At a rally in Chhattisgarh, Congress President Rahul Gandhi made an announcement that if the UPA comes to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, it will provide a guaranteed minimum income to the poor of the country.
The debate started with the Head of Congress’ Data Analytics, Praveen Chakravarty explaining what Minimum Income Guarantee is. Calling it a ‘progressive scheme’, he said that it will only be aimed at the poor.
There are various frameworks that we are thinking about, including the average per capita income, what is the minimum standard of living, inflation, all of that.Praveen Chakravarty, Head of Congress’ Data Analytic
Chakravarty answered questions on the targeting of the recipients of the scheme, if India can afford a scheme like this or if it will affect the already in-place schemes, without giving much on the plan of action. Listing out the economic impact of such schemes, he said that the upcoming manifesto will make things clearer.
When Chakravarty was asked whether the Congress would be willing to do a trial run of the schemes on a state level first, the Congress leader replied that there might not be enough time for that, since the manifesto is out in the next few weeks.
(With inputs from BloombergQuint)
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