That India is going to have a welfare system of some sort is obvious--everywhere else does and the Randian fantasies of no government redistribution ever are simply not going to happen. The minister, while calling for a high-level inquiry into the alleged large-scale corruption indulged in by the previous Congress Governments and tea garden managements, also warned the tea garden managements of stern action unless they implemented the Plantations Labour Act and the Minimum Wages Act in letter and spirit. But the specific allegations are of large scale diversion, whoever actually did it:"As per records, there are nine lakh tea garden workers in Assam. Replace such a system with the poor having simply money to buy those goods and suddenly they have agency again. However, moving the welfare system to a straight cash distribution rather than goods and services strikes me as a very good idea indeed.

Source: Forbes February 04, 2017 07:30 UTC