Blog

Alaska’s budget dilemma

Alaska is continuing its nearly two year long discussion to balance the budget. There are essentially four alternatives (a) sell more oil at low prices, treat receipts are revenue; (b) reduce expenditure; (c) raise taxes, especially introduce an income tax; and (d) raid the Permanent Fund. The discussion has now centered around either an income tax or raiding the Permanent Fund.

Alaska’s budget woes

We’ve been inspired by Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend. With its current budget crisis, we can witness in real time how politicians will try to steal from future generations. Our member, Rahul Basu, writes on how Alaska should view its problems. We hope their Permanent Fund Dividend is restored.

Latest CEC meeting: DMF portal, drones

The Coordination-cum-Empowered Committee on Mineral Development and Regulation (CEC) meets at irregular intervals. The minutes and meeting notes provide fascinating reading. We had recommended the use of LiDAR, drones and mobile weighbridges to keep a tight leash on mining. We also recommend participatory budgeting for District Mineral Foundations (DMFs). It is positive that the Central Government is creating a portal for monitoring …

New Paper on Goa’s mining

Intergenerational Equity Case Study: Iron-ore Mining in Goa is a new paper by our member, Rahul Basu. “The public trust doctrine makes natural resources a part of the commons, owned equally by all, and legally owned by the state. The resources and opportunities that the present generation have inherited must be available to future generations in perpetuity. In the Goa …

Video explanation of our movement

We have created a youtube playlist to explain our movement. Here’s the list of videos: The five principles of mining (4:22) Frequently asked questions on the 5 principles (12:57) What we expect if we implement the 5 principles (6:23) How deviations from the 5 principles attract the Resource Curse (5:16) How the legal mining system is looting the people (13:19) How the Congress and BJP have stabbed Goans …