The mid-day meals tragedy

I have an oped in Mint today that draws attention to the how the mid-day meals tragedy is representative of a low level equilibrium in public systems. 

There are numerous similar examples of systems entrapped in such negative equilibriums. Similarly inadequate allocation of resources for food and maintenance, encourages hostel wardens in government welfare hostels and residential schools to manipulate attendance figures. The meagre budgetary allocation for public offices, from that of Tahsildar to the Station House Officer, makes them rely on local interests to manage logistics. These resource gaps provide a fig leaf for officials to make money and sustain a rent-seeking chain. Furthermore, since violation of rules and culpability varies only in shades of grey, enforcement becomes very tricky.

Update 1 (25/08/2013)

So the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women now finds the mid-day meal allocation unrealistic. 

Populist assault on incentives

I have an op-ed in Mint today which talks about how populist policies are distorting incentives.

India's micro-governance failures

I have an op-ed in today's Mint that highlights attention on India's microgovernance failures and what needs to be done to get it right.

Empowering civil servants in using information

I have an op-ed in Mint today that advocates the use of data visualization techniques to bridge the last mile gap with effective utilization of the rich trove of information within public systems.

A National Health Insurance System

I have an op-ed in today's Mint on the principles of a national health insurance scheme for India.

Supervision Deficit

I have an op-ed in today's Mint which highlights the glaring deficiency with our field level supervisory bureaucracy.

Translating teaching to learning

I have an op-ed in Mint today which explores a data-driven, child-centric approach to improving the abysmal student learning levels in our primary schools.

India's WTO challenge

Here is my op-ed with Srikar on the need to align national economic policies with our WTO commitments.

The challenge ahead for US and Europe

Here is my Mint op-ed today which looks at the real challenges facing economies on both sides of the Atlantic.

The pricing problem with subsidies

I have an op-ed in Mint today which examines the implications of tinkering with prices and how subsidies can be delivered without distorting price signals.

Enabling reservation requirements in Urban Housing

My op-ed in Mint today presents an alternative strategy to enabling the regulatory requirement that earmarks certain proportion of land in layouts and built-up area in apartment complexes.

The larger message is that simple and apparently logical regulatory restrictions come up short when faced with real-world implementation. In the circumstances, a more nuanced strategy that aligns the incentives of all sides stands a better chance of success.

The new middle-class deprivation?

I have an op-ed in Mint today which argues that food and consumption necessities are being replaced by education, health care, housing, and energy as the new markers of deprivation for urban middle class across the world.

Managing government land allotments

I have an op-ed in Mint today which advocates an alternative strategy to manage land allotments by selling it at market price (not the basic registration value) to the investor, escrowing the proceeds, and then reimbursing a share of it once the investor complies with his contractual obligations.

Taming the traffic snarl

Here is my op-ed in Mint today which argues that effective traffic management requires going beyond conventional solutions like road widenings and fly-overs and "requires demand-side measures that encourages public transport usage, discourages private vehicles, and enables human beings to make rational decisions about their travel plans and road usage". The material data used in the article are available here.

Mirage of corruption quick-fixes

Here is my op-ed in today's Mint on the complex challenge of addressing corruption and why merely changing incentives and laws may not suffice.

Phasing the cash transfer roll-out

I have an op-ed in Mint today that calls for small pilots to test the cash transfer implementation strategy for each product before the program is fully rolled out.

Managing public resources

Here is my Mint op-ed that talks about allotment of natural resources to private interests only after a competitive price-discovery mechanism.

Case for in-situ slum development

Here is my Mint op-ed today which argues that instead of granting property rights, slums should be redeveloped in situ using, say, multi-storeyed housing

EU and US - divergent policy responses

Here is my op-ed in Mint about the divergent policy responses to the crisis facing the Greek economy. The backgorund material is available in the links here.

Making financial inclusion morew effective

My Mint op-ed on designing financial instruments for the poor that take into account their spending patterns and cognitive biases is available here. The links for the article is available here.