De-risking Bharat through UBI

Stripped of political hyperbole, that is exactly what rural India- in other words, Bharat as is evocatively called - yearns for.

“My light bill is too much,” moaned Kaluram, a small farmer near Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, when a colleague and I conducted a village meeting. He had dug a well and installed an electric pump four months ago. Making some quick assumptions and calculations about the working of the pump, I said that he seemed to have a valid complaint. “Ask him how long he runs the pump,” another farmer whispered. Kaluram sheepishly admitted he never turned off the pump! The power bill was entirely justified. I noticed then that the new clothes he sported had obviously cost him a