Dr. U S Awasthi (@drusawasthi) tweeted recently: iffco agrees with Ajay Chibber of The Independent Evaluation Office of GOI that subsidies should people based than product based.
On May 30,soon after Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister ,Dr Ajay Chhibber, the first director-general of the Independent Evaluation Office, set up to review the outcomes of various central government programmes, submitted his ‘suggestions’ to PM Narendra Modi.
Dr Chhibber is a former IMF economist who was tasked with the job by Dr Man Mohan Singh, the former Prime Minister.
Chibber came up with several suggestions such as replacing the Planning Commission with a ‘Reform and Solutions Commission’ while apportioning its role as an allocator of resources to states to the Finance Commission and the allocation of funds to the central ministries to the finance ministry.
On subsidies he categorically said that they should be people based rather than product based. Whether govt of India accepts Chibber’s recommendations or not is anybody’s guess but cooperative giant Iffco has thrown its weight behind the people-friendly nature of subsidies. Dr Awasthi has been advocating for direct transfer of subsidies to the farmers umpteen times in these columns.