Gandhi knew better than 'Marxists, market messiahs, materialists and behaviouralists': CEA

NEW DELHI: Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian has quoted Mahatma Gandhi to advocate his idea of a universal basic income instead of giving a slew of subsidies to the poor.

"Despite making remarkable progress in bringing down poverty from about 70 percent at independence to about 22 per cent in 2011-12, it can safely be said that “wiping every tear from every eye” is about a lot more than being able to imbibe a few calories. And the Mahatma understood that better, deeper, and earlier than all the Marxists, market messiahs, materialists and behaviouralists," Subramanian says in the survey.

"Today, a radical option to realise Gandhiji’s objective presents itself and has entered the policy consciousness in India and around the world: Universal Basic Income, UBI for short," it says.

Subramanian says UBI provides cash transfers which respects, not dictates, recipients’ choices.

"This chapter examines UBI in the form of a conversation with the Mahatma, and indeed a conversation that the Mahatma would have had with himself had such a proposal been put to him," says Subramanian.