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Yamini Aiyar

Yamini Aiyar

Articles by Yamini Aiyar

What 2018 taught us about how not to reform the Indian State

As India heads to the polls, 2019 is likely to witness renewed promises, across party lines, of “maximum governance”. But achieving this goal will require the new government to resist the impulse for seeking quick fixes and confront head on the limitations of the current reform imagination.

India has historically been a centralised State. But the early rhetoric adopted by the Modi government of co-operative federalism and the adoption of the 14th Finance Commission indicated the possibility of a new phase of decentralisation. In 2018, however, the pendulum slowly swung back toward centralisation.(HT Photo)

Updated on Jan 09, 2019 07:31 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

India’s challenges need visionary leadership to break political interests

Building a 21st century state requires visionary political leadership that challenges entrenched political interests and pushes policy imagination beyond business as usual

The changing, impatient Indian voter affords a unique opportunity for our polity to forge a new development discourse for India(PTI)

Published on Dec 26, 2018 10:04 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

India needs a renewed debate on federalism

In these last four years, the BJP has actively sought to use its dominance in Delhi to re-centralise political discourse and re-assert New Delhi’s power.

Updated on Nov 28, 2018 06:06 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Let’s shift towards a new politics of welfare

If the current election rhetoric is anything to go by, our politicians have failed to recognise the potential for change

People queue outside a polling station to vote during the first phase of the Chhattisgarh assembly elections at Sukma district, November 12.(HT Photo)

Updated on Nov 15, 2018 01:06 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

What has India achieved by rejecting the Human Capital Index?

Rather than acknowledge reality and raise questions that elevate the debate on how to develop and measure human capital, the government’s summary rejection has exposed its own small-mindedness and lack of political imagination

Rather than acknowledge reality and raise questions that elevate the debate on how to develop and measure human capital, the government’s summary rejection has exposed its own small-mindedness and lack of political imagination(REUTERS)

Published on Oct 24, 2018 02:41 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

How to strengthen India’s frontline bureaucracy

A concerted effort will need to be made for building institutional spaces that break down hierarchies and encourage participation across the political and bureaucratic hierarchy. The PM certainly has the rhetorical skills to initiate this change. What’s missing is the will and vision.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with the ASHA, Anganwadi and ANM workers from all over the country through video conference, New Delhi, September 11, 2018(PTI)

Updated on Oct 11, 2018 12:37 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

There are no short cuts to building State capacity

Fixing India’s broken welfare system is about investing in the people that make the State. As the Aadhaar debate rages on, this must not be forgotten.

Aadhaar is designed to address the problem of false identity or ghost beneficiaries. But, as activists and researchers have repeatedly pointed out, ghost beneficiaries are not the only form of corruption(Pradeep Gaur/Mint)

Updated on Oct 05, 2018 03:20 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

When data becomes political it also becomes vulnerable

For all the data the NDA government routinely showcases, citizens’ know far less today about the government’s performance than ever before

A government survey shows Delhi as one of the dirtiest Indian cities with rampant open defecation and poor waste management facilities, indicating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat mission might not have had a big impact in Delhi(Arun Sharma/HT File Photo)

Updated on Aug 28, 2018 04:55 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

How NRC is legitimising exclusion

The State’s excessive reliance on documents for proving citizenship is leading to harassment

People queue at the office to verify and check their names in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), at Morigoan on Saturday, Aug 4, 2018(PTI)

Updated on Aug 15, 2018 11:49 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Are bureaucrats turning politicians?

Establishing direct communication between the Centre and districts will entrench centralisation

There’s now a discernible change in the IAS’ communication strategy. Twitter and op-eds are increasingly being used to keep the public informed of achievements(Priyanka Parashar/MINT)

Updated on Jul 26, 2018 12:05 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

The politicisation of transfers has undermined teacher accountability

Networking and building relationships with politicians is for teachers a necessary survival tactic and therefore a legitimate activity, relegating teaching to the background. Teachers, on their part, have used their access to politicians to game the system.

It is easy to dismiss this culture of victimhood and narrative of weak agency as a deliberate strategy of an apathetic workforce. Indeed, the fact that government school teachers are often overpaid and persistently absent is a testimony to this fact. But dismissing these perspectives merely serves to reinforce them.(Sneha Srivastava/MINT)

Updated on Jul 10, 2018 11:00 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Look beyond rules to reform the bureaucracy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rightly characterised India’s bureaucracy as a 19th century administration struggling to tackle 21st century challenges. But building a 21st century bureaucracy requires changing the frame of the current debate on reforms to move beyond rules and procedures to focus instead on institutionalising a new culture of trust and deliberation

A rarely debated but critical aspect of bureaucratic norms is the role of trust. Public commentary on bureaucracy has long focused on the trust deficit between citizens and the (non-performing) bureaucracy (Representative Photo)

Updated on Jun 01, 2018 01:02 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Four years of Modi government: Confused priorities hit welfare strategy

Jobs, skills and startups have given way to a medley of social sector schemes – housing, sanitation, gas connections, health insurance – that are being used to craft this government’s primary political message.

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.(AFP photo)

Updated on May 26, 2018 09:48 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Why the Aspirational Districts Programme may not change anything on ground

In building an outcome-focused, data-driven framework Niti Ayog has taken an important step. But data is not a substitute for entrenched implementation failure.

The real barrier to tailoring development interventions to district needs is not data (although it certainly is part of the story) but the centralised financing and decision-making structure that districts are embedded in(Bloomberg)

Published on May 15, 2018 02:51 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Time to deepen the federal dialogue

Our fiscal architecture will have to navigate tension between the imperatives of redistributive transfers and rewarding efficient development

Kerala chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and finance minister Thomas Isaac with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.(Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

Published on Apr 25, 2018 11:59 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

No one cares about state budgets

This failure to have a robust debate about state budgets is likely to cost the country heavily. State budgets are entering a period of deep instability as fiscal deficits are on the rise.

The Union budget has created a mini-industry of commentators (this columnist included) and TV talking heads who routinely scrutinise every detail of the budget days after it is presented. State governments expenditure is significantly larger (and growing) than the Centre’s. It is state’s that are in charge of spending and implementing schemes, which affect our everyday lives. And any meaningful commentary and discussion on budgets must necessarily focus on state budgets.(Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

Published on Apr 02, 2018 04:14 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Why simultaneous elections are bad for India’s democracy

Simultaneous elections runs the risk of undermining the representative gains that political decentralisation of the last two decades have made

Polling officers check electronic voting machines (EVMs) at an EVM distribution centre, Phase 2, Noida, NCR (File Photo)(Burhaan Kinu/HT)

Updated on Mar 16, 2018 04:29 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

A better education administration will be decentralised and focused on learning

The shift to learning outcomes is a clear signal that education policy makers are breaking out of the input trap to focus on the learning challenge. While this focus on measurement must be celebrated, attention is also needed on the even greater challenge of translating measurement to action

In the current design of the education system, the district is recognised as a critical unit for education planning and administration. In practice however, districts have little financial flexibility as plans have to be aligned to centrally and state determined line items(Bhushan Koyande/HT)

Updated on Feb 23, 2018 01:00 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Budget 2018: No real ease of living for Indians

Improved rural infrastructure, particularly sanitation, housing, roads and the showstopper of this budget: health insurance, are the key focus. A new promise is being slowly constructed

The focus on health care in this budget is indeed very welcome. For the last three years, the NDA’s health policy has been floundering and in need of urgent attention.

Updated on Feb 01, 2018 07:10 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

After Budget 2018, Centre and states need to focus more on cooperative federalism

The key challenge to deepening federalism in India, as this ongoing battle over CSS demonstrates, lies in determining the optimal allocation of functions across levels of government. Addressing this challenge will require debate and consensus building

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often said that the NDA government promotes “competitive cooperative federalism” without discriminating between states on the basis of the party in power.(PTI)

Updated on Jan 30, 2018 02:03 PM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

The persistent problem of unspent funds is a symptom of a deeper malaise

The bureaucracy’s culture of centralisation and penchant for paper work are the primary culprit

The persistent failure to spend is a direct consequence of India’s broken governance structures. But here’s the paradox. The Indian State is grossly under-resourced particularly in critical areas like health, education, nutrition. Yet, it is precisely in these areas that under-spending is high.(Mint)

Updated on Jan 03, 2018 07:53 AM IST

ByYamini Aiyar

Union Budget 2017 was a status quo budget for the social sector

The finance minister’s status quo approach to social policy should lay to rest, for the moment at least, the ongoing debate about this government’s attempt to radically restructure India’s welfare architecture.

An Indian woman separates mustard seeds from the husk in a paddy field in Roja Mayong village, east of Guwahati on Feb 1.(AP Photo)

Updated on Feb 02, 2017 01:00 AM IST

New Delhi | ByYamini Aiyar

A fight for better governance

Social auditing, now a mandatory requirement under the NREG Act, demonstrates the need for public vigilance and monitoring of developmental works, writes Yamini Aiyar.

HT Image

Updated on Jul 24, 2007 12:43 AM IST

None | ByYamini Aiyar

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