The Subsidy Idea

 It may be premature to pronounce judgment, but the new year could mark the beginning of the end of one of the grand ideas that India has tried to put into practice: one section of society subsidizing another. It began with the idea of the rich subsidising the poor, but soon went badly wrong.

 First, the subsidies mostly did not go to the poor, because they were captured by the politically influential. Second, the rich didn