On the road to Liberty

The nation spends 37,000 Rs every minute for the parliament to function properly. There is an increase of 3400 percentage in the cost per MP in the last twenty years. The members of Parliament even collect allowances when they boycott the Parliament. They are entitled to several other allowances too. My article titled " The easy guide to how much money you spend on Parliament " was published in The Indian Express on October 27th 2004. At RS 437 crore in 2003-04, it costs the nation Rs 37,000 per minute to keep Parliament functioning. The 400 hours estimated to have been lost in the last two sessions of Parliament in June, July and August 2004 have meant a financial loss to the exchequer ranging from Rs 88 crore to 207 crore. The time parliamentarians spend discussing budgetary issues has declined from 23 per cent in 1970s to a mere 10 per cent today. And in 2004, the Finance Bill had to be passed without any debate at all. The cost per MP (790 MPs, combining both houses) has...

My article titled "Union Budget 1999-2000: Some unanswered questions" was published in the newsletter of the Liberty Institute in May 1999. The 1999-2000 budget has tried not to tread too hard on any toes. In view of the rollbacks that had to be undertaken last year, this was perhaps inevitable. But by the same token, the budget has left many questions unanswered. Rural development The budget has outlined many measures. But it has failed to deal with two basic questions. First, as a former Prime Minister had noted only 15% of all developmental funds actually reach the target. Merely allocating more funds is not an answer to this structural problem. Secondly, the fundamental cause for this is the abject rural productivity. Rural India continues to support 60-70% of the population while the contribution of agriculture to GDP has fallen from over 70% in 1950 to about half that level today. The lesson to be drawn is that the fundamental way to eliminate poverty in the countrysid...