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The key to India's economic boom
A welfare state
Having sensed that its aam aadmi thrust has yielded results, there is going to be no holding back the Congress government on its welfare agenda. There is a plan for enactment of a Right to Food law. There is a commitment to provide 25 kilograms of rice or wheat monthly at Rs 3 a kilogram for families below the poverty line.
Subsidised community kitchens are proposed to be set up in all cities for the homeless people and migrants. And of course, the rural employment guarantee programme is to be strengthened.
There is also a plan to extend rural health insurance to every family living below the poverty line in three years. Social security cover for urban homeless, elderly and backward communities is proposed. Educational loans or scholarships are to be extended to all students.
There is talk of more schools with better trained teachers. There are special incentives planned for survival of the girl child aimed at correcting the adverse sex ratio.
There are also plans to take forward the scheme of monetary incentives to female students on the completion of various levels of schooling. The spends on these initiatives are certain, even though the outcome may not be.
Image: Sonia Gandhi holds a sword presented to her by a party member during an election campaign rally at Karimnagar north of Hyderabad
Photograph: Krishnendu Halder/Reuters
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