Reforming India's Public Distribution System

In his essay named “The Political Economy of the State”, Devesh Kapur states that there are three key reasons why India’s innumerous poverty reduction programs have failed¹:

• Administrative costs: A large share of the resources set aside for poverty reduction programs is lost in either the administrative costs or are siphoned off.
• Corruption: The public functionaries have a lot of discretionary power – they can decide who are eligible for the program and they also have control over the actual disbursement of subsidies. As a result, they can easily engage in corrupt behavior.
• Lack of accountability

Let’s take example of the public distribution scheme (PDS) in India – it checks all above boxes. In the current system, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) provides grains which are distributed below market price to the poor, through fair price shops a.k.a. ration shops. This system is highly inefficient.

• It has high administrative costs: In 2012, the Indian union government spent 750 billion rupees on the PDS; however 21% of the country remained malnourished. In the two decades prior to 2012, the food production in India increased by 50%; however; there was little decrease in malnourishment levels.²
• It is highly corrupt: In fact, it is perceived to be the most corrupt public delivery system in India. The beneficiaries receive benefits worth only 12% of the money allocated³.
• There is no accountability

The structure of PDS needs to be overhauled to make the system more efficient:

• Instead of indirect subsidies, implement direct cash transfer: In the current system, the government provides an indirect subsidy by providing food items below the market price through FCI. Subsidies are also given to the ration shop operators. Many such shop operators sell the FCI-provided food items in the black market and sell sub-standard grains in their shops. The government should transfer the money directly into the beneficiaries’ bank accounts. This will eliminate any possibility of corruption by the shop operators.
• Close the ration shops: Instead of distributing grains through ration shops, the government should let poor buy food from the open market e.g. through retail shops. The amount of direct cash transfer should be linked to the market prices of grains and food items. Closing of ration shops will eliminate leakages in the system.
• Aadhar cards and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana should be pushed aggressively. An Aadhar card will ensure that poor people have an identification document which they can use to open a bank account. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana relaxes the bank account norms such as minimum balance, so that poor people are brought on board the banking system.

The National Food Security Bill, 2011 mentions some of these mechanisms; however unfortunately, the bill wasn’t passed in the parliament⁴. However, the government has already implemented direct cash transfer to replace few subsidies – most notable being the LPG subsidy⁶. Therefore, one can be hopeful that it will come to PDS as well.

Sources:

1.       Devesh Kapur, “The Political Economy of the State” (Oxford, 2010)

2.       “As Grain Piles Up, India’s Poor Still Go Hungry”, The New York Times, 7 June 2012, link, accessed 1 November 2015

3.       “No proof required: PDS or NREGA, corruption must go on”, The Indian Express, 1 November 2014, link, accessed 1 November 2015

4.       “The National Food Security Bill, 2011”, PRS Legislative Research, link, accessed 1 November 2015

5.       “Direct Cash Transfer will be very beneficial to the people, says Chidambaram”, NDTV, 27 November 2012, link, accessed 1 November 2015

6.       “Cash subsidy on LPG world's largest direct benefit transfer scheme”, The Economic Times, 25 December 2014, link, accessed 1 November 2015

Madari - Coke Studio

Madari is one of the tracks from the Coke Studio episode produced by Clinton Cerejo. The song has been sung by Vishal (from Vishal-Shekhar duo) and Sonu Kakkar. Most of you would remember the song ‘Babuji jara dheere chalo’, which was a superhit around a decade back. Well, Sonu Kakkar sung that! But trust me, the Sonu Kakkar you will see in this song is totally different from that one.

If one were to ask me what is so great about this song, I would just say that this song will make you dance, laugh and cry in a span of 8 minutes. How many songs you know will have a similar effect on you? This song is powerful, magical and mind you, you will get addicted!

I would suggest that you watch the video too to appreciate this song and the artistes fully.

The song starts off with haunting keyboard notes and gradually acoustic guitar and mandolin start to make their presence felt. At 0:26, the mandolin comes in full flow. The Mandolin piece, played effortlessly by Mr. Chandrakant Lakshapati is a very important part of this song, you will realise why I am saying this as you listen to the rest of the song. The song picks pace at 0:58 with some great work on acoustic guitar by Clinton Cerejo himself. I love the way how the song starts, the sequence till now perfectly builds the platform on which Vishal and Sonu Kakkar do absolute wonders!

Vishal’s husky voice is perfectly suited to this song. He compliments the lyrics with the depth that naturally comes with his voice. Notice that the vocals at the start are at a pretty low note and Vishal does full justice to them. Mind you, this is the same singer who sings high notes with supreme ease! What a versatile singer!

The section from 1:08 to 3:10, which Vishal sings, is full of energy. It makes you dance with joy. The mandolin meanwhile keeps weaving its magic! Between 2:46 and2:57, you will see Mr. Chadrakant just sitting and playing the mandolin as if it’s very easy and anybody can do it! Look at the sheer effortlessness with which he is playing it, beautiful isn’t it?

And now comes the most beautiful part of this song. Sonu Kakkar, who till now, has just been standing there gets into action and how! How many times have you seen a singer take the limelight away from Vishal? Well, here, Sonu does exactly that.

The first ten seconds of her singing (from 3:03 to 3:11) are more than enough to tell you that this singer is something else! Your ears are now glued to the song wondering what she will do next. Trust me, her singing only gets better. Now just sit back, close your eyes and concentrate on the music. Let Sonu Kakkar’s vocals engulf you and make you experience what true happiness is. At 4:21, notice the smile of appreciation on Vishal’s face. He like us is wondering how on the earth can she sound so beautiful?! The words which Sonu is singing are by none other than Bulleh Shah, the famous and revered Sufi poet from 17^th century. Do not miss the bass guitar in background when Sonu is singing. Also, at 4:30, you will see the peculiar way in which the percussion instrument is being played. This is what Coke Studio is known for – innovation!

Vishal joins Sonu at 4:54 – try to understand the note at which Vishal is singing here. It is unbelievably high! Only Vishal can sing in that high note and his voice doesn’t break at all. Mandolin kicks in again at 5:28 to belt out a beautiful tune.

The next part of the song sung by Vishal starts at 5:46. This part makes me very emotional and makes my eyes well up every time I listen to it. The lyrics talk about the greatness of God and how he alone is behind everything that happens in this world. I am reminded of how powerful and at the same time how loving God is. I am also reminded of my lack of gratitude towards him. I have many times thought that I am independent, I can do anything I want and God doesn’t deserve any credit for my life. But no, I realise that though I am just a tiny drop in the scheme of God’s things, he loves me and will always there for me. I am moved to tears because I realise that I should be more thankful to God for the blessings he has showered on me!

Do not miss the small harkats by Vishal in this part; also notice how his hand movements follow his singing. Beautiful! It shows how involved he is with the song.

This song shows what can be done when you have an excellent team. Every person who is in this music video has done his best and the result is a very sincere and beautiful song which enthrals us. Thank you Clinton Cerejo and team, we are indebted. 

P.S.: I wrote this post for www.musicreprise.com (link: http://musicreprise.com/madari-cokestudio.php).

Music Reprise is a music website started by my brother Gaurav and his friend Vishal. 

Seth Godin, as usual, makes mighty lot of sense in this post - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/01/bill-james-and-you.html

Your past work is the most reliable indicator to your future performance. Not everybody is good at gauging your inner potential.

Yet Another Scam and No Justice in Sight

Adarsh Housing scam is disturbing at many levels. Not because of its scale, the money involved is indeed very small compared to biggies like CWG! What is disturbing is the collusion between politicians and defense personnel. Over last few years, credibility of armed forces has been on decline. Fake encounter killings in J&K (civilians were killed and shown as terrorists for bravery medals), land grabs by senior army officers and now 'Adarsh' scam, in which former high-ranked defense officers occupied flats which were meant for Kargil widows. Widows of soldiers like Saurabh Kalia, whose body was inhumanly mutilated by Pakistan Army.

This presents a frightening picture of this country's future. No public institution is now free from corruption. The celebrated 'common man' is left with absolutely no support. Congress government continues to turn blind eye to such scams and BJP is still busy in misguiding people by using religion. Other smaller parties are content with caste politics.

One can't help but be very cynical about future of 'Bharat' (or 'The Other Hindustan' as PM-in-waiting' calls it) and its poor disowned inhabitants.

Still confused between Blogger and Wordpress! :|

I started blogging on blogger back in 2005. Then I saw some blogs on wordpress and simply fell in love with their templates. So, I shifted to wordpress, but was disillusioned in no time. I found posting (especially uploading images in a post) pretty confusing and returned to blogger. Again, after some months, I shifted to wordpress and now, at this moment, I feel like coming back AGAIN to blogger!

The reasons this time are,
1. Archiving
In blogger, archive is shown in a tree format, where you can click on each month and view the posts immediately. In Wordpress, when you click on the month, you are taken to a new page which lists all the corresponding posts. And those are in 'summary' format, you have to click on 'View Full Post' to read complete post. This is too much clicking for a reader. In blogger, it takes much less clicks and you are not navigated to a new page unless you wish to read the post.

2. Blogroll
Blogger's blogroll displays the latest post on that blog while Wordpress has a basic simple blogroll.

3. Commenting on other's blogs
When commenting, it's easier to do it through blogger id, because it's linked to the gmail id and most of the times, I am already logged-on on Google. So, no need to login again. Also, using blogger id gives you an option to receive follow-up comments on your e-mail.

4. Templates
Blogger seems to have added some new templates and I quite like my current one!

The only minus point with blogger is, if you need to import posts from another blog of yours, you need a .xml file while in wordpress, you just need to enter the url and login details, wordpress takes care of the rest.

So, I have decided to maintain both blogs. Every new post will come up on both blogger and wordpress while archives before 2007 are available only on wordpress (www.sanketaradhye.wordpress.com)

Diwali!

This post was originally posted on my wordpress blog on Oct. 17, 2009.

Diwali – one of the biggest festivals in India. Diwali means light, happiness, new clothes, crackers, great food. I am typing this sitting in my hostel in Bangalore, while my family is 800 Kms away. Almost everybody from my mother’s side of family is there, celebrating Diwali together. There is something about festivals, doesn’t matter if you are away from family for rest of the year. Festivals have less to do with God or religion, they are really about whole family meeting at one place and catching up on each other’s lives.

For me, this is not first Diwali away from home. In four years of engineering, Diwali always came in submission days, the busiest days in any engineering student’s schedule. I had my share of fun here in Bangalore. Yesterday, I had gone to my uncle’s place whom I hadn’t seen in last ten years! I couldn’t find the house by myself, so he was coming to pick me up. We didn’t need any help to identify each other. It works like magic, something inside you tells that this person is from your own family. Contrary to what I had feared, there was no awkwardness at all. My uncle’s mother, was as affectionate as I have always remembered her. Ages ago, I had gone to their house in Harihar. I was 10 years old then!

There were two parallel conversations. I was talking to my uncle (my mother’s cousin) in English and to his mother in Marathi. You see, my family is a marriage of Maharashtra and Karnataka. My father is a Maharashtrian while my mother is a Kannadiga, though she was born and brought up in Maharashtra. So, only Marathi was spoken in my home. I used to hear Kannada only when mom’s side of relatives visited. Though I can understand Kannada a bit, I can’t speak it. And my uncle can’t speak Marathi!

That brings me to a promise I have made to myself umpteen number of times but never took enough efforts to fulfill it – to learn Kannada. Literally speaking, it is my mother-tongue. And now when I am in the capital of Karnataka, the centre of Kannada culture, its high time I work towards it.

When coming back to hostel, the atmosphere in the city was beautiful. Lamps in front of each and every house, colourful lighting everywhere, and the smell of crackers..aah! Diwali was finally here. More surprises were waiting for me in the hostel. Some enthusiastic friends of mine had done Lakshmi-Puja. And then, it was time for crackers! What a joy! Diwali just doesn’t feel like Diwali without crackers. Thanks to my dear friends, Jayaram especially for arranging everything.

Not a bad Diwali, right?!

Shifted to Wordpress

I have shifted my blog to sanketaradhye.wordpress.com

See you there! :)

Jab Kisi Ki Taraf....

So, I was going through my music collection today and came upon this song. Wow, I haven't listened to this in years!

This is a piece of great work by Jatin-Lalit and Sameer.

What prompted me to write this post is a line of dialogue Ajay Devgan says just before the song starts. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a video on youtube which covers that part.

It goes like this,

Kajol: Tumne us ladki ko bataya kyon nahi?

Ajay: Yeh pyaar bhi ajeeb cheez hai. Jab iqraar ki puri ummeed ho to bhi dil kehne se darta hai. Aur mujhe to inqaar ka pura yakeen hai. Voh kisi aur ko chahati hai.

We all have been there! You like this girl/guy but at the same time you know that nothing can happen because she/he is already committed to somebody else. And you don't really want to break their relationship. You are just content at getting to spend time with that person, with no expectations. Of course, its not simple, but gradually you do accept the reality.

Disclaimer: This has NOTHING to do with my personal life!

Disappointed at NDA's loss.

Happy that next government will be a stable one.

Glad that left parties went down.

Pleasantly suprised at MNS's success.

Happy that Sharad Pawar has been denied a shot at becoming PM.

Sarca(u)stic ;-)

Whenever my mother has a holiday, she is a completely different person in the morning. You see, my mother likes to ‘use’ the holiday productively which means cleaning and putting the house ‘in order’. I simply shudder at this very idea! So obviously, my dear mother and me have peculiar conversations. Like these,

Dear Mother (DM): (looking at my bed) What’s with so many things lying on your bed? How do you even manage to sleep on that?

Me: (with cool voice and tone of an ascetic) Just four feet, that’s enough space for a man to sleep.

DM: Gives an expression filled with disbelief, disgust, anger.

I ignore her as usual and go off to jogging. I come back after 15-20 minutes,

DM: You back so fast?! (sarcastically) For how much time do you jog?

Me: Umm……..that would be……..2 minutes.

DM: I knew so! Actually, I think you go out only to buy the paper.

Me: You are absolutely right mother. I jog from my bike to the paper-stall wala. And even such a small distance takes me 2 minutes!

DM: Gives an expression filled with disbelief, disgust, anger.

I ignore her, as usual.

Atithi Deo Bhav!

This Kasab episode is frustrating me. Public prosecutor, Mr. Ujjval Nikam told media yesterday that this case will run for minimum six months. That too if court functions every day. So, we can safely assume that it will go on for eight to nine months. Kasab most probably will appeal in Supreme Court challenging the verdict. Another three-four months wasted there. After that, he will file a mercy petition with President. Considering what is happening in Afzal Guru's case, there is a very high probability that Kasab will be a guest of Indian government for next 2-3 years! This is NOT justice.

Can't we make an exception and speed up this case? Why I see no urgency? 

Kasab is a happy man though. He thinks a place in Jannat is already reserved for him, shows no sign of remorse and has put on four kilos in the mean time. And why not, after all our culture says, Atithi Deo Bhav! So what if he happens to be a cold-blooded murderer?! 

मी का म्हणुन मतदान करु?

माझ्या आईच्या भाषेत मी आता २४ वर्षांचा घोडा झालो असलो तरी माझे अजून मतदार यादीत नाव नाहीये. I know, I know....ही काही अभिमानाने सांगण्याची गोष्ट नाहीये. याला माझा आळस म्हणा किंवा apathy. सध्या Jaago Re वाले बरीच ’जनजाग्रुती’ करत आहे्त; तेंव्हा मला पण जरा चेव चढला. म्हटले की यादीत नाव नोंदवण्याआधी कोण उमेदवार आहेत ते तरी बघावं. पण त्यांची नावं बघून मात्र माझा पूर्ण भ्रमनिरास झाला :(

Congress चे जे उमेदवार महाशय आहेत ते याच मतदा्रसंघातून ५ वेळा निवडुन आले आहेत. असे असूनही त्यांनी या भागासाठी काय कामे केली बुवा असे कोणी विचारले तर मोजून ५ ही सांगता येणे अवघड आहे! BJP कडून जे उभे आहेत त्यांची ही पहिलीच निवडणुक आहे. मागच्या काही महिन्यांतले त्यांचे फालतू publicity stunt बघून मला वाटलेच होते की हे सगळं निवडणुकीसाठीच असणार!

या दोघांमधलं कोणीही निवडून या्वं अशी माझी अजिबात इच्छा नाहीये! मग मी मतदान करण्य़ाला काय अर्थ आहे?

It's not unpatriotic to love Slumdog Millionaire!!! Yes, I liked the movie and I am an Indian.

150 Things To Do Before You Turn Thirty

I have seen this tag on so many blogs over last few days. And why not, it's a wonderful tag! 

The name is '150 Things To Do Before You Turn Thirty'.

The rules are,

1. The things you have already done - make them bold.

2. Italics is for things that you are dying to do!

Here I go!!

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink

02. Swam with dolphins (That would be so freakin cool!!)

03. Climbed a mountain 

04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive

05. Been inside the Great Pyramid

06. Held a tarantula

07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone (Hmm.... ;)

08. Said “I love you” and meant it

09. Hugged a tree

10. Bungee jumped

11. Visited Paris

12. Watched a lightning storm at sea

13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise

14. Seen the Northern Lights

15. Gone to a huge sports game

16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa

17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables

18. Touched an iceberg

19. Slept under the stars

20. Changed a baby’s diaper

21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon

22. Watched a meteor shower

23. Gotten drunk on champagne

24. Given more than you can afford to charity

25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope

26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment

27. Had a food fight (and I don't even want to have one! May be, it's because of the 'Annam Purnabrahmam' concept we have in India. I don't even like covering someone with cake on birthday, why waste a delicious cake?! :-|

28. Bet on a winning horse

29. Asked out a stranger (Kaash ine guts hote! Hehe!)

30. Had a snowball fight

31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can

32. Held a lamb (They are so cute!!)

33. Seen a total eclipse

34. Ridden a roller coaster (Feels amazingly scary :)

35. Hit a home run

36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking (People say I look like a fool whenever I dance...so yeah..I have done that!)

37. Adopted an accent for an entire day

38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment

39. Had two hard drives for your computer (Why this question is here in this list?! So what if I had two hard drives?)

40. Visited all 50 states

41. Taken care of someone who was drunk

42. Had amazing friends

43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country

44. Watched whales

45. Stolen a sign

46. Backpacked in Europe (Euro-trip baby!)

47. Taken a road-trip

48. Gone rock climbing

49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach

50. Gone sky diving

51. Visited Ireland (I am just in awe of Ireland and the scandinavian countries....will go there one day for sure)

52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love (Yeah... :(

53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them

54. Visited Japan

55. Milked a cow

56. Alphabetized your CDs (I am not Monica, am I?!)

57. Pretended to be a superhero (Super-heroine rather!)

58. Sung karaoke

59. Lounged around in bed all day

60. Played touch football

61. Gone scuba diving

62. Kissed in the rain

63. Played in the mud

64. Played in the rain

65. Gone to a drive-in theatre

66. Visited the Great Wall of China

67. Started a business

68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken

69. Toured ancient sites

70. Taken a martial arts class

71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight

72. Gotten married

73. Been in a movie

74. Crashed a party

75. Gotten divorced

76. Gone without food for 5 days

77. Made cookies from scratch

78. Won first prize in a costume contest

79. Ridden a gondola in Venice

80. Gotten a tattoo

81. Rafted the Snake River

82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”

83. Gotten flowers for no reason

84. Performed on stage

85. Been to Las Vegas

86. Recorded music

87. Eaten shark

88. Kissed on the first date

89. Gone to Thailand

90. Bought a house

91. Been in a combat zone

92. Buried one/both of your parents

93. Been on a cruise ship

94. Spoken more than one language fluently (No problem for us Indians :D)

95. Performed in Rocky Horror

96. Raised children

97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour

98. Passed out cold

99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country

100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over

101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge

102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open

103. Had plastic surgery

104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived

It was not exactly an iaccident. I was climbing Kalsubai Peak with friends. There was a very difficult rock patch and my hand slipped. I somehow held on but I was not in a position to climb further. Pratik came down a bit and gave me a hand. If not for him, I am sure I would have been dead right now. Thanks buddy!

105. Wrote articles for a large publication

106. Lost over 100 pounds

107. Held someone while they were having a flashback

108. Piloted an airplane

109. Touched a stingray

110. Broken someone’s heart

111. Helped an animal give birth

112. Won money on a TV game show

113. Broken a bone

114. Gone on an African photo safari

115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears

116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol

117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild

118. Ridden a horse

119. Had major surgery

120. Had a snake as a pet

121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon

122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period

123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States

124. Visited all 7 continents

125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days

126. Eaten kangaroo meat (Now why would I do that?)

127. Eaten sushi

128. Had your picture in the newspaper

129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about

130. Gone back to school

131. Parasailed

132. Touched a cockroach

133. Eaten fried green tomatoes

134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey

135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read

136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (Again, WTH??)

137. Skipped all your school reunions

138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language

139. Been elected to public office

140. Written your own computer language

141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream

142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care

143. Built your own PC from parts

144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you

145. Had a booth at a street fair

146. Dyed your hair

147. Been a DJ

148. Shaved your head

149. Caused a car accident

150. Saved someone’s life

 Tag open to anybody who wants to take up! :)