Rahul's scheme for poor to cost Rs 3.5 trn: Congress' data analytics chief

'Scheme to be rolled out in phases. States will be roped in to bear costs'

On Monday, Rahul Gandhi, unveiled the Congress Party’s minimum income plan which entails providing Rs 72,000 per annum to the poorest 20 per cent of households if voted to power. Praveen Chakravarty, who heads the Congress’ data analytics department, spoke to Nitin Sethi and Ishan Bakshi explaining the details of the scheme.  (Edited excerpts) 

Take us through the fiscal as well as the implementation details of what Congress has proposed today as NYAY or the Minium Income Guarantee Scheme? 

The genesis of the idea - a basic minimum income - has been around for a long time. We have been working on this for the