Free travel for the unemployed.

Rediff reports: Free travel for job interviews .
Mostly all the companies which call you for an interview do reimburse train/air fare. So nothing against it. However this is prone to misuse and can turn out to be a big headache for paying passengers since there is no reimbursement here but a concession in advance. Submitting fake call letters, bribing the booking clerk are all straightforward, well established activities that can be nurtured by such a system. A bit more willingness towards guarding the iterests of paying passengers would surely have ruled out such a system.

This weeks Outlook was an interesting read.

The cover story was excellent.

Vandana Shiva presents a left-wing arguement against the current attempts at helping out the agricultural economy.

Processes that create structural and systemic indebtedness are leaks in the farmers income and livelihood security. Unless these leaks are fixed, more flow of credit will not bail out the farmer and suicides and dispossession will continue. Farmers income is like water in the tank. The new economic policies based on the paradigm of trade liberalization and deregulation of commerce has created a double leak and drain in farmers income.

Gurcharan Das is as eloquent as ever about the need to further economic reform.

In the end, the problems of India’s poor will not be solved by ideology but by good implementation. This needs mental application. We have to focus on the ‘how’, not the ‘what’. It’s easier to abuse India’s bourgeoisie, but more difficult to come up with real answers to real problems.

IOC Loses Rs 2,143 Crore In 45 Days

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) claimed on Tuesday that non-revision of prices of petroleum products (petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene) has resulted in a loss of Rs 2,143 crore to the company during the first two and a half months of the current fiscal. The losses during the first quarter of this fiscal will be much more if prices are not revised immediately.

TradeUnions Ask For the Moon:

The representatives of various trade unions have sought restoration of 12 per cent interest rate on small saving schemes as social security for the salaried class. They have also demanded a cut in prices of LPG, kerosene, diesel and petrol for keeping inflation under control.

Has it happened already?

The Maharashtra State Public Services (Reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, De-notified Tribes, Nomadic Tribes, Special Backward Category and Other Backward Classes) Act, was passed by the Legislature earlier this year.

It makes reservation mandatory in all government and semi-government bodies, education institutions and companies, which have been given aid in the form of government land at concessional rates or any other monetary concessions by the government or is recognised, licensed, supervised or controlled by the government.

The definition is so wide that most industries in the state fall under its ambit.

Hindu Divided Family!

In a curious convergence of the Right and the Left, the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) has called the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) “a good beginning”. SJM leaders also “hope that Left Front will demonstrate the maturity and seriousness in defending the core national interest.”

Court suggests 50% cut in medical college fees

‘‘Out of 126 medical institutions in Maharashtra, fees for 63 institutions has been decided based on the information provided by the institutes. For 26 private colleges which sent defective or deficient information, fees will be at par with government colleges.’’

Swaminomics : An expensive face-lift

How will it be paid? The CMP has no explanation, only a bland declaration that the governments revenue deficit will magically disappear by 2009. But much of the proposed new spending (on education, health, employment) is revenue expenditure. How then will the revenue deficit disappear?

Jayalalithaa lowers domestic power tariff

The Tamil Nadu Government today announced a reduction in power tariff to the domestic consumers, costing the exchequer Rs 910 crore.

Gurcharan Das (author of the excellent India Unbound) writes a letter to his friend the Prime Minister.

You may have to tackle labour laws despite your partners.

After looking around long and hard, I finally found the CMP online. A PDF version is also available.