Funding is a major stumbling block for environmental initiatives, says Edward Barbier. Taxing financial transactions or trade in arms, tobacco and fuel might help.

It is a government agency that was set up specially to fund non-profits working on rural development. But of late the Council for People’s Action and Advancement of Rural Technology (CAPART) has been plagued by allegations of corruption and inefficiency. After a few failed attempts to reform CAPART, the government has now decided to overhaul the agency which has close to 12,000 NGOs associated with it.

This vaccine policy is more about spending and coverage, than about protecting children. It is not designed to enhance national public capacities for public immunization programmes, but to justify spending public money on public private partnerships (PPPs) or privately produced vaccines in the name of protection from diseases, whose incidence figures and public health statistics are dubious and industry manufactured.

The targeted public distribution system, intended to provide subsidised food to poor households, is the largest welfare programme in India, with a budget corresponding to about 1% of the net national product. Several studies have found the system to be inefficient and costly in assisting the poor. This paper analyses the case for, and against, replacing a reformed version of this system with a targeted and differentiated cash transfer scheme.