Abstract
After independence in 1947, India adopted the approach of planned development through Five-Year Plans since 1951. First and Second Plans achieved great success, but subsequent Plans could not achieve the intended results due to various reasons. Economic situation kept on worsening, barring some years as an exception, until 1991. Since then, the adoption of almost-mandated economic reforms has led to a GDP growth rate in the range of 5% to 7%. If India plans to cross the bridge to be a developed country by the turn of this century, the target needs to be a double-digit growth rate along with a paradigm shift in the approach to development. Bharat needs to bring in the Third Phase of economic reforms which may be quite challenging, given the past 75 years legacy of appeasement of farmers’ lobby, socialistic mindset, ‘chalta hai’ (everything is ok) attitude, inefficient work culture, excessive democracy, ineffective judicial system, high corruption in the government, unquestionable powers to the ministers, public allergy to big industry, strong bias towards labour-intensive technology, non-consideration to the value of citizens’ time, etc. Most of these considerations were out of bounds for the Planning Commission as well as the NITI Aayog. Visionary leadership must address these issues with a paradigm shift to the approach towards development to achieve the goal of a developed India or Viksit Bharat by 2047 or beyond. This paper presents the framework for achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat@2047.
Key Words: Viksit Bharat, development, visionary leadership, developed country.
1. Introduction
Visionary leadership is essential for the rapid development of a country. Lee Kuan Yew’s visionary leadership from 1959 to 1990 as the first prime minister of Singapore transformed it from a low- income country with a per capita income of USD 428 transitions into a highly developed economy with a per capita income of about USD 90,000.
Vision, strategic thinking, and firm decision-making may be considered the key elements to success in the entire transformation process of a country, as was evident in Singapore’s success story. All countries have their history, social limitations or constraints, given geography, natural resources limits, technology capabilities, etc. What visionary leadership can and must do is to politically carve out a way to successfully navigate through all the existing realities and achieve all-around development, people’s happiness, and welfare. Several communist countries, barring exceptions like North Korea, achieved significant growth in human development index (HDI), per capita GDP, and infrastructure development, albeit in a harsh manner and a suffocating environment. On the other hand, countries like South Korea achieved a high level of economic development through visionary leadership under a multi-party democratic system of political governance. The differentiating background factors of different countries necessitate a differential policy framework for achieving economic development.
2. India’s Situation Analysis: 1947-2024
India, or Bharat, has had a rich civilization and a glorious history of thousands of years until about 1000 years ago. However, about eight centuries of invaders’ rule, followed by British colonization of Bharat, resulted in extreme poverty, low per capita income, and high illiteracy at the time of independence in 1947. Religious division of India led to new political dimensions in the new Bharat, which is continuing to remain the largest democratic country in the world. India started its process of economic development in a very systematic way through economic planning in 1951. The First Five-Year Plan (1951-56) was considered successful as it focused on all hitherto neglected sectors of the economy during the British rule, e.g., agriculture, irrigation, roads, railways, transportation, communication, shipping, industry, construction, health, education, and so on. The Second Five-Year Plan (1956-61) laid focus on heavy and key industries, which were meant to develop the base for India’s industrialization. Four Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and two Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) were set up to produce competent technical and managerial manpower to ably manage large industrial enterprises under government control, known as Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). Several agricultural universities were also established for needful research with the ultimate objective of bringing about foodgrains self-sufficiency in the country. The Second Plan was also considered a successful Plan. The methodology adopted in the Five-Year Plans (FYPs) continued to be based on sectoral input-output ratios and incremental output-capital ratios determining the sectoral financial allocation requirements for achieving the desired output targets and consequently the well-worked-out goal of a 5 per cent economic growth rate, i.e., growth rate of real GNP. Due to the Chinese aggression in 1962, soon followed by the Indo-Pakistan conflict of 1965, the sectoral financial allocations got derailed due to emergent defence-related priorities. Lack of investment during the Third FYP as well as subsequent 3-years plan holiday of 1966-69 led to the worst economic, social and political problems viz., high inflation, near-total educated unemployment except in the banking sector due to nationalization of major 14 scheduled commercial banks and their rapid branch-expansion policy to mobilize resources from the rural areas, balance of payments crisis leading to highest ever devaluation of INR (36%), shortages leading to black marketing, increasing corruption due to declining real income of the urban middle/upper-middle classes which comprised majority of government and public sector employees, growing public-dissatisfaction, and the resulting political challenge to the major political party viz., Indian National Congress (INC) which was the only ruling party in almost all provinces in the country as well as at the centre. Influx of about ten million refugees from East Pakistan during the army rule there during 1971 neutralized the green revolution gains of 1968-1971. After the December 1971 India-Pakistan war, which was won by India and marked by the emergence of Bangladesh, the greatest need of the country was to adopt sound economic policies to bring the national economy back on track.
Most unfortunately, the national political leadership and the union government neglected the economy and Indian economists’ recommendations during 1972 to mid-1975, i.e., the time when the Internal Emergency was clamped on the country. This three-and-half years period can be considered as the worst period of the Indian economy as this was characterized by extreme public unrest due to high national inflation, much higher urban inflation, rapidly growing educated unemployment as well as non-educated unemployment, power shortage, domestic power load-shedding of 12 hours per day, high industry power-cut upto 18 hours per day coinciding with workers’ strikes from work resulting in financial losses to industrial enterprises, shortages, total absence of investment climate etc. The first continuously ruling political party INC would not have faced any challenge in 1977 if it had performed well on the economic front. Unfortunately, the then political leadership's strategy to ‘remain in power’ adopted by the first and the longest ruling political party INC, proved to be non-visionary as it depended largely on appeasement of the ‘vote bank’ of poor masses comprising certain ‘lower castes’/tribes. This process continued till 1991, when the economy faced high external trade deficit and worst balance of payment crisis, necessitating introduction of ‘economic reforms’ under the pressure and advice of International Monetary Fund (IMF) which were termed as structural economic reforms related to ‘Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization’ (LPG) meant for bringing about the ‘market economy’ based economic system – departing from previous industry-regulator governance to industry-facilitator governance and ousting license-permit-quota system. These reforms of 1991, soon followed by the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, brought remarkable changes in the process of development during 1991-1996 and subsequent years under the leadership of different Prime Ministers (PMs), barring a few short-term PMs.
With a gap of interim governments at the centre during 1996-1998, the reforms were accelerated and were known as Phase-2 reforms and tackled several fundamental problems of the country, including the privatization of power (electricity) distribution, road expressways, etc. The 1990s and onwards period effectively enhanced the role of vote bank politics in different States. Electoral victory of a political party started depending on the extent of promised ‘freebees’ – including ‘writing off the farmers’ loans’ as was done by the INC government in 2009, just before the parliamentary elections. Due to alleged large-scale corruption in the union government, the electorate of the country brought a change in the governance by electing the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to form the government at the centre under the leadership of Mr. Narendra Modi.
The initial model of FYPs ceased to yield any meaningful results from the Third FYP (1961-66) onwards. The relevance of planning through FYPs further declined after the LPG economic reforms were brought about in 1991 by the Narsimha Rao government (1991-96). Rightly, a bold decision was taken in 2015 by the union government to discontinue the system of FYPs as a tool of economic development. Planning Commission was replaced by a new body called National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) or Niti Aayog as a policy think tank for the government to provide policy inputs regarding different programs and policies of the government. The seven pillars of the NITI Aayog include pro-activity, pro-people, participation, empowerment, inclusion of all, equality, and transparency, and the key objectives of NITI Aayog are generic (NITI Aayog). Several useful sectoral and evaluation studies have been undertaken by Niti Aayog as a think tank for the government. The focus of economic policies of the government has been directed towards employment generation, GDP growth, income enhancement of the people in rural and agricultural sectors, all-around support to the urban poor, exports, economic stability, and so on.
Because of robust economic policies, despite a unified political opposition alliance in the national elections of 2019 and 2024, the NDA could win elections and form a government at the centre. Modi government’s achievements include its clean image and good performance of the economy as evidenced by a consistent about 6 to 7 per cent growth rate of GDP, which can be attributed largely to the prudent economic policies and other public policies, not to undermining the robust foreign policy. To come out of the pandemic shock of 2020-22 with the least damage was also a remarkable achievement of the national government.
The present Indian government has set the target of achieving a high growth rate of GDP so as to achieve the target of making India a developed country by the year 2047, i.e., when the nation completes 100 years of Independence from British rule. Is it possible to achieve this target in the remaining 22 years with the current economic policies, or is a paradigm shift in approach to development required? What considerations in visionary leadership are required for building a developed India or Viksit Bharat by 2047?
3. Dimensions of Development: Target Setting
India’s current per capita GDP is about USD 3000. If the economy grows at the prevailing about 6.5 per cent growth rate, the per capita GDP would almost quadruple and would attain the level of USD 12,000 by 2047. However, if the GDP growth rate of 10 per cent is achieved, the per capita GDP would grow to the level of USD 24,000 by 2047, which would be equivalent to current per capita GDP of Hungary, Poland, Greece etc. whereas reaching to the level of Korea, Japan and several central European countries may take another 10 years.
Development cannot be judged by only one indicator, i.e., per capita GDP. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) measures development through the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI of northern European and Scandinavian countries exceeds 0.9, whereas the central European countries are at the 0.85 HDI level. Few European countries have a bit lower HDI of about 0.80 as against India’s 0.64. Thus, India would need to achieve much higher life expectancy at birth as well as expected and mean years of schooling, apart from per capita GDP or Gross National Income (GNI). There are several other indices of development, and there can be many more such indices.
Earlier, economic development was considered an outcome of high per capita income, whereas all other indicators of development, e.g., literacy/education, per capita energy consumption, possession of high-value consumer durables, etc., were considered as associated with per capita income. However, after the introduction of HDI, another index, ‘happiness’ became an important parameter that is not necessarily related to per capita GDP. Bhutan, with a per capita GDP in the range of USD 3K to 4K, has been ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world, and a decade ago world’s happiest country. Thus, it is clear that high per capita GDP is not a prerequisite for happiness. Thus, the concept ‘development’ finds a deviation from ‘economic development’ as the desired objective of economic and public policy. What little meaning ‘economic development’ has when anyone on the roads is at risk of being looted, criminally assaulted, or abducted for a ransom, or any berserk citizen shoots any person dead due to personal fancy of dislike on account of race, colour, nationality, religious faith, etc., in a high per capita GDP country? Safety and security of people and their belongings, as well as the safety of children in schools, are extremely important for a society. Japan, Singapore, and Scandinavian countries stand very high on these parameters as compared to most other developed countries, such as the USA and many central and southern European countries. Thus, when we talk about development goals for India, we must also take into account several such parameters which are beyond total GDP or size of the economy and per capita GDP. Should we not think of Bharat as a developed nation in terms of economic, social and mental prosperity culminating towards Ram-Rajya where safety-security of the citizens, foreigners, their belongings, physical-mental health of people, feeling of fearlessness, lesser income inequalities, per capita GDP of poorest 10 to 20 per cent population, ethical standards, good governance with vision and wisdom etc.?
4. Towards Visionary Leadership with Out-of-Box Thinking
The most important public policy that the visionary leadership must bring is the elimination of unskilled or low-skill manual jobs and the use of technology for performing these tasks, such that the unskilled workers get replaced by skilled workers who can be paid higher salaries than the minimum wage rates. The supply-demand gap can be reduced as a very high supply of unskilled workers can be stopped, as this supply starts at the lowest eligible age for working. An appropriate use of technology would bring efficiency, enhance productivity, and necessitate learning of needed technology-led skills by the unskilled workers, which will, in turn, adversely impact the abundant supply of unskilled workers who always remain poor, and thus, the resulting skilled workers could be paid higher salaries. Further, this would raise the age at marriage as well as a higher duration of dependence of children on parents, which would result in controlling the population of the unskilled poor population as well as their unemployment. This would also result in crime reduction, rioting, etc., as the skilled employed youth would not indulge in senseless, unproductive activities at the cost of their professional career. Thus, the political and religious leaders will not find free helping hands for destructive purposes. The educated and technically skilled workers would need to keep learning newer skills to survive professionally. Thus, visionary leadership should develop policies towards the use of technology for converting unskilled job opportunities to skilled job opportunities.
It is known that the new disruptive technologies are taking away jobs, e.g., the photography sector jobs have almost been cut to zero after the camera became an additional feature in mobile phones. Motor mechanics will not be required in another 20 years when fuel-driven vehicles are replaced by battery-operated electric vehicles. Drivers will not be required once the driverless vehicles get operational on roads. Thus, education policy must be totally revamped with 100 per cent focus on technology, entrepreneurship, or other professional education at the college level, and thus, minimizing the most prevailing liberal arts education to very restrictive high high-quality academic level education only for teaching purposes, mostly as knowledge-enhancing compulsory courses and research. Young people are very creative, and entrepreneurship education at the college level will enable many youngsters to become successful entrepreneurs who would employ a large number of people in the emerging market scenario, e.g., Dunzo, Delhivery, DTDC, Blue Dart, Amazon, Flipkart, Big-Basket, Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit, Cars24, MakeMyTrip, Yatra.com, etc. The German education system is worth studying as it highly focuses on technology education.
One most important aspects of a developed country is cleanliness in the cities and places of tourist attraction. When income level goes up, people like to spend on tourism and travel to new, attractive places which are clean, beggar-free, and offer good shopping and travel experience to tourists. London, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Amsterdam, etc., are known for attracting tourists. Tourism enhances employment and income to an enormously high level. India has a large number of tourist attractions, but these have not been marketed well, particularly at an international level. This sector has extremely high potential for employment and income generation. Due to inherent problems of municipalities and Public Works Departments (PWDs) under government control, the road conditions and cleanliness have remained major issues to make living as well as tourist arrivals unattractive in India. These functions should be handled under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode in order to attract international as well as domestic tourists. New tourist spots should be created as the Statue of Unity in Gujarat. Similarly, medical tourism has high growth potential in India, which can generate high income and employment when clubbed with general tourism. The visionary leadership should seriously focus on and prioritize these aspects through a focused policy. Even urban traffic management can be very effectively handled by the private sector or under the PPP mode.
The role of vote-bank politics or competitive populism is increasing in India due to rich electoral dividends reaped by smaller and/or regional political parties vis-à-vis the political interests of national-level parties. The current ‘opposition’ political parties’ alliance is based on pure opportunism. One major element of the vote-bank politics has been appeasement of the poor, erstwhile lower/backward castes and Muslims, the majority of whom have not yet started voting on the economic welfare and development agenda of the political parties, as revealed by the media analysts after each parliamentary election, as also several State elections. Islamic fundamentalists and radicals have exerted extremely high influence on Indian Muslim-voters who have been hitherto prevented from enlightenment and have been kept under myopic vision, and as a result, this community has remained largely uneducated, poverty-stricken, with a high total fertility rate under the garb of religion. Their voting pattern has continued to remain a major factor in Indian democratic politics and non-development. This factor needs to be considered with priority, with the involvement of enlightened members of this community who must work towards the real well-being of their community and emerge as well-meaning leaders.
Another factor for achieving development faster is based on the premise ‘money saved is money earned’, i.e., policy prescriptions intended to save ‘time’, which can be considered as the most important asset in any country. The government of India has sincerely followed the system of “non-trust” and “evidence-based” for preventing wrongdoings by the citizens. Such a system has neither succeeded in preventing corruption nor in eliminating wrongdoings; people are smart enough and capable of finding ways to do what they want to do, bypassing the regulations. Essentially, wrongdoers find out ways to do wrong things in the right way. The primary reference here is towards prevailing accounts and audit systems that are in place in India. Few examples would suffice to illustrate this point. To meet audit requirements, accounts department officials in organizations government as well as private require “receipts” of expenditure incurred on cycle ricksha, auto ricksha, petrol, medicines, food, etc., towards reimbursements of such expenditure. This entire exercise amounts sheer waste of time in “managing production of the bills” as required by the accounts section officials. Instead of this prevailing system, norms should be set to eliminate the requirement of the production of “bills” or “receipts” of expenditure incurred. The proposed new system would save precious professional working time and would bring about efficiency, and the time saved will be more productively utilized by all working people in different organizations. The value of time of citizens should be recognized by the government officials, who should be made accountable for making the common person run from pillar to post for petty tasks as required for the government system compliances.
A mindboggling number of applications, including those by highly over-qualified applicants, are seen for various advertised government jobs in group C and D. The reason for such a phenomenon is quite obvious, viz., enhanced income through unnoticed or uncaught corruption and job security without corresponding accountability. This is a ubiquitous truth that the higher the unearned income potential in a job, the higher would be the demand for such jobs and the consequent prevailing corruption in the recruitment and selection of incumbents for such positions. This process can be reversed through suitable management techniques, enabling heavy reverse penalties on government officials based on a well-crafted work audit system for them. It is also a well-known fact that the corruption money is always directly proportional to the deviation from the regulatory norms. Thus, the regulatory norms should be revised for easy compliance, and the power of government officials should be diluted along with a reduction in their numbers, if we wish to achieve the status of a developed country @ 2047. If the government officials become encouraging and positive towards entrepreneurs, the unemployment problem of the country can be solved in no time, and the target of a 14 per cent GDP growth rate can be achieved.
The Indian legal system is considered a farce due to the inordinate delays in court decisions in civil cases and a several-decades-long period in filing a chargesheet in criminal cases. Corruption-free courts must deliver decisions in a time-bound manner, like those in most developed countries. In addition, the legal costs, including the time-cost (value of time of judges), must be recoverable from the guilty so as to discourage avoidable litigation. The outdated penalties of the early British era (1960) should be revised, and the jurisprudence system should be revamped to make it contextual with the times. The judicial system should be scary to potential criminals and to those attempting to make a fool of the soft legal system through abuse. The hollowness of the Indian legal system is evident by the fact that there are over 50 million cases in Indian courts.
The taxation system also needs to be rationalized. Agricultural income was kept non-taxable at the time of Independence due to then valid reasons. But, with the changed circumstances, there is every logic to tax (rich) farmers at par with other professionals in the country.
The election system also needs reforms. Bribing the voters soon before the elections directly or through “election promises of assured financial dole or similar benefits if voted to power” needs to be declared illegal, being a sort of criminal offence of ‘bribing’. There is a need to re-examine the reservation system in jobs, as continuously ignoring this may become explosive sometime in the future. Developed countries don’t function based on 70 to 80 per cent reservations in government jobs. Some states have 70+ per cent job reservation, and transfer of reserved category higher merit people to the general pool leads to an effective reservation of 85+ per cent. Contrarily, 50 per cent seats in jobs or any other competition should be reserved for pure merit-based applicants to start with.
5. Conclusion
For achieving the target of Viksit Bharat @ 2047, a special Task Force of Niti Aayog needs to be constituted with clear objective of crafting the strategy for achieving the objective of truly converting Bharat into a developed nation with not only per capita GDP exceeding USD 25,000, but also converting Bharat into a nation with virtues such as crime-free, beggar-free, clean, healthy, happy, ethical etc., i.e. other nations with still higher per capita GDP would always envy. Some aspects not an exhaustive list of out-of-box thinking, as elaborated above, that would bring radical changes in Bharat can be summarized as follows:
• It is important to analyse ‘why the poor are poor’. It is not difficult to understand that the poor people are those who engage in unskilled jobs in the unorganized sector. Thus, replacement of unskilled jobs by more remunerative high skill jobs will minimize low low-wage working population to a negligible level. There is a dire need to plan future occupational structure with a focus on high-skill intellectual and green jobs, largely in the services sector. Low-skilled manual jobs need to be eliminated. Further, begging should be banned in a real sense, and not only through legislation.
• Fundamental reform in the education system to make it completely focused on technology, management, entrepreneurship, and professional careers in all relevant fields. Secondary level education must be made compulsory through the formal schooling system. Focus on academic R&D should be increased, and instead of just boasting about the number of patent applications filed, the revenue generation through the commercialization of patents should be recognized.
• Tourism promotion for employment and income generation through developing more tourist attractions and beautification of cities, and making cities very clean and beggar-free. In addition, developing all required infrastructure for handling 10 times, 100 times, or 1000 times more tourists, both international as well as domestic. Such infrastructure and facilities would attract national and international tourists, leading to phenomenally high employment generation and GDP growth.
• As the municipalities under government control, due to their inherent problems, cannot handle basic municipal functions of urban cleanliness and maintenance of civic facilities, including proper pothole-free roads, the municipalities should be made functional under the PPP mode, which could be considered feasible for PWD’s road maintenance function and road traffic management as well. Traffic mismanagement and poor road conditions resulted in 1.7 lakh road-accident-deaths in 2023. Claims due to poorly maintained roads should be recoverable from the municipality officials and traffic police officials responsible for negligence for the injuries and deaths. It is high time to close public sector enterprises wherever private sector enterprises can work under a due governance system. The government should perform the role of governance instead of doing business. To make health and educational institutions more efficient, the PPP mode of their functioning may also be considered. Lesser ‘power’ should be enjoyed by the government officials as corruption is directly proportional to power.
• Major election reforms should be brought in with a zero tolerance policy towards political financial-promise bribery meant for appeasing economically poor voters. This would enable the incumbent government to formulate prudent and sound economic policies for Viksit Bharat @ 2047.
• Enlightened members of majorly inflexible radical members led communities should be motivated to take up specially created responsible positions for maintaining peace and harmony in the country.
• ‘Citizens’ Time’ being one of the most important resources, overriding policies should be formulated to shun the traditional system of each time proving oneself right with documentary evidence. As everyone’s interest is of highest priority, the efficiency in official work gets compromised in the process of producing petty evidence. All procedures causing inefficiencies and leading to delays should be reviewed and rationalized.
• All government employees should be subject to their ‘role-audit’ and a reverse penalty system should be evolved to make them perform their duty with the Viksit Bharat @ 2047 objective and play a positive role in nation building. This would automatically discourage citizens from taking up government jobs, which have hitherto been attractive because of the extremely high scope of converting ‘potential power’ to ‘money’. The entrepreneurs and corporate sector enterprises need to be incentivised for their contribution towards tax revenue, GDP growth, employment generation, foreign exchange earnings, better functioning of the economy, etc. If various hurdles to entrepreneurship and industry are removed and government officials show a positive attitude to entrepreneurs, it would not be difficult to achieve a 14% GDP growth rate.
• All types of discriminatory practices should be done away with. For example, non-taxation of agricultural income, and different types of continued reservations after the entry level. At least 50 per cent of jobs should be reserved for open entry based purely on merit from all categories of applicants, e.g., Sc, ST, OBC, PH, Departmental (children of employees), General, etc.
• Criminal laws should be thoroughly reviewed to make penalties deterrent to potential and future criminals. Delay of several decades in judicial decisions should be curbed through bringing suitable legal reforms, as ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. The judiciary needs to find out solution to deliver justice to the litigating people, as there are about 50 million pending cases in Indian courts. The legal system should include speedy justice and recovery of costs from the culprits. Legal reforms should include the system of incorporating the value of time in the penalties. The jurisprudence systems should be reviewed, and the penalties should not be as per the 1860 Act, as financial penalties then and now are incomparable. All types of protestors, rioters, and system disruptors must pay for the damages caused by them.
• Safety and security of foreigners, and their belongings should be dealt with more stringently, as this involves the nation’s prestige and has great international relations-oriented repercussions apart from a great adverse impact on tourist arrivals and associated benefits to the economy.
• The physical and mental health of people is important and needs to be given due attention in public policy prescriptions. Adoption of a uniform civil code for all citizens would bring about social harmony.
• Lessons need to be derived from the Environmental Kuznets Curve, and we should focus on reduction in carbon emissions in the long run, i.e., after achieving the status of a developed nation.
• More even distribution of income should be targeted in the long run, i.e., after ensuring provision of a basic, good-quality living to all people. However, policies to increase the income of the poorest 10 per cent population should be prioritized in the government policy.
With the above out-of-box thinking-based suggestions, a paradigm shift in the approach to development is recommended. High per capita income will help in the elimination of centuries-old inferiority complex inflicted during the British rule. Rapid growth of the private corporate sector would result in high profits and consequent high tax revenue for the government, which can be utilized for financing the schemes meant to benefit the poor, as well as for stronger national defence and early achievement of the goal of Viksit Bharat @ 2047.
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India has surpassed France and the UK to become the fifth largest economy in the world with a nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimated to be around $ 3.12 trillion for FY22. For the fiscal year 2022-23, a healthy growth rate of approximately 7% is anticipated.
This paper offers an integrated digital drone-based services solution for cities & towns, controlled through an integrated smart control room and/or where users may call in for support of required service, on a time-sharing basis; charged according to No of drones, payload, distances and time calculations.
This paper covers the health benefits of cycling and how it has a positive impact on the environment. It examines the Dutch model of the development of cycling, how it may be adapted to Indian conditions, and help to overcome the barriers to cycling, in the Indian context.
The transformation of the lives of rural women towards their betterment is a critical issue in the development process of countries around the world. Poverty, lack of financial awareness, minimal or no education, and women's disempowerment are reasons for the poor condition of rural women.
In India, the procedure of shifting the paradigm for good governance has been dynamic and continuing. A notion known as "good governance" includes a number of rules and procedures designed to guarantee the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of governmental institutions.
Administration of independent India drewn many transformations to get away from British colonial administration that propagates the colonial need such as maintenance of law and order, collection of revenue, tactics to hold the administrative power in British civil servants.
The twenty-first century should be an era of new forms of Governance different from what we have seen in the past. Due to widespread economic problems and fiscal constraints in the 1980's, governments around the world both rich and poor, concluded that government had become too big, too costly and ineffective.
The concept of ‘governance’ is not new. It is as old as human civilization. It has over the years gained momentum and a wider meaning. Apart from being an instrument of public affairs management, or a gauge of political development, governance has become a useful mechanism to enhance the legitimacy of the public realm.
In India, the paradigm of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) is proving to be transformative as it attempts to balance the intricate relationships between sustainable resource utilisation, forest regeneration, and conservation. India, which has about 70 million hectares of forest cover, struggles to meet the socioeconomic demands of the people who depend on the forests while also protecting these ecosystems.
A long-term abutting weather situation that is particularly related to temperature and precipitation is called climatic change. Land-use changes, forest fires, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and natural disasters like volcanic eruptions are all possible contributing factors to this Climate shift (Reddy, 2015).
The Yamuna is a tributary of the holy Ganges. The main stream of the Yamuna River originates from the Yamunotri Glacier at Bandar Panch (38°59'N, 78°27'E) in the Mussoorie Ranges of the lower Himalayas, at an average altitude of about 6387 meters above sea level in the Uttarkashi district (Uttrakhand) increase.
The issue of governance has received serious attention of researchers, policy makers, administrators and the national as well as international community. The New Public Management (NPM) concept is focused on service, quality, performance management and risk management of governance processes.
The government provides services including healthcare, education, social support, and financial inclusion to the public. However, villagers and citizens in remote areas often struggle to access these services due to several constraints including inadequate infrastructure and inaccessibility.
Digital governance, in the context of the digital era, involves the use of information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to enhance and transform the delivery of public services, improve government efficiency, and engage citizens in decision-making processes.
Since the majority of India's population relies on agriculture for their living, the sector dominates the country's economy. Agriculture only makes up less than 20 per cent of the nation's GDP (Ministry of Finance, 2018), emphasizing the sector's low-income production.
E-commerce and digital technology have transformed the way people spend and save. There is an evident technological growth in the world of finance which is referred to as financial technology or fintech. Financial technology (Fintech) refers to the technological innovations that assist in enabling or improving the access to financial services digitally through the internet, smartphones or computers.
Today we are living in an era of the ‘regulatory state’. The expressions ‘regulation’, ‘regulatory governance’ and ‘regulatory institutions’ have become the buzzwords of governance and are spread across social systems as well as state organisations and government strategies.
Participatory planning involves the intensive participation of local communities in analysing their current situation, envisioning a long-term collective future and attempting to attain this vision through collective planning of development interventions that would be implemented by different state agencies area.
Intrinsically, India is a republican country that is organised as a federation with a parliamentary democracy. Similar to the United Kingdom, the President serves as the head of state in name only; in contrast, the Prime Minister is the de facto executive, or real head of the government.
With over eight thousand years of experience and intellectual growth (Cameron (1968), Edwards (Gadd, 1971), Hammond (1971), Eisenstadt (1963, 1993), Olmstead ( 1948), etc.), public administration has undergone numerous changes and transformations over its long history, but it has never been so challenged as in the last thirty years.
A paradigm represents a framework, viewpoint, or collection of concepts that serves as a lens for understanding various subjects. In disciplines like science and philosophy, paradigms encompass specific theories, methodologies, and principles defining valid contributions within a field.
The field of public administration is experiencing a dramatic and rapid change. Locally and globally, some of the most significant trends that will have the role and function of public administrators is rapidly evolving as the needs and demands of citizens, governments and organisations influence their ability to create and implement policies.
Public administration in the 21st century is undergoing significant transformation, not just in advanced countries but also in various regions of the developing world, as the calls for transformative change grow louder. These changes are propelled by globalisation, liberalisation and the diversification of service provision.
In an era where administrative agility defines the efficacy of democratic governance, this chapter, “Techniques of Administrative Improvement”, offers a comprehensive exploration of transformative tools, methods, and strategies that are reshaping public administration in India and globally.
The rapid pace and interdependence of global, political, social and economic developments have necessitated a critical need for improved efficiency and effective public institutions, administrative procedures and sound financial management to confront challenges for sustainable development in all countries.
The evolution of Indian administration reflects a historical continuum shaped by civilizational values and transformative changes. Spanning the Mauryan, Mughal, and British eras, each phase contributed distinct institutional structures and governance philosophies.
As an initial output of the joint research between the Korean Institute of Public Administration (KIPA) and the National Academy of Governance (NAOG), this article provides overviews of the Korean and Mongolian legislative environment, governance and characteristics of the anti-corruption policies.
Administrative improvement is a strategic necessity in a fast-paced world. Techniques like O&M, Work Study, management aid tools such as network analysis form the cornerstone of efficient governance. MIS, PERT, and CPM tools equip administrators with the ability to anticipate challenges, and drive organizational success in an increasingly complex environment.
Street vendors are an integral part of the urban informal economy in India, providing essential goods and service that cater to the diverse needs of city residents. They operate in various capacities, from food vendors to artisans, and play a crucial role in enhancing the vibrancy and accessibility of urban life.
This paper examines the critical role of communication in driving India's economic growth within the context of its diverse societal structure and the rapidly evolving information age. It argues that effective communication is not merely a tool for disseminating information but a fundamental force shaping development trajectories.
One often wonders ‘what the government does’ and ‘why the government does what it does’ and equally importantly ‘what it does not do and why so’. According to Thomas R. Dye “public policy is whatever government chooses to do or not to do”, implying that government's actions and inactions both come into the realm of public policy.
Access to safe drinking water is not merely a fundamental human right; it is a cornerstone of public health, economic development, and social equity. In rural India, where water scarcity and inadequate infrastructure pose significant challenges, the quest for reliable water supply becomes even more critical.
This paper outlines the century-long history of Mongolia’s civil service training institution, the National Academy of Governance (NAOG), which plays a crucial role in meeting the contemporary needs of training and developing human resources within the civil service sector.
India stands at a crucial juncture in its quest for inclusive development that will bring prosperity across the spectrum. Large amounts of public funds are spent to address these issues, but their implementation and the quality of services delivered leave much to be desired.
India has committed to achieving developed nation status by the centenary of its independence, leveraging cutting-edge technologies including AI tapping into its vast human capital, and implementing policies that foster high growth while addressing enduring social and economic inequalities.
This article explores the value and statehood of Mongolia by utilising Woodrow Wilson’s categorisation of “Judging by the constitutional histories of the chief nations of the modern world, there may be three periods of growth through which government has passed in all the most highly developed of existing systems, and through which it promises to pass in all the rest.
This paper examines India's economic trajectory through the lens of its demographic dividend a substantial youth population exceeding 50% under age 25 within its 1.4 billion citizens. While this demographic advantage offers unprecedented economic potential, its promise is threatened by systemic challenges including inadequate education access, limited skill development, and employment scarcity, particularly in rural areas.
Remarkable technological and scientific progress has made the modern democratic State not a mere watch-dog or a police institution but an active participant interfering in almost every sphere of individual and corporate life in society in the changed role of a service state and a welfare state
Since the reform and opening up, China’s leadership training has experienced three stages of development: the initial stage of leadership training and development in the early period of China’s reform and opening up to the world (1978-2002), the rapid growing stage of leadership training and development in the period of fast growing economy and society (2002- 2012) and the innovative…
Accountability and control are essential for efficient, ethical administration in public and private sectors. Accountability ensures officials answer for actions and resource use, while control involves mechanisms to monitor compliance with laws and goals, promoting responsibility and preventing misconduct.
Healthcare in rural India presents unique challenges and opportunities. While global health metrics emphasize indicators like life expectancy, mortality rates, and healthcare infrastructure, they often fail to capture the socio-cultural nuances of rural communities
The “Internet plus” government service reform in China has progressed through three stages, namely one-stop service, one-window service, and companion service. This reform has become a significant example of reshaping the relationship between the local government and the public.
This paper explores the evolution of Indian welfare philosophy from Gandhi's nonviolent resistance to contemporary governance. It traces how the sacrifices of Indian revolutionaries fostered Sarvodaya and Antyodaya ideals, examining the philosophical underpinnings of these concepts in Advaita and dualistic traditions.
Like most other countries around the world, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bangladesh's education system has undergone a radical change from the beginning of March 2020 onwards. The study attempts to analyse teachers’, students’ and parents’ perceptions and experiences about the online education in the COVID-19 pandemic at the school level.
Health is a fundamental human right and a critical indicator of development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes the importance of ensuring health and well-being for all individuals. A key objective of this agenda is to guarantee favorable health outcomes, underscored by the endorsement of a new declaration during the Global Conference on Primary Health Care held in Astana,…
In this article, published reports have been used for analysing state-wise status of SDGs achievements and their correlations with attainments in areas of poverty-reduction and other developmental indicators. Also, progress made by GPs on various metrics related to SDGs has been corroborated with other relevant metrics
Loss of governance reform efficacy is an identified entrenched institutional problem in systems. Reform, anywhere, is a sticky material because holders of powers and their cronies have rarely shown altruistic intentions of relaxing their profiteering grips over resources.
On September 1, 2023, a committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind explored the possibility of something called One Nation, One Election in India and ever since this thing has come out in public, political parties all across the country have been fuming with anger.
This paper examines various initiatives taken by Government of India to promote collaborative governance in various sectors. With increasing needs and aspirations of the community for public services and the limited capacity of government to provide the same, the involvement of various stakeholders to deliver these services becomes important and necessity.
In the vast and diverse landscape of India, regional disparities in development have long posed significant challenges to achieving equitable growth and social justice. Recognizing the urgent need to address these disparities, the Government of India launched the Aspirational Districts Programme in January 2018.
A dynamic interaction between the recognition of human complexity in organizations and the pursuit of structural efficiency has shaped the evolution of administrative philosophy. The foundational works of Frederick W. Taylor, Max Weber, Mary Parker Follett, Elton Mayo, Chester Barnard, Rensis Likert, Chris Argyris, and Douglas McGregor are critically examined in this essay, which charts the shift from traditional administrative…
In India, National Training Policy was formed in 2012, replacing the old policy of 1996. This was needed two reasons, new areas of administration given in the reports of second administrative reforms commission setup in 2005 and changing environment in different spheres of governance and new challenges of administration being faced by the civil servants.
India's emergence as a global services powerhouse in the 21st century marks a profound and transformative shift. This evolution, far from a mere economic change, is a strategic leap driven by its demographic dividend, technological advancements, and the burgeoning global demand for specialized services.
Public administration, as the executive arm of the state, has tremendous responsibilities to match the needs and aspirations of the citizens of the state. The systems have evolved over the years in almost every country as the politico and socio-economic environment of the respective country have changed.
Public administration is the cornerstone of modern governance. It refers to the organization, management, and implementation of government policies and programs, carried out by public officials and institutions. As a vital mechanism of the state, public administration not only ensures the effective delivery of services to citizens but also upholds the principles of accountability, transparency, and rule of law.
Tribal Sustainable Development through Evidence-based Policy and Planning: A major issue in post-Independence India has been a misreading of demands of tribal communities. What they have been demanding pertains to choice upholding their traditions and customs and having ownership over natural resources
As the Idiom of technological advancement takes its toll. The paper highlights a few poignant and emerging factors in the International Relations theorization. It was conservatively maintained by the defense strategists and the political leadership across the Global polity that foreign policy and the Diplomacy are greatly determined by the “given” of Geography and terrain
With the deepening of democracy, increased decentralisation, increasing social and political awareness, digital penetration, shifts in demography, demand for quality services by common citizens has been accelerating at a faster pace. In such a scenario, the role of State is critical for promoting equity in access to services.
"Accelerating India's Development" holistically looks at India’s growth trajectory since gaining independence – it rounds up all where it has done well including unity, upholding the integrity of its constitution, retaining democratic values at its core. It also does not mince words to convey where all the nation has faltered such as falling short in delivery of public services including…
Income and Employment Intensive Growth Agenda for India: The paper examines income and employment status in the Indian labour force to identify policy attention and follow up. The macroeconomic policies taken during last one decade are yielding positive results leading to expansion of manufacturing and services and structural transformation in the economy.
An Analysis of India's Social Welfare Programs: In a democracy, the state's role is to promote societal welfare. According to Aristotle, the state should not only ensure its survival but also improve the quality of life for its citizens. The state has a moral responsibility to its citizens. Modern views agree that the state should provide essential services like education,…
Digital Innovations in Social Protection: Trends, Challenges, and Solutions: The integration of digital technologies into social protection systems represents a transformative shift with profound implications for the delivery of welfare services. This chapter explores the evolving landscape of digital innovations in social protection, contextualising these developments within the broader framework of universal social protection and a systemic approach to welfare.
One of the most crucial aspects of our society is law enforcement, which deals with issues of law and order nationwide. It is an essential component of the state's legal system. The British government introduced a Police Act in 1861, which is still very relevant and based on policing.
India’s Vision for 2047 aims to transform the nation into a developed country, with healthcare being pivotal for this progress. Achieving universal health coverage and modernising healthcare infrastructure are essential for fostering a healthy productive population, which in turn drives economic growth and reduces poverty.
Several challenges linger in the Indian education system, like rote learning, the non-existence of practical skills among students, and disparities in access to quality education. To deal with the criticism for excessive curriculum and unreasonable focus on rote learning, this chapter examines the strategies comprising the building blocks to reform Indian schools.
Social development is expected to promote holistic improvement of individuals, institutions and their surrounding environments. Looking at the pace of development in India, the economy of most states requires strategic prioritization to accelerate improved well-being of the people. Accessibility to health, school education and public security are critical to the edifice of social development.
India is the largest democracy in the world inhabited by about 1.36 billion people over an area of 3287 thousand square kilometers according to an estimate for 2021 based on Census 2011. The Indian economy is characterised as a middle-income emerging market economy. In the last three decades the economy has faced three major crises, i.e., balance of payment crisis…
Neoliberal policies pursued by India since 1990s have created a space for private enterprises hitherto occupied by the state entities, unshackled the existing enterprises and introduced reforms to facilitate private initiative. This chapter looks into the ecosystem of the private sector in general and the developments in three specific sectors- urban mobility, water supply and housing, to draw lessons for…
This Chapter highlights the gradual transformation from Personnel Administration to Strategic Human Resource Management over the years in Government of India. However, there is still a long way to go. In this Chapter an attempt has been made to delineate the criticality to move towards Strategic HRM in Government of India to achieve India’s developmental goals.
Robust statistical data forms the cornerstone of an informed governance system. This paper studies the statistical system and data dissemination in the Centre and State governments in India, and the measures put in action to accelerate the data dissemination process. Arguing that the availability of high-frequency statistical data is a necessary condition for good governance, the first section of the…
In the Amrit Kaal (golden period) of independent India, the ‘citizen first’ approach guides public governance by deepening the outreach of service delivery mechanism so that international standards could be achieved in India@100. The goal can only be achieved by all inclusive governance involving stronger and effective local self-governments both panchayats and municipalities.
In modern societies, with the increasing role of the state in social and economic fields, emphasis on the quality of its governance is of prime concern to all. Indian bureaucratic system of governance is founded on the principle of rule of law, as the state power is divided amongst three chief organs, each has the its own quality under a…
This paper discusses the concept of good governance and its relations with the electoral politics in Indian context. It highlights the various strategies employed by the government and related agencies for the growth and development of the country. Major reforms pertaining to the country’s infrastructure, IT, administration, economy and public services are a few areas that have been explored in…
With the Indian government’s vision to transform India into a developed nation by 2047, marking hundred years of independence, it has become of highest importance to learn from the past, tenaciously work in the present and step towards the future with complete efficiency. In its 77 years of becoming a democracy, India has soared high with continuous transformations marked by both…
The vision of Viksit Bharat can be realised through Viksit States, and that the aspiration of Viksit Bharat should reach the grassroot level i.e. to each district, block, and village. For this, each State and District should create a vision for 2047 so as to realise Viksit Bharat @ 2047.