Case for UBI should be delinked from pandemic response: Somanathan

Rajan, meanwhile, said that the central and state governments will have to maintain increased spending, whatever the deficit figures may be

The case for a Universal Basic Income in India should stand and fall on its own merit, and not as a response to a crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic, Expenditure Secretary TV Somanathan said on Wednesday.
 

Somanathan was speaking at a virtual session of the National Council of Applied Economic Research’s India Policy Forum. Others who spoke at the same session included Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee, former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, and member ofthe 15th Finance Commission Ashok Lahiri.
 

“A case for Universal Basic Income should stand and fall on its own. One needs to delink the