Articles by Satya Paul

Of late there has been a debate on whether green revolution has reduced absolute poverty among farm families in India Most of the studies examining the issue relate to the all-India rural sector. But since the green revolution has not spread evenly in all the regions, the changes in the level of poverty reported in these studies do not strictly relate to the phenomenon. Haryana is one of those few regions where new agricultural technology has spread more widely than others and therefore the experience of its farmers should provide us a better picture of how poverty among farmers changes with the spread of new farming technology.

Quite apart from its role of raising revenue, the personal income tax has long been regarded as a potent weapon of effecting distributive justice. This paper examines, first, the structure of personal income tax in India to check the extent of progressivity inherent in its structure and, second, the redistributive effects of alternate income tax schedules that are (i) simpler in their structure, (ii) earn no less aggregate revenue, and (iii) are in consonance with the current thinking on taxation, in that the top marginal tax rates arc not too high.