Rahul Gandhi promises minimum income scheme: How it works for India https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/rahul-gandhi-lok-sabha-polls-minimum-income-guarantee-universal-basic-income-1486117-2019-03-25 March 25, 2019
Until a few years ago, UBI -- the idea that government guarantees a fixed monthly income to every citizen of a country -- was largely utopian. But now, with Rahul Gandhi's announcement, the idea has entered the mainstream.
a minimum income guarantee (MIG) scheme if Congress came to power after 2019 Lok Sabha polls, 20 per cent families in poorest of the poor category would be given Rs 72,000 each annually as a minimum income.
UBI was first flagged in the Economic Survey 2016-17 as a conceptually appealing idea and a possible alternative to social welfare programmes.
The Congress president’s minimum income guarantee for the poor is a spinoff of the concept of UBI, which is a model for providing all citizens of the country or a geographic area with a sum of money.
UBI FOR INDIA -- the formula
Poverty line or the estimated minimum level of income needed to sustain life was fixed at Rs 7,620 per person/annum, based on economist Suresh Tendulkar’s poverty line formula.
The survey had estimated that such a model of UBI will cost 4.9 per cent of India’s GDP in comparison to 5.2 per cent of GDP spent on all 950 central sector and centrally sub-sponsored schemes.
Under the scheme, income transfer was envisaged through direct benefit transfer to the concerned individual using Aadhar. It was also recommended to start the scheme with women, elderly people, widows, and persons with disability.