Viksit Bharat 2047: Addressing Governance Challenges

Atmanirbharta and AmritKaal. These are two terms we often encounter while discussing India’s growth trajectory for the Viksit Bharat 2047 mission. The factors of demographic dividend, a huge market for goods and services, strategic geographical location at the crossroads of the West and the East, a prominent actor in the Global South and a foreign policy that is based on principles such as Panchsheel and Non-Alignment  has made India unmissable in the Global Development Agenda. But there are significant obstacles as well and the foremost challenge is that if our governance institutions are efficient and capable to drive us to these targets?

Good Governance & Its Principles: 

While there is no internationally accepted definition of good governance per se, a general understanding includes practices that improve the quality of life of the citizens and has a “normative or evaluative attribute to governing”. Good Governance is characterized by certain key elements, such as transparency, accountability, rule of law, public participation, citizen-centric governance  etc., – in policy making, policy implementation and policy evaluation supplemented by efficient bureaucracy and an independent judiciary. 

However, lately there has been a rise in instances of corruption, bureaucracy inefficiency, lack of transparency and accountability from public service providers, overcentralisation of power in nations all around the world. Corrupt governments in West Asia failed to handle militancy and separatism, allowing these issues to spiral out of control, for which the whole world is still paying the price for. Similarly, North Korea known for its economic isolation and human rights abuses is largely driven by a lack of transparency in governance. 

These aforementioned instances are the epitome of poor governance mechanisms. Overcentralisation of power leads to poor governance at the grassroots level, thus leaving the specific needs of communities and regions unheard. These few examples are a reflection of how poor governance practices have impacted countries worldwide, creating ripple effects that extend to other nations, particularly in today’s era of globalization.

India’s initiatives in the pursuit of Good Governance: 

The Constitution is the primary document paving the pathway for the attainment of the good governance objective. Some of the foremost measures to ensure good governance stem from the constitutional provisions of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy  under Part III and Part IV of the Constitution respectively. Further additions in the form of constitutional recognition for Panchayati Raj Institutions and Municipalities through the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, 1992 have led to decentralization of powers. Decentralization is a crucial facet of good governance and thereby ensures public participation at the grassroots level, leading to sustainable governance. 

An independent judiciary acts as the fulcrum in making government institutions accountable and above all in the realization of human rights jurisprudence. Judiciary in India has played a crucial role in determining the constitutional ethos of preserving the rule of law and establishing a civil society. The realization of the varied forms of rights through judicial activism under Article 21, the constitutional provision of judicial review  under Article 32 and 226 are a few snippets of the judiciary’s contribution, establishing the vital role of judiciary in the Indian landscape of good governance. 

The Right to Information Act, 2005 is another initiative which is instrumental in ensuring transparency and accountability in government operations and ensuring that government actions are under public scrutiny. Digital India and e-governance initiatives, such as DigiLocker, Aadhar, digitization of land records, BharatNet, SWAYAM, MyGov portal etc, have been aimed at transforming the citizens into empowered and informed citizens. The Direct Benefit Transfer system has effectively tackled issues of leakages and corruption and its success is largely attributed to the implementation of the JAM Trinity (Jan Dhan bank accounts – Aadhar – Mobile number). These initiatives are crucial for ensuring financial inclusion, thereby facilitating economic growth, reducing poverty and inequality.  

In relation to the bureaucratic initiatives, projects like the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) i.e., Mission Karmayogi for capacity building of civil servants, Annual Performance Assessment Reports, have been introduced to strengthen and reform the system. The Centralised Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) has also revolutionized the way in which citizens file complaints regarding public services and track them.

Where does India need to improve? 

Woodrow Wilson once mentioned that “ It is getting harder to run a constitution than to frame one". The statement perfectly summarizes the state of policy making in India. India has always faced issues with policy implementation and policy evaluation, as is evident from the crumbling quality of key public institutional structures. The excessive gap between thinking and action has been affecting the policy making process in India for quite some time and there are inherent factors further widening the gap needing immediate attention.

The current form of institutional structures along with the limited state capacity is not at all equipped to traverse through the problems of policy implementation. State capacity is a vital element for ensuring the efficacy of institutional structures, which needs to be addressed. This is further exacerbated with  the issue of “working in silos”  which continues to remain a persistent challenge in India, thereby affecting the communication between the personnel and policy makers. India also needs to address issues related to the organizations at the grassroot like the "3F" challenge in relation to Panchayati Raj Institutions, which represent issues with funds, functions, and functionaries.

Similarly policy evaluations have also been plagued with its own set of administrative challenges that need to be addressed. One of the recent initiatives to streamline the evaluation process is to  institutionalize social audits , which appears to be a promising solution. It can be a viable solution for fostering public participation in policy implementation and policy evaluation from the grassroots level while integrating a higher standard of transparency. Coordination mechanisms in the forms of commissions and cross-departmental services can also be incorporated to further improve the effectiveness of evaluations. 

On the ending note…

 The term democracy is derived from the Greek word “demokratia”  coined from the terms demos (“people”) and kratos (“rule”). Democracy simply refers to rule by the people, of the people and for the people. Governance in a democracy like India has to take the bottom-up and “citizen-first” approach, but it has so far taken a “top-down” approach. It is high time to change our working mechanisms, keeping citizens at the center, starting from the grassroots level government machinery. It also needs to be remembered that it doesn’t matter how good a policy is on paper, it is the policy implementation and policy evaluation part that plays a huge role in ensuring that the desired outcomes are achieved. India’s priorities need to be shifted to address these arenas in order to ensure that India outshines its past self and makes judicious use of the Amritkaal to achieve the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047.