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Governance is a process of decision-making for the politico-social system of a country, or any organisation for that matter. The concept of good governance is an old one – Ram Rajya of Indian tradition and Utopia of Greek philosopher all aim at the often elusive concept of “Good Governance”. Mahatma Gandhi had called it “Su-Raj”. Simply put, it is efficient, people-oriented government that is accountable and involves the stakeholders in the society; works towards an informed, participatory and responsible society-fair, just and non-discriminatory; objective, systematic and timely, efficient and effective, and focused towards development.
The stress of the National Common Minimum Programme of the Government has been on a clean and efficient administration. It says- “The UPA will set up an Administrative Reforms Commission to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public administration system. E-governance will be promoted on a massive scale”.
In furtherance of this goal, the proposal to set up the second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) was approved by the Cabinet on April 8, 2005. The Commission will prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public administration system.
The CMP also provides that “The Right to Information Act will be made more progressive, participatory and meaningful”. The amended Freedom of Information Act has been passed by Parliament and it ensures maximum disclosure and minimum exemptions; independent appeal mechanism; departmental proceedings for failure to provide information as per the law; and effective mechanism for access to information and disclosure by the authorities.
The Group of Ministers on national security system had recommended that a detailed action plan on good governance should be prepared by the Inter-State Council in consultation with the States. At the 10th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Inter-State Council on March 29, 2005, a three-pronged approach to reforms was adopted. This approach covers all required changes in government under three categories- ‘Transforming Government’, ‘Growth-Friendly Government’ and ‘Citizen-Centric Government’.
Transforming Government Making systemic and structural changes in the key institutions of governance has been recognised as the priority area. The immediate focus is on –electoral reforms- the bedrock of good governance. The areas addressed include electoral rolls and Voter ID, criminalisation, corrupt practices and elections petitions, high cost of elections and abuse of money power, defections, oversized council of ministers, law for political parties and recognition of parties and funding of political parties.
Judicial and legal reforms broadly means modernisation of courts, reduction or elimination of arrears of cases, use of alternative dispute resolution methods and service conditions of judges.
The Civil Service Reforms is aimed at improving transparency, accountability, honesty, efficiency and sensitivity in public administration at all levels.
Administrative Reforms seeks to promote the use of information and communication technology for bringing about efficiency in governance; review of systems or procedures influencing the internal government processes and re-engineering of these processes in a systematic manner.
Legislative reforms calls for a re-look on the statute books to make the laws in tune with the times.
Growth-Friendly Government To unleash the economic might of the country, second generation economic reforms is the other focus area. It includes economic reforms attracting foreign investments and private sector participation in infrastructure and in easing of red-tape. Fiscal reforms is intended to bring prudence in government spending, both at the Centre and in the States. The labour market reforms seeks to remove the hurdles in achieving economic efficiency and faster employment generation.
Citizen-Centric Reforms This refers to the area commonly known as the cutting edge of administration- where the common man comes directly in contact with the government. The idea is to change attitudes and mindsets of government servants, make government-public interface a smoother affair, foster public-private partnership, push for further decentralisation and local government reforms.
For creating a think-tank on reforms and give it a permanent and institutional character, the government is also focussing on creating expert institutions to help in capacity building. At its 10th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Inter-State Council it was decided to set up of a National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) which would be the repository of Good Governance and e-Governance reforms and initiatives in the country. It was also decided to identify one institution at the State level to be the nodal point for linkage with NCGG and establish a network of institutions engaged in operations research for good governance to develop and strengthen civil society organisations or institutions for capacity building.
The IT revolution has begun to influence the governments’ functioning. This tool can be used effectively to rid the system of some of its endemic problems. A number of successful initiatives have been taken by the Centre and State governments recently. The proposed Multi-purpose National Identity Cards to be issued by the Home Ministry, BHOOMI in Karnataka, eSEVA in Andhra Pradesh, and Rural Access to Services Through Internet (RASI) in Tamil Nadu - all these projects aim at cutting red-tapism, bringing the Government closer to the people, speeding up decision-making, reducing chances of corruption and taking the benefits of technology to the weakest sections of the society.
But these initiatives cannot be effective if they work in isolation. The UPA Government feels that for effectively using the technology for transforming governance, a more focussed approach is necessary. The Standing Committee of the Inter-State Council has suggested several policy initiatives to modernise the government.
These include overall vision, mission, strategy and approach e-governance as a reform process, e-readines in terms of government’s willingness to share information with public and across government agencies and issuance of a multi-purpose national identity cards.
India is on the verge of transformation from a developing country to a developed economy. Much needs to be done, and quickly. The initiative to identify the policy interventions necessary to reform the system is a welcome step in this direction.
Rapid economic growth, huge investments and stable socio-political system are some of the advantages that India has. Given proper direction, the pace of development can be accelerated manifold and then the country would get the benefits of “Su-Raj” of Gandhiji’s dreams.
*Information Officer, PIB, New Delhi
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