The Goa Guidelines on Intergenerational Equity

While Goa is setting new precedents in the implementation of Intergenerational Equity, it has a longer history with the idea. Intergenerational equity became a part of the discourse with the Brundtland Commission report “Our Common Future” in 1987. At the same time, Edith Brown Weiss headed a six member Advisory Group set up by the United Nations University. The six …

Basic income and poverty

A fierce debate on whether a universal basic income can practically fight poverty has broken out. Kate McFarland reports on the fight at BIEN. We are proposing a Citizen’s Dividend, which deals with both the major objections: it has an identified source of financing, and it is distributed as a right of ownership, not a benefit. On the other hand, the …

Announcing the Goenchi Mati Creatathon

Kokum, a design non-profit, is hosting a Creatathon for the Goenchi Mati campaign. We are thrilled! Its all day on sat&sun, 16&17 July, 2016, at the Design Center, Porvorim. There is also a talk on thursday 7th July, 2016 at 6:30pm the same venue introducing the idea and updating everyone on the current status. Be creative & have some fun if …

AAP : what about the lease renewals scam?

Arvind Kejriwal, AAP conveynor, recently mentioned in Goa that AAP will initiate action against those implicated by the Shah Commission in the mining scam. This is welcome. While many investigations have commenced, not one person has been convicted so far. We hope that Arvind Kejriwal will also raise the issue of the much larger Goa’s mining lease renewal scam, which …

Is Jay Hammond having the last laugh

Alaska’s Permanent Fund and the Permanent Fund Dividend was the brainchild of Jay Hammond. The origins of the idea was from the sharing of the income from salmon runs (a renewable resource) in the area he lived. It was extended to the creation of a Permanent Fund from the receipts from oil (a non-renewable). His intention was to keep the oil money …

The village with its own Permanent Fund

The tribal village of Mendha in the panchayat of Lekha (Mendha Lekha) in Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra has been at the forefront of self-governance. Their famous slogan is “Dilli Mumbai Amcha Sarkar, Amache Ganavat Amhich Sarkar” (In Delhi and Mumbai is our Government, In our village we ourselves are the Government). From the 1930s itself, the village has been fighting for its rights …

Mesa County, Colorado sets up a Permanent Fund

In the US, the land owner owns the sub-soil mineral rights. However, the federal government is a substantial land owner. The federal government distributes some of its royalties to the County. The Mesa County Federal Mining Lease District Board of Directors explains why it is setting up a Permanent Fund, in contrast with the state of Colorado: “In Colorado all these …