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“John Lanchester discusses right-wing and left-wing versions of Universal Basic Income, and concludes that it is currently the only progressive big idea on the table. This may be the case in Europe, but in India, it is very much an idea of the right. The proposal for UBI in the government's economic survey of 2017, for example, viewed cash transfers as replacing a host of existing schemes and benefits for the poor, and explicitly rejected the idea of UBI as a transfer from the rich to the poor. There was no mention, by any of the political parties proposing UBI, of any form of progressive taxation for resource mobilisation. Cash transfers are likely to be the beginning of a slippery slope towards a minimal state. In India, where millions of people are malnourished, illiterate or poorly educated, and liable to die of avoidable diseases, UBI is not a progressive alternative.” — Madhura Swaminathan