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 …
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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 …
Goa’s District Mineral Foundations – a solution or problem
The District Mineral Foundation (“DMF”) was created by the MMDR Act amendment in early 2015. The DMF is for the benefit of mining affected people and areas. Goa has set up the North Goa and South Goa DMFs. Conservative estimates are that Rs. 180 crores would be annually available to Goa’s DMFs. Unfortunately, the rules of Goa’s DMFs do not follow the law, …
Sub-national Resource Curse
The Natural Resource Governance Institute has published an interesting paper examining the evidence for the sub-national resource curse, and finds mixed results. The paper identifies six main mechanisms for the sub-national resource curse – “mismanagement and corruption, conflicts, local price distortions, shifts in employment away from agriculture and manufactures, socio-environmental damages and degradation, and, finally, migration of workers in the extractive sector. …
Collection of reports on Goa mining
We’ve collated a set of reports on mining in Goa. These include the reports from the SC appointed expert committee on intergenerational equity, monitoring committee for e-auctions, Shah commission, CEC, PAC, EAC of MoEF, CEE / Gadgil, ISM Dhanbad, ERC India, Regional plan 2021, WGEEP (Gadgil), HLWG (Kasturirangan), Karnataka Lokayukta, NCAER and more.
Basic income book list
Scott Santens is maintaining a long list of books on Basic Income.
Swiss referendum & the UK
Indications are that the Swiss rejected the Basic Income referendum 4:1. Yet, this is not a defeat as Jim Pugh explains. Meanwhile, support for Basic Income is rising in the UK. The Green Party already had Basic Income in their general election manifesto. Heather Stewart reports in The Guardian that the Labour party is taking a look at this idea, with both John McDonnell, …
Poverty makes you stupid, cash makes you smarter
Rutger Bregman, the author of “Utopia for Realists: The Case for a Universal Basic Income, Open Borders, and a 15-hour Workweek” shows how poverty is the primary cause of the behavioural problems of the poor, not the cause. The solution – cash. Read his article at the Medium.