Bangalore: The National Science Foundation awarded $4, 25,642 for a study titled “Information and Governance: Experimental Evidence from India”. This grant will help MIT economics professor Abhijit Banerjee and Rohini Pande study the role of information in improving the low-income democracy like India. This would help researchers develop empirical evidence by following the citizens and officials for two years in Delhi by examining the impact of information on the performance of the local government. Oklahoma’s Republican Senator Tom Coburn released his annual “Wastebook” this week and has a detailed economic study on Indian politicians as an example of government waste and profligacy. Few of the side projects mentioned as wasteful in Coburn’s book are $113,227 for a video game preservation centre in New York, $10 million for a remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan, $765,828 to subsidize a “pancakes for yuppies” program in Washington, DC, and $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking.

Coburn was also angry that American tax dollars were used to finance a well-liked actuality television show in India called Let’s Design where hopeful stylists create chic clothes using cotton. The winners get a trip to Paris to meet international designers. And the American taxpayer helps foot the bill.

The show, now in its third season, is the creation of the Cotton Council International, a trade association in place of the US cotton industry. The council received $20.3 million in corresponding funds last year under a United States Agriculture Department agenda to endorse and promote products overseas.

Frankly, why fritter dollars endorsing cotton in India where cotton production time after time outpaces domestic demand?

Allen A Terhaar, executive director of the Cotton Council told The New York Times one reason was to help “keep the price of cotton high and to promote cotton over synthetic materials.” The second reason was to create a “future market” for American exports.

“Right now, India produces enough cotton for its domestic consumption,” Terhaar told The New York Times. “But as the textile industry there grows and as the middle class expands, there’s going to be a demand for more cotton, and it will be more than they are able to produce. We want to keep cotton in front of the India consumers, and the Market Access Program helps us do that.”

In the end, it all comes down to whether India’s political culture needs to be studied and if the findings of the study can be applied in the democratic government of India. Is spending $4, 25,642 for a study titled “Information and Governance: Experimental Evidence from India” worth it?