Beyond Doha Round technicalities, the broader economic debate is focused on

The State Finance Commission, although a technical and quasijudicial constitutional entity like the Union Finance Commission, has to help local governments plan for economic development and deliver social justice and public services at the local level.

The CSC scheme in Assam is a poor advertisment for both the centre's e-governance drive and the public-private partnership model. Common service centres have sprung up here with a few government services on offer and appear to exist only to profit private partners availing of the government's subsidy.

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission adopted a reform-linked funding approach, the culmination of two decades of active debate and experimentation in the urban development sector. Yet, progress of both fund utilisation and reforms under the programme has been tardy.

Rural India is much poorer than officially thought. The Planning Commission has accepted the report of a committee, led by economist Suresh Tendulkar, which estimates that more than 41 per cent of rural India is poor. States will now have to issue more below poverty line (bpl) cards. But is the report an accurate index of poverty?

Two years behind schedule, the common service centre (CSC) project is floundering. There are few success stories and no one tells you where Rs 5,742 crore of public funds are going.