Poor state

Prabhat Patnaik writes on the 8216;The Privatisation Of Planning,8217; and argues that the central government is trying...

Prabhat Patnaik writes on the 8216;The Privatisation Of Planning,8217; and argues that the central government is trying to take away the powers of the state government in two ways 8212; by centralising some in the Union government and decentralising others to local bodies.

He says: 8220;We observe two simultaneously existing paradoxes these days: first, even as planning, for all practical purposes, is being given a burial at the national level, with the eleventh plan document, whatever its worth, not even ready six months into the plan period, there is much emphasis, at the level of the same central government and the same Planning Commission, on detailed planning at the district level. Secondly, even as there is enormous centralisation of powers and resources away from the state governments and towards the Centre, there is simultaneously much emphasis, again at the level of the same central government and the same

Planning Commission, on decentralisation of powers and resources away from the state governments towards the panchayats and urban local bodies. Thus, one paradoxical combination, of 8216;no-planning8217; with 8216;excessive-planning8217;, is matched by another paradoxical combination, of 8216;centralisation8217; with 8216;decentralisation8221;8217;.

It8217;s a deal

The CPM suspects the UPA government is planning to make concessions to the US on WTO as a quid pro quo for delaying the nuclear deal. The lead editorial of the CPM organ warns the government against this. 8220;In the by now widely reported telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Bush, the media attention was mainly focussed on the PM8217;s explanation of the difficulties faced in operationalising the Indo-US nuclear deal. However, according to a Ministry of External Affairs8217; statement issued in Nigeria8217;s Abuja, Dr Singh told President Bush that India remained committed to the successful conclusion of the Doha round WTO negotiations at an early date.8221; Any compromises or concessions on agriculture would be disastrous for millions in India, says the editorial.

Sick children

People8217;s Democracy joins issue with the government on higher education. 8220;It took so long a time for the government to accept that both the children are sick. We are talking about the acceptance of the HRD minister about the 8216;sick higher education8217;. For long we have been arguing that both the children are malnourished and need to be given sufficient and healthy diet. Many have disagreed with it and stated that one child higher education is eating away a major share of the food intended for both and thus it has to be starved to feed the other elementary education. The government always had said that it couldn8217;t cater to the demands and needs of higher education and that they can be better looked after by the private partners. In this background it is really heartening to hear the minister state that higher education is a sick child and now the time has come to give it 8216;its due8217;.8221;

As a percentage of the GDP, the magazine points out, government expenditure on higher education was 0.46 in 1990-91 and decreased to 0.37 in 2003-04.