Alternative mechanism: Old GoM wine in a new bottle

Almost all the Cabinet panels formed so far have Jaitley as the head

The latest phrase that policy watchers are now often encountering in post-Cabinet press releases is ‘alternative mechanism’. Such a framework has been used to oversee mergers of state-owned banks, planned privatisation in state-owned companies, minority stake sales, and the Centre’s new exchange traded fund.

The idea, government officials have always reiterated, is to take away some of the workload from the Union Cabinet, and cabinet committee of economic affairs, both led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So what is an ‘alternative mechanism’ (AM).

Essentially, it is a group of ministers empowered with taking certain decisions on the behalf of the