The Future We Need
Village cooperatives around the world seem to be getting to the idea of a basic income. Mendha-Lekha in India is a famous example of a village cooperative with their own Permanent Fund. Similarly, Alaska has a series of Native Regional and Village Cooperatives, many of which pay out an annual dividend, in addition to the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. In China …
We are often asked why we recommend only a Permanent Fund for investment / saving, and only a Citizen’s Dividend for distribution of income. Why not hand the money to the government, there are so many urgent needs? In an earlier post, we discussed why we insist that every paisa received from mining and minerals be deposited into the Permanent Fund.
There are a few reasons we recommend that mineral receipts be saved only in a Permanent Fund as the new non-wasting asset. First, by insisting on all amounts being saved in the Permanent Fund, we are insulating the budget from the boom & bust commodity cycle. When prices are high, revenues expands, and politicians expand expenditure to match. When the prices crash, so …
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 …
In an earlier post, we had discussed who owns minerals in India under the Constitution. In broad terms, state governments usually own onshore minerals, all offshore minerals are owned by the union government. There are two additional aspects of minerals to consider, the public trust doctrine and the intergenerational equity principle. The Public Trust Doctrine, an integral part of common law …
Across the world, the sovereign / federal / union government usually owns title to all minerals. The big exception is the USA where land owners also own the minerals beneath the earth. Even there, the federal government owns 1/3rd of the land. For India though, it is a simple question with a complex answer. Under Article 297 of our Constitution, offshore minerals are …