Two months after our experiment ended, we had the chance on December 28 to discuss our experience and learnings to the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia. As many of you know, the Commission is responsible for setting policy on many social programs that benefit the average and the poor India, among them the poverty line. Given the uproar over the Commission setting the number at Rs. 32/person/day in late September, we were pleasantly surprised to find Dr. Ahluwalia receptive to many of our ideas and suggestions. We formally handed over our blog report to him as well. (We hope to make the report publicly available soon – in the meanwhile, lookout for our upcoming experiment executive summary post.)
Given this very positive response from a Cabinet Minister ranking official, we hope to continue our outreach efforts to the government as well as the private sector on how they can incorporate our findings into policies and corporate social responsibility efforts, respectively.
