Context:
• Rising wealth inequality (top 1% owns ~40% of wealth), automation job-loss, gig precarity, climate displacement and mental health insecurity → revive UBI debate.
• UBI = periodic, unconditional cash transfer to every citizen — not tied to employment or income tests.
Key Highlights:
- Why Universality Matters
• Breaks free from Bismarck / Beveridge models → rights-based welfare anchored in citizenship.
• Removes exclusion errors of targeted schemes, bureaucratic burdens, stigma, leakage.
• Simple pipeline → especially with Aadhaar + DBT + Jan Dhan stack. - India’s Equality Illusion
• PIB citing consumption Gini misleads — wealth inequality is real.
• World Inequality Database: wealth Gini 75 (2023).
• GDP growth ≠ broad well-being.
• India ranked 126 / 137 in World Happiness Report 2023 → behind neighbours. - Evidence and Pilots
• SEWA (MP, 2011-13): improved nutrition, attendance, earnings.
• Global trials (Finland, Kenya, Iran): better mental health; no fall in labour supply. - UBI vs Automation
• McKinsey: up to 800 million jobs displaced globally by 2030.
• India’s informal + semi-skilled workforce vulnerable → UBI = transition buffer. - Political-Economy Effect
• UBI ends transactional “freebie politics”.
• Shifts voter behaviour → demand governance outcomes not patronised benefits.
Relevant Prelims Points:
• UBI = unconditional, universal, periodic cash transfer.
• Wealth Gini (India 2023): 75; top 10% hold ~77% wealth.
• SEWA pilot is India’s key UBI evidence base.
• DG/DBT stack enables delivery.
Relevant Mains Points:
• Inequality erodes social contract + political trust.
• UBI recognises unpaid care work — largely invisible in GDP.
• Fiscal challenge: poverty-line UBI (₹7,620/yr) ≈ 5% of GDP.
• Phased rollout: women / elderly / PwD / low-income first.
• Way Forward:
– rationalise overlapping subsidies
– improve digital access in tribal/remote belts
– do not dismantle PDS/MGNREGA instantly → combine in transition phase
Possible Prelims Question (with answer):
Q. Which pilot within India supplied empirical evidence in favour of UBI outcomes?
A. SEWA Madhya Pradesh pilot (2011-13).
Possible Mains Question:
Is Universal Basic Income a necessary redesign of India’s welfare architecture in an automated, unequal 21st century economy? Discuss.
Value-Addition Point:
Inflation fear is misplaced — hyperinflations (Weimar, Zimbabwe) emerged from production collapse + foreign debt, not modest cash to citizens.
UPSC Relevance (GS-wise):
• GS2 – Social Justice, rights-based welfare
• GS3 – Inequality, labour markets, automation economics