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India could announce a universal basic income (UBI) scheme in the upcoming annual budget due to be presented at the beginning of February, analysts at Ambit Capital wrote in a research report dated Dec. 6.

The brokerage argues the budget is likely to feature more fiscal transfers for the country’s poorest and adds there is a “high probability” of a UBI being launched on a pilot basis.

In “India’s long road — The Search for Prosperity”, Vijay Joshi, an Emeritus Fellow at Merton College, Oxford University argues for paying a fixed 17,500 rupee ($257) income to each Indian household at the cost of 3.5 percent of GDP. Joshi calculates the figure based on the so-called Tendulkar methodology of measuring the poverty line.

India’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian was quoted by local media in September as saying that a UBI will be a key focus of the next economic survey. The annual report is due to be released at the end of January.

Subir Gokarn, a former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India and an executive director of the International Monetary Fund, also outlined the potential benefits of a UBI for the country in a September article for the Economic Times.