ensure better Centre-state coordination(Satish Bate/HT Photo)

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Updated on Mar 22, 2020 04:27 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

How India is failing its Muslims

The community has been left alone to defend their constitutional rights in a secular State

By relying merely on tactics, the Opposition is not providing an ideological counter-narrative to Hindutva(Raj K Raj)

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Updated on Mar 05, 2020 07:05 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

The states are financially squeezed | Opinion

The Centre’s budget arithmetic and delays in fund transfers are pushing them towards a fiscal crisis

There is an urgent need to adopt modern public finance management systems(Samir Jana / Hndustan Times)

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Updated on May 15, 2020 02:39 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

The budget does not address the crisis of demand | Opinion

The FM made a good faith attempt to present her vision. But the budget lacked a diagnosis of what is wrong, a prescription to address it, and made baffling choices

The decline in consumption demand, especially in rural India, is a matter of pressing concern. But the budget may have made the problem worse with cuts in allocation. Instead, it should have streamlined public finance management systems and re-prioritised expenditure(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

analysis

Updated on Feb 01, 2020 10:24 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Indians are reclaiming, and redefining, the idea of secularism | Opinion

What it means for Indians to be secular in everyday life has emerged with renewed vigour

Rather than dismissing and wishing away the assertion of religious identity, understand it as a part of India’s conversation with secularism and definition of its practice(Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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Updated on Jan 17, 2020 08:43 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

The assertion of Indian federalism gives hope

States are taking a stand against the BJP’s majoritarian push. Will they succeed?

Left Front parties and Congress workers participate in a joint protest rally against CAA, NRC and NPR, Kolkata, December 27, 2019(PTI)

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Published on Jan 01, 2020 07:31 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

In defence of Indian secularism

When it is threatened, multiple identities are threatened. That is the lesson from the protests

The real challenge to the CAA-NRC is that protestors are bereft of a vocabulary to defend secularism(PTI)

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Published on Dec 17, 2019 06:01 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

HTLS 2019: Administrative reforms vital for 21st century State

Over the next few decades, India will need to confront head on the consequences of unequal growth, rapid urbanisation, climate change and technological advancement.

People queue up for a Digital Ration Card form in Kolkata. The West Bengal government began digitising ration cards in September.(Samir Jana/HT Archive)

htls

Updated on Nov 27, 2019 02:03 PM IST

New Delhi | ByYamini Aiyar

Reviving faith in India’s statistics

Transparency of data is essential both for good governance and the health of democracy

It is time to give statutory status to the National Statistical Commission(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

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Published on Nov 20, 2019 07:18 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

The citizenship bill must be opposed

Secularism must be defended. But the political Opposition lacks courage, conviction, legitimacy

By explicitly excluding Muslims from its ambit, the citizenship amendment bill violates Article 14 and undermines secularism(Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

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Updated on Oct 31, 2019 07:05 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

MGNREGA can revive Rural India | Opinion

The scheme needs a higher budget. Finance it by rationalising the regressive subsidy regime

An improved MGNREGA can serve as the vehicle for delivering a rural stimulus(Hindustan Times)

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Updated on Oct 15, 2019 08:17 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

The missing link in India’s governance

Both the ease of living and ease of business are laudable goals. But bridging the two is essential

India needs to leverage welfare gains to enable productive economic participation of the poor in the economy(REUTERS)

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Updated on Sep 25, 2019 11:06 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Remaking the idea of an Indian citizen

The Constitution promises religion-neutral citizenship. NRC and its fallout could upend that

Bureaucratic failure and corruption have resulted in the government viewing its own documents with suspicion(AP)

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Updated on Sep 03, 2019 06:39 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

India’s journey towards centralisation | Opinion

Federalism has been posited as antithetical to development. This bodes ill for democracy

The silencing of voices of those affected by the unprecedented move mark a rupture in India’s federal trajectory(AFP)

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Updated on Aug 11, 2019 07:20 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Why the RTI amendments must be opposed

As institutional mediators between citizens, their right to information and the State, it is the information commissions who shape norms (and limits) of transparency.

Since its passage in 2005, the RTI has been enthusiastically used by citizens. By one estimate, nearly six million citizens use the RTI annually. And this may come as a surprise to many readers, but governments respond to applications.(Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

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Published on Jul 26, 2019 09:12 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Union Budget: A lost opportunity

With its historic mandate, and ambitious targets, the government could have embarked on structural reforms. But Narendra Modi has yet again opted for an incrementalist approach.

The critical issues facing agriculture are well-known. The Union Budget fails to address them(Hindustan Times)

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Published on Jul 05, 2019 10:03 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Keep the Centre-state channel open

Even as state governments complained about the centralising nature of the Planning Commission, the commission provided an institutional platform through which states could dialogue (and complain) with the Centre. The challenge for the new Modi government will lie in creating a renewed institutional space for political deliberation and negotiation of Centre-state relations

The fifth meeting of the governing council of the NITI Aayog, New Delhi, June 15. The primary fault line in India’s fiscal federal architecture is this: the fiscal centralisation, necessary for poorer states, has in fact benefited richer states. Negotiating this fault line will require radical reforms in the design of central schemes(PTI)

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Updated on Jul 02, 2019 08:16 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

The Congress must realise it can’t fight an ideological battle through policy

The real challenge for the Congress is its unwillingness to be courageous and articulate an ideological counterpoint to the BJP’s hegemony. And without this alternative, the BJPs hegemony is going to continue, unchallenged.

An Indian National Congress party rally, Bandanwara, Rajasthan, April 25, 2019(AFP)

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Updated on May 25, 2019 07:12 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Reclaim the concept of secularism

The Congress, once the custodian of secularism, has pushed it to the margins of political discourse

The coarsening of debate in the campaign is an extension of what has become the new normal in public debate in India. Aided in no small measure by the new modes of communication that social media allows, the space for careful argumentation and reasoning has shrunk giving way to an increasingly partisan endorsement of ideas(PARWAZ KHAN/HINDUSTAN TIMES)

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Updated on May 13, 2019 10:06 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Can lateral entrants save the day?

A babu-mukt Bharat requires deep structural changes not mere lateral entrants.

Regardless of the outcome of the election, chances are that lateral entry will be a priority for civil service reforms going forward. It is thus important to question and examine the proposal’s potential.(Ravi Choudhary/HT PHOTO)

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Updated on Apr 24, 2019 10:30 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Planning Commission 2.0: A political challenge

Any attempt to reform or create a new body will need to curb Delhi’s tendency to centralise power.

Rahul Gandhi’s statement that he will replace Niti Aayog with a lean Planning Commission serves as a reminder that the Aayog has failed to live up to its promise(HT)

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Updated on Apr 03, 2019 01:35 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

India’s data-driven governance regime is not foolproof

It serves as a reminder of the dangers and vulnerabilities of data when they are deployed without adequate investments in quality, objectivity and credibility. This is now a challenge for the new government.

Economists Abhijit Banerji and Shrayana Bhattacharya in a recent article note the existence of as many as 400 MIS systems for monitoring the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes, a number far beyond what most middle income countries report. Technology has also enabled administrative data to become increasingly more sophisticated.(HT PHOTO)

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Updated on Mar 27, 2019 06:20 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Is the new pension scheme a case of old wine in a new bottle?

The Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan Yojana is yet another scheme with inbuilt flaws

To deliver pensions, India needs a clear vision, strategy and institutional architecture(HT)

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Updated on Mar 08, 2019 09:24 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

The welfare debate must go beyond corruption

The most damaging consequence of the focus on corruption is that it has legitimised the view that the only way to fix India’s broken welfare system is by curbing discretion and tightening scrutiny

The focus on corruption has served to deeply centralise the welfare bureaucracy at the cost of building a local government system that is genuinely responsive to citizen needs.(Diwakar Prasad/ Hindustan Times)

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Updated on Feb 20, 2019 11:02 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

OPINION | The budget has exposed the NDA government’s nervousness

Fiscal prudence has been compromised in favour of pleasing every conceivable vote bank the NDA can appeal to

The showstopper of this 2019 budget is the PM-Kisan Scheme (PMKS): a <span class='webrupee'>₹</span>6,000 per year direct income transfer for small and marginal farmers with a budgetary allocation of <span class='webrupee'>₹</span>75,000 crore(PTI)

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Updated on Feb 02, 2019 08:30 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Opinion | The limits of single-party majorities

The Opposition’s mahagathbandhan can only be a viable proposition if it offers an alternative politics.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with Opposition leaders at the Trinamool Congress-led 'United India' rally, Kolkata, January 19, 2019.(ANI)

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Updated on Jan 29, 2019 07:48 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

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Yamini Aiyar

Rework migrant policies; reset the Covid-19 crisis management set-up, and improve communication

Provide food; improve Centre-state mechanisms; communicate better; and show compassion

Coordinate on finance, procurement and supply chains. Activate inter-state coordination systems

To prevent distress, the State must manage the movement of people, food, money, schemes

Today’s choices will determine the future of the Indian State’s relationship with citizens

The community has been left alone to defend their constitutional rights in a secular State

The Centre’s budget arithmetic and delays in fund transfers are pushing them towards a fiscal crisis

The FM made a good faith attempt to present her vision. But the budget lacked a diagnosis of what is wrong, a prescription to address it, and made baffling choices

What it means for Indians to be secular in everyday life has emerged with renewed vigour

States are taking a stand against the BJP’s majoritarian push. Will they succeed?

When it is threatened, multiple identities are threatened. That is the lesson from the protests

Over the next few decades, India will need to confront head on the consequences of unequal growth, rapid urbanisation, climate change and technological advancement.

Transparency of data is essential both for good governance and the health of democracy

Secularism must be defended. But the political Opposition lacks courage, conviction, legitimacy

The scheme needs a higher budget. Finance it by rationalising the regressive subsidy regime

Both the ease of living and ease of business are laudable goals. But bridging the two is essential

The Constitution promises religion-neutral citizenship. NRC and its fallout could upend that

Federalism has been posited as antithetical to development. This bodes ill for democracy

As institutional mediators between citizens, their right to information and the State, it is the information commissions who shape norms (and limits) of transparency.

With its historic mandate, and ambitious targets, the government could have embarked on structural reforms. But Narendra Modi has yet again opted for an incrementalist approach.

The real challenge for the Congress is its unwillingness to be courageous and articulate an ideological counterpoint to the BJP’s hegemony. And without this alternative, the BJPs hegemony is going to continue, unchallenged.

The Congress, once the custodian of secularism, has pushed it to the margins of political discourse

A babu-mukt Bharat requires deep structural changes not mere lateral entrants.

Any attempt to reform or create a new body will need to curb Delhi’s tendency to centralise power.

It serves as a reminder of the dangers and vulnerabilities of data when they are deployed without adequate investments in quality, objectivity and credibility. This is now a challenge for the new government.

The Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan Yojana is yet another scheme with inbuilt flaws

The most damaging consequence of the focus on corruption is that it has legitimised the view that the only way to fix India’s broken welfare system is by curbing discretion and tightening scrutiny

Fiscal prudence has been compromised in favour of pleasing every conceivable vote bank the NDA can appeal to

The Opposition’s mahagathbandhan can only be a viable proposition if it offers an alternative politics.

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