Universal Basic Income: A disturbing admission

In its simplest form, UBI is a negative income tax

Economists have been debating the desirability of introducing a Universal Basic Income (UBI) in India. Debates about UBI have focussed on its efficacy as an instrument of poverty alleviation; its superiority relative to existing instruments, including Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), subsidies, and the public distribution system; and on whether or not fiscal space exists to make UBI workable. The Economic Survey (ES) engages in this discussion. It correctly points to the support for this idea from all ends of the ideological spectrum. But there is a gloomy assumption regarding the future of Indian political economy underlying