India floats the idea of a universal basic income
India is very special, traditionalist society. As person who have spent a considerable time living in North India, I would say that people will turn this free money into gold and garments and other status symbols, like mobiles, which in turn, will cause inflation and soaring of prices of gold and other assets.<p>The analogy could be a land in the great plains of US. In San Francisco or New York the value and the price of land is ridiculously huge, while in plains it is almost free - no one needs it. Similarly, free money will simply lose any value and some new form of wealth storage and accumulation would emerge very quickly.<p>BTW, in India there is a free food available in many big temples, but for some reasons lots of people prefer to eat at home. In India people do not run after money per se, but for social status, which is a cornerstone of the Indian culture.<p>India is special. They have many local government programs to give nutrition to the poor, which does not work well due to rampant corruption. Simply distributing money to a bank account will obviously eradicate some corruption, the problem is that, perhaps, a third of population in some areas have no bank account.