“Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of Government, must ask themselves two questions: ‘Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path.’ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.” – Pope Francis “Mere good governance is not enough; it has to be pro-people and pro-active. Good governance is putting people at the center of development process.” – Narendra Modi
If the people cannot trust their Government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their
common welfare – all else is lost. – BARACK OBAMA
Introduction
Governance is commonly defined as the exercise of power or authority by political leaders for the well-being of their country’s citizens or subjects. It is the complex process whereby some sectors of the society wield power, and enact and promulgate public policies which directly affect human and institutional interactions, and economic and social development. A great deal about governance is the proper and effective utilization of resources. Today, Governance includes three sectors: the public sector (state actors and institutions), the private sector (households and companies), and the civil society (non-Governmental organizations). These three sectors are said to work hand in hand in the process of governance. In 1993, the World Bank defined Governance as the method through which power is exercised in the management of a country’s political, economic and social resources for development. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 1997, defined governance as “the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country’s affairs at all levels. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions, through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences. ”
Exercise of power and authority
● Process and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised, how Governments are selected, held accountable, monitored, and replaced;
● A system of values, policies and institutions by which a society manages its economic, political and social affairs through interactions within and among the state, civil society and private sector.
● The space where the state as well as economic and social actors interact to make decisions.
● The process whereby elements in society wield power and authority, and influence and enact policies and
decisions concerning public life, and economic and social development.
Government’s ability and capacity to effectively fulfil its mandate
● Capacity of Governments to manage resources efficiently and to formulate, implement, and enforce sound policies
and regulations;
● Government / state’s ability to serve the citizens by providing speedy justice, education, health care and
sanitation, social and physical infrastructure, law and order, and so.
For the first time, the Government of India outlined a governance approach to development in the National Human
Development Report 2001. Governance, in this approach, is viewed as involving a continuous interplay of three
elements, each representing a specific set of deliberate arrangements that include:
● Institutions – adopted or created arrangements, both formal and informal, to bring about predictability, stability
and efficiency in managing the social, economic or political transactions in any society;
● The Delivery Mechanism – including the executive apparatus adopted or evolved by the institutions for
implementing the agenda and the objectives for which the said institutions have been created; and
● The Supportive and Subordinate Framework of Legislations, Rules, and Procedures ‐ formulated for delivering
and meeting the stated responsibilities of the concerned.
Typically, the stakeholders of governance at national level can be categorised into three broad categories – State,
Market and Civil Society.
The State includes the different organs of the Government (Legislature, Judiciary and Executive) and their instrumentalities, independent accountability mechanisms. It also consists of different segments of actors (elected representatives, political executive, bureaucracy/civil servants at different levels etc.)
The Market includes the private sector – organised as well as unorganised – that includes business firms ranging from large corporate houses to small scale industries/ establishments.
The Civil Society is the most diverse and typically includes all groups not included in (1) or (2). It includes NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs), Voluntary Organizations (VOs), media organisations/ associations, trade unions, religious groups, pressure groups.
● Political Dimension
● Legal & Judicial Dimension of Governance
● Administrative Dimension of Governance
● Economic Dimension of Governance
● Social and Environmental Dimension of Governance
Department of Administrative reforms and Public grievances (DARPG) in its report “State of Governance – A framework of assessment” has broken down governance into five dimensions viz. political, legal & judicial, administrative, economic and social & environmental dimensions.
● Political dimension being the most essential aspect of governance looks at the quality of political contestation, conduct of individuals and institutions representing the people, use and abuse of political authority, decentralisation of powers and citizen’s faith in the political.
● It has four key components:
| 1 | Exercise of franchise | This is the doorway to democratic governance which establishes legitimacy and accountability of the Government by enabling participation by the citizens. It provides opportunity to the people to voice their concerns and issues and hold the rulers accountable. To be meaningful, this process should be widely participative, transparent, fair and healthily competitive. |
| 2 | Profile and conduct of Political Representatives, Political Parties and the Political Executive | While the process of electoral democracy provides an enabling environment to the practice of democratic governance, it is the quality of the people’s representatives, which determines effectiveness of accountability and participation in practice. Another key aspect of political governance pertains to the quality of functioning of the political executive that has the duty of steering the Government. The functioning of the Council of Ministers affects the nature of governance, both directly and indirectly. |
| 3 | Functioning of Legislature | The role of the Legislature is critical to the way governance takes shape in any particular State. The time spent on discussing appropriation grants and legislation is a clear indicator, for instance, of effectiveness of legislature. |
| 4 | Political Decentralisation | Last but not the least is the quality of decentralised governance that has taken shape in the State. This not only reflects the willingness of the State to comply with constitutional imperatives, but also is an important indicator of empowerment at the grassroots level. |
● This dimension seeks to measure whether the state’s exercise of power is within its boundaries. Also its ability to effectively maintain law and order, safeguard human rights and enable access to & delivery of justice.
● It has four basic components
| 1 | Law & Order and Internal Security | This pertains to the basic function of the state – its raison d’etre – to ensure that law and order prevails and citizens live in an environment wherein their lives and property are generally safe and secure. |
| 2 | Safeguarding of basic rights | This aspect relates to the ability of the state to protect the basic rights of the citizen, particularly those of poor, women and weaker sections. |
| 3 | Police Administration and Citizen‐ friendliness of the Police | The police force is an important instrumentality of the state. Its role is to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. This is indeed the cutting edge of the governance as an inept or / and corrupt police force would fail governance as nothing else does. |
| 4 | Access to Justice and Judicial Accountability | Lastly, under this dimension, a significant indicator of the quality of governance relates to the access to and delivery of justice which is reflected in its capacity to provide timely justice, judicial efficiency, judicial accountability and citizen perception. |
This dimension determines the ability of Government to deliver basic services to citizens by efficiently managing the human and financial resources. It also includes performance of the State on vigilance and anti‐corruption matters as well as responsiveness and transparency in
● It has following four components:
| 1 | Citizen Interface and Engagement: | This component indicates the citizen‐centricity of Government agencies in their day‐to‐day functioning viz. accessibility, responsiveness, quality of grievance redressal /complaint handling, compliance with RTI Act provisions, etc. |
| 2 | Managing Human, Financial and other resources: | This aspect looks at how human resources in Government are managed with particular focus on the profile of the staffing, recruitment process, transparency in transfers and postings, training and skill building, motivation levels among employees, performance appraisal, etc. A key aspect of governance is effective financial management. This aspect examines the quality of financial management in terms of expenditure patterns, liabilities, outstanding loans and compliance to basic financial accountability systems like audit etc. It also assesses use of IT in governance. |
| 3 | Basic Service Delivery: | The cutting edge of administrative governance is the timely delivery and the quality of basic services such as primary healthcare services, primary schooling, drinking water, sanitation facilities, public distribution system, electricity, roads and transportation. For the majority of population, this reflects governance – good or otherwise. |
| 4 | Corruption Perception, Vigilance & Enforcement: | Lastly, this dimension also examines corruption (in terms of citizen perception) and vigilance mechanisms and the willingness of the State to punish the defaulters, particularly those at the higher echelons of administration. |
● The economic dimension pertains to the ability of the state to ensure macro-economic stability and create conducive climate for economic activity to take place across different sectors of the economy. Economic Governance is also reflected in the state’s ability to provide support to the primary sector.
● It has three basic components:
| 1 | Fiscal Governance: | This aspect of economic governance relates to how the State has managed its finances over the short to medium term. This is examined both in terms of revenue mobilization indicators as well as indicators pertaining to expenditure management. |
| 2 | Business Environment: | This component pertains to those aspects of economic governance which affect the way businesses operate within the State and includes general investment climate, legal aspects, procedural issues, infrastructure and manpower, regulatory systems, etc. |
| 3 | Support to the Primary Sector: | As the primary sector is the backbone of the economy with very high dependence on it among poorer sections of the population, the quality of governance is also reflected in the State of the primary sector and how the State provides various services to support this sector through extension, input supply and marketing linkages. |
● The social dimension pertains to the ability of the state to take care of the vulnerable sections of the society. It
also seeks to assess governance by examining the role and quality of the civil society.
● Environmental management as a separate component is also included due to its increasing importance in
governance.
● This dimension has three key components:
| 1 | Welfare of the Poor and Vulnerable | The changing emphasis of governance (both in expression and action) towards the welfare of the poor and the marginalised is well recognised. The test of governance in that sense lies in the state of the poor and the vulnerable segments such as the poor, women, children, minorities, etc. |
| 2 | Role of Civil Society and Media | It is not only important for the civil society to play a watchdog role in governance, but also important for it to be a responsible actor. Hence this facet of governance pertains to two basic aspects (a) the space and the role that civil society gets to occupy in the governance process and (b) the quality and capacity of the civil society organizations to take up the role that they are expected of them. The mass media, both print and audio‐visual, wields a lot of influence in shaping public opinion. More than civil society organizations, it is important for the media to be a responsible actor in the governance process while enacting its traditional role as an instrument of social change and empowerment. |
| 3 | Environmental Management | Lastly, this component seeks to examine governance from the perspective of the state as the custodian of natural resources and its ability to regulate and manage natural resources for sustainable development. |
India faces a range of various governance related issues in political, economic, administrative, social and legal domain. Some factors attributable to poor governance are:
i. Political Issues:
● Criminalisation of Politics: In current Lok Sabha, 43% MPs are facing criminal cases while among them 29% are facing heinous crimes.
● Misuse of political power: This has observed in various scams like Bofors scam, Commonwealth Games scam, Coal scam, Spectrum scam.
● Decentralisation more in letter less in spirit: Though 73rd and 74th Amendment Act enacted only few states like Kerala, West Bengal have taken steps to empower local bodies. In other states local bodies have no sufficient
powers.
ii. Legal and Judicial issues:
● Delayed justice, issue of under trials: Overall 3 crore cases are pending in Indian judiciary where 50000 are pending in Supreme Court itself. In 1978, 54 per cent of India’s inmate population consisted of undertrials. 77% prisoners are undertrials today (NCRB: Prison Statistics In India report)
● Lack of accountability in Judiciary: Judiciary as a whole is still out of RTI though there is little development in this direction where Office of Chief Justice of India was brought under RTI in Subhash Agarwal case.
● Threat to life and personal security: Since enactment of RTI, 25 RTI activists have been killed in India. There is little development in the field of witness protection.
iii. Administrative issues:
● Lack of sensitivity, transparency and accountability in the working of State machinery where bureaucracy still strives to maintain secrecy, negligence towards vulnerable sections of the society.
● Bureaucratic Delays are still a common phenomenon where there is a direct interface between common people and administration.
● Resistance to changes which promote transparency and accountability such low technology adoption, no voluntary disclosure of information.
● Corruption: recently Transparency International released its report called Corruption Barometer in which it stated that India is most corrupt country in South Asian (Rank 85).
iv. Economic issues:
● Poor management of economy like recession due to structural problems, stagnation in agriculture, less utilisation of manufacturing potential.
● Persisting fiscal imbalances where fiscal slippage has become common phenomenon. Government has always failed to meet the targets established under FRBM Act. Ad hoc and reactive export-import policies have resulted into higher Current Account Deficit and persistent outflow of foreign money.
● Regional disparities have crept into every sector. Example- Green revolution benefited northern states but eastern states are still dependent on subsistence agriculture. Western and South India is hub for manufacturing and service sectors. Where eastern and north eastern states are still underdeveloped.
v. Social and Environmental issues:
● Denial of basic services to a substantial proportion of the population.
● Marginalisation and exclusion of people on account of social, religious, caste and gender. Tribal people are always
on risk of exclusion due to their remote habitats.
● Existence of a significant number of voiceless poor with little opportunity for participation in governance; and
● Deterioration of physical environment, particularly in urban areas. Example- urban heat island, dumping of solid
waste, encroachment on rivers and wetlands.
Governance’ by itself is a neutral term while “Good Governance” implies positive attributes and values associated with the quality of governance. Good governance is a dynamic concept and there is much subjectivity involved in defining the aspects of good governance.
The concept of good governance existed even during the days of Chanakya. He had mentioned it elaborately in Arthashastra. Citizens centric administration lies on the foundation of good governance. Good governance is made up of the following 8 attributes.
● Accountable
● Transparent
● Responsive
● Participatory
● Consensus Oriented
● Follows Rule of Law
● Effective and efficient
● Equitable and Inclusive.
In the 1992 report entitled “Governance and Development”, the World Bank set out its definition of Good Governance. It defined Good Governance as “the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development”.
○ It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making.
○ It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society.
Good governance is understood through its eight indicators or characteristics:
Participatory:
○ Good governance essentially requires participation of different sectors of the society. The management of highly complex societies and of their ever growing needs requires a participatory form of governance by diffusing power.
○ The move for decentralization is a response to this as it widens the base of participation and allows local Government units to exercise Governmental powers directly within their respective districts.
○ This means freedom of association and expression and an organized civil society should go hand in hand.
Rule of Law:
○ Democracy is essentially the rule of law. It is through the law that people express their will and exercise their sovereignty.
● Effective and Efficient:
○ Good governance requires that the institutions, processes, and actors could deliver and meet the necessities of the society in a way that available resources are utilized well. That the different actors meet the needs of the society means that there is effective
Transparent:
○ Transparency, as an indicator of good governance, means that people are open to information regarding decision-making process and the implementation of the same.
Responsive :
○ Responsiveness means that institutions and processes serve all stakeholders in a timely and appropriate manner.
Equitable and Inclusive:
○ Equity and inclusiveness means that all the members of the society, especially the most vulnerable ones or the grassroots level, must be taken into consideration in policy-making.
Consensus Oriented:
○ Governance is consensus oriented when decisions are made after taking into consideration the different viewpoints of the actors of the society. Mechanisms for conflict resolution must be in place because inevitably conflict that will arise from competing interests of the actors.
Accountability:
○ Accountability means answerability or responsibility for one’s action. It is based on the principle that every person or group is responsible for their actions most especially when t heir acts affect public
interest.
Good governance aims at providing public services effectively, efficiently, and equitably to the citizens. Good governance aims at providing an environment in which all citizens irrespective of caste, class, and gender can develop to their full potential.
● Ethos (of service to the citizens)
● Ethics (Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency)
● Equity (Treating all citizens alike with empathy for weaker sections)
● Efficiency (Speedy and effective delivery of service without harassment and using ICT increasingly).
There are many barriers to good governance as per the 12th Report of 2nd ARC. They are mentioned below.
● Attitudinal Problems of Civil Servants – As per the 2nd ARC report Civil Servants have become inflexible, self-perpetuating, and inward-looking.
● Lack of Accountability – Very rarely disciplinary actions are initiated against delinquent officers. There is no performance evaluation structure.
● Red Tapism – Bureaucracies have to adhere to rules and procedures which are important for good governance, however sometimes these rules and procedures are ill-conceived and cumbersome and they do not serve the very purpose of their existence.
● Low Levels of Awareness of the Rights and Duties of Citizens – Awareness of rights and duties would
ensure that officials and other citizens discharge duties effectively and honestly.
● Ineffective Implementation of Laws and Rules – We have a large number of laws to protect the rights of the citizens and vulnerable sections of society, but the weak implementation of these laws erodes the faith of the citizens in the Government machinery.
“Good” governance promotes gender equality, sustains the environment, enables citizens to exercise personal freedoms, and provides tools to reduce poverty, deprivation, fear, and violence. The UN views good governance as participatory, transparent and accountable. It encompasses state institutions and their operations and includes private sector and civil society organizations.
Good governance is significant in public institutions to conduct and manage public affairs and resources to guarantee
human rights free of abuse and corruption, and with due regard for the rule of law.
Good governance is thus, a function of installation of positive virtues of administration and elimination of vices of
dysfunctionalities. It makes the Government work effective, credible and legitimate in administrative system and citizen-friendly, value caring and people-sharing.
● India has to make big leaps to improve its governance records. Multiple steps have been taken in this regard. For example, the two biggest initiatives which have been taken in India for empowering common man and effective functioning of governance include Right to Information Act and E-governance
Good governance initiatives can be summarised as following:
o Decentralisation and People’s Participation – 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendment Act
o Developing programs for weaker sections and backward areas
o Financial management (FRBM) and budget sanctity
o Simplification of procedures and processes – Single window system and online approvals
o Citizen’s Charters
o Sevottam model
o Redress of Citizen’s Grievances – Lokpal and Lokayukta
o E-Governance and use of ICT tools
o Public service morale & anti‐corruption measures
o Transparency and Accountability measures:
o Right to Information
o Social Audits
● The purpose behind developing a comprehensive index is to create a tool which can be used uniformly across states and eventually district level to assess status of governance and impact of various interventions taken up by central and state Governments.
● The index is developed by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. The index takes into consideration following sectors:
● The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) is an autonomous institute under the aegis of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India. Its head office is at New Delhi and branch office at Mussoorie.
● The NCGG has been set up to assist in bringing about governance reforms through studies, training, knowledge sharing and promotion of good governance.
● It seeks to carry out policy relevant research and prepare case studies; curate training courses for civil servants from India and other developing countries; provide a platform for sharing of existing knowledge and pro-actively seek out and develop ideas for their implementation in the Government, both at the National & International level.
● The National Centre for Good Governance traces its origin to the National Institute of Administrative Research (NIAR). NIAR was set up in 1995 by the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), the Government of India’s apex training Institution for higher civil services.
● During its 19 years of existence it provided research and training support to the Academy in areas of public administration. NIAR was subsequently rechristened with an expanded mandate, as National Centre for Good Governance, which was inaugurated on February 24th, 2014.
● It focuses on citizen friendly and accountable
● Simplification of procedures, identification and repeal of obsolete/archaic laws/rules, leveraging technology to
bring in transparency in public interface and a robust public grievance redress system.
● On these lines, Digital India has helped Ministry of Panchayati Raj move to 100% e-office.
● Ease of Doing Business also focuses on ease of governance. The emphasis has been on simplification and
rationalisation of the existing rules and introduction of information technology to make governance more efficient.
● mygov@nic.in is citizen centric platforms to empower people to connect with the Government and contribute
towards good governance.
PMO website also seeks expert advice from the people, thoughts and ideas on various topics that concern
everyone.
● Infusion of ethics into politics so that the political elite can demonstrate integrity and in still faith among subordinates about their fairness and impartiality:
o The 2nd ARC has advocated for the cordial and hassle-free relations between Citizens and Personnel so as to create favourable opinion towards Public Services.
o 2nd ARC has suggested that Character Building is the most essential part of the Training of civil servants both at induction level and in-service level.
● Healthy relation between the politicians and bureaucrats is also very crucial.
● Simplifying the Government
● Ensuring High Standards of Conduct among the top Personnel
● Bringing in Stability of tenure and guarantee against arbitrary punishment.
● The institutional arrangements like “whistle blowing”, should also be put in place to curb corrupt practices.
● To enhance accountability, effective Implementation of Citizens Charters’ for monitoring service delivery and
also effective enforcement of Right to Information Act.
● Civil Services Board:
o The question of appointments, transfers and placements is not to be left to the discretion of the politicians or
administrative bosses but be entrusted to independent and autonomous boards constituted (under the
Constitution) on the lines of
● Technical and Managerial Competence –
o Technical and managerial competence of civil servants
o This may be less of a constraint than it used to be, as access to education has improved, but rapid changes require
ongoing development of skills.
“Information is the currency of democracy” – Thomas Jefferson
“While transparency reduces corruption, good governance goes beyond transparency in achieving openness. Openness means involving the stakeholders in decision-making process. Transparency is the right to information while openness is the right to participation.” ~ Narendra Modi
What is Transparency?
The term ‘transparency’ refers to the ‘increased flow of timely and reliable information, which is accessible to all the relevant stakeholders’. In other words, transparency is the dissemination of regular and accurate information. It is about making decisions and actions visible and about sharing and disclosing the necessary information to the stakeholders involved.
Transparency in Governance
Transparency in governance is the idea that the people have a right to know, what their Government is doing, and the Government has an obligation to provide that information. It means that the criteria, process and systems of decision-making are openly known to all in a public manner.
For example, the selection of beneficiaries for any Government scheme such as ‘Skill India Mission’ would be based
on explicitly known and publicly communicated criteria; it will also be known as to who will apply these criteria, when
and how? And, what benefits would accrue to those families and individuals who fit these criteria? When will these
benefits accrue, at what costs or mutual obligations?
Thus, transparency is about shedding light on rules, plans, processes and actions. It is about knowing why, how,
what, and how much. It ensures that public officials, civil servants, managers, board members and businessmen act
visibly and understandably, and report on their activities and it means that the general public can hold them to
account. A transparent Government is one that provides accurate information about itself, its operations, and the
country as a whole, or permits that information to be collected and made available. It upholds the idea of non-secrecy
and openness of information in administration.
Concept and Fundamentals of Transparency
● Transparency is sometimes more narrowly defined as ‘the release of information which is relevant for evaluating institutions’, however, transparency includes not only making information available and accessible to stakeholders, but also that laws and regulations are administered and implemented in an impartial and predictable manner.
● Transparency implies a proactive effort to make information accessible to citizens. It is about publishing information and inviting people in, to use the information in creative ways.
● An organization’s transparency can be measured by the ‘depth of access it allows’, the depth of knowledge about processes it is willing to reveal, and the attention to citizen response it provides.
● Transparency is one indicator of a Government that is citizen-focused and service-oriented. The more transparent an organization is, the more it is willing to allow citizens to monitor its performance and to participate in its policy processes, the more is the transparency in governance.
There are two forms of transparency, i.e., agent controlled and non-agent controlled transparency.
● The release of Government information by Governments can be seen as a typical instance of an agent controlled transparency, while
● the use of that information by external factors, such as media, NGOs or citizens is non-agent controlled.
● The objective of governance shall be the emphasis not only on the provision of information, but also the ability of external actors to demand and gain access to the information not provided routinely by political and administrative institutions, i.e. both agent-controlled and non-agent controlled transparency, but importantly, non-agent controlled transparency.
● Government Openness/Access to Information: Government openness is defined as the quantum of information that the Government releases, i.e., the extent to which Governments publish information electronically or makes it available otherwise, as well as the extent to which the citizens can demand and receive information not published proactively.
● Publicity of Information: There are principally two different types of information displays- Clear and Opaque. While, ‘opaque’ refers to the type of information which does not reveal how institutions actually behave in practice, in terms of how they make their decisions or the results of their actions, clear displays on the other hand refer to the access information on institutional performance, official responsibilities and flow of public money. Clear transparency, thereby sheds light on institutional behaviour, which permits individuals to exercise greater control over the delivery of services; they need to be explicit in terms of ‘who does what and who gets what’.
● Protection to Whistle-blowers: Whistle-blowing is one of the fundamental conditions upon which disclosure of abuses of power rests. It is often defined as ‘the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect action’. Whistle-blower protection allows individuals to disclose information despite their individual connection to, and vulnerability to retaliation from those in power. It is the Government measures aimed at protecting whistle-blowers from sanctions, incentives for people to do so and more proactive laws aimed at changing organizational culture, as well as providing a conducive environment for competition and press
freedom that determines the nature and scope of transparency in a country.
● Accountability, unlike transparency, which emphasises openness, can be seen as a sort of acknowledgment.
● It can be simply stated as having to explain one’s actions or judgments.
● An individual or organisation must account for its actions, accept responsibility and publish the outcomes in a transparent way.
● It explains and justifies what has been done, what is being done now, and what is planned.
● Accountability is generally achieved by adherence to organisational rules and regulations, compliance with laws, adherence to professional codes of conduct, and responsiveness to all major stakeholders.
● In today’s globalisation context, there are several stakeholders, including the market, civil society, people, and the media, and the engagement of everyone in the governance process complicates accountability.
| Criteria | Transparency | Accountability |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Conducting activities or performing actions openly and clearly | Being responsible for one’s actions and having the ability to provide sound reasoning for actions. |
| Focus | Openness and clarity | Acknowledgment and being responsible for one’s actions. |
● It is important that the Government functions transparently and is held accountable for its choices and actions.
● Expansion of Government’s role and activities: For socio-economic transformation and rapid development. The new policies addressed human concerns such as the development of women, children, the physically handicapped, marginalised groups, and so on.
o All of this resulted in the growth of Government agencies with overlapping functional boundaries.
o In such a case, the need for accountability and openness was felt in order to keep track of how various departments were operating.
● To check the powers and duties: The permanent executive became both the creator and the administrator of laws. Hence, the executive’s powers were expanded.
o As a result, accountability and transparency were vital to check the executive’s powers and duties.
● Participatory governance: It can help to increase confidence and the effect of programmes.
● Transparency and accountability in governance may lead to significant changes in work culture, resulting in more concern for society.
● Information: Accountability and transparency provide a new method of giving real-time information through an online dashboard. This not only answers people’s issues, but it also improves service quality.
● The link between the Government and the people may be improved, and citizens can feel more connected.
● A two-way information channel will be established to better understand what consumers desire. “Listen, inquire, act, interact, and inform” are concepts.
Right to Information Act, Right to Public Service Legislation, Citizens Charters, e-Governance, and e-procurement
are some of India’s major initiatives to improve transparency.
● It is an act of the Indian Parliament that establishes the laws and procedures for citizens’ access to information. It took the place of the previous Freedom of Information Act of 2002.
● Under the RTI Act, any Indian citizen may seek information from a “public authority” (a Government entity or “state instrumentality”), which is supposed to respond promptly or within thirty days.
● The information must be delivered within 48 hours if the matter involves a petitioner’s life or liberty. The RTI Bill was passed by the Parliament of India on 15 June 2005 and came into force with effect from 12 October 2005.
● It consists of statutory laws that ensure timely delivery of services for a variety of Government services provided to citizens, as well as a system for disciplining errant public servants who fail to provide the service required by the statute.
● A Citizens’ Charter represents the commitment of the Organisation towards standard, quality, and time frame of service delivery, grievance redress mechanism, transparency, and accountability.
● In its attempts to create a more responsive and citizen-friendly administration, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances coordinates the efforts to formulate and operationalize Citizens’ Charters.
● It is defined as the use of information and communication technology (ICT) at all levels of Government to provide citizens with services, interact with businesses, and communicate and exchange information between different Government departments in a timely, efficient, and transparent manner.
● Central Public Procurement Portal is a robust and secured platform offering full transparency in public procurement for the Government of India, most States, and Local Governments across India.
● In the Republic of India, a Lokpal is an anti-corruption authority or ombudsman agency that represents the public interest.
● Lokayukta, is appointed by and for each of India’s State Governments.
● Lokpal has jurisdiction over the central Government to investigate charges of corruption against its public officials and other corruption-related matters.
● Lokayukta comes into action in a state after the state legislature passes the Lokayukta Act and a person with a good reputation is nominated for the position.
● Following Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal agitation in 2011, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act was enacted with revisions in parliament in 2013. Pinaki Chandra Ghose is the current Lokpal Chairperson.
● Justice P. N. Bhagwati introduced public interest litigation (PIL) as a means of securing public interest and demonstrating the availability of justice to socially disadvantaged parties.
● Public Problems Redressal is one of the hallmark efforts for governance reform launched by the Indian central Government by addressing the grievances of the general public.
● The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances established CPGRAMS in June 2007.
● Any citizen of India can use the public grievance process to bring their problems, grievances, or requests to the attention of national and state Government Ministries and Departments.
● The Central Vigilance Commission is the apex vigilance institution, independent of any executive authority, charged with overseeing all vigilance activity under the Central Government and advising various authorities in Central Government organisations on vigilance planning, execution, review, and reform.
● Vigilance entails taking clean and timely administrative action to improve staff efficiency and effectiveness, as well as the organisation’s overall efficiency and effectiveness, as a lack of Vigilance leads to waste, losses, and economic deterioration.
● The CAG is a constitutionally mandated person tasked with keeping an eye on the Government’s finances and operations.
● He/she is critical in making the Government more transparent and responsible to both the legislature and civil society.
● The CAG audits the finances of the federal and state Governments, as well as entities that are owned or funded by the Government.
● The CAG evaluates the performance of various Government agencies, enterprises, pieces of legislation, and even welfare programs like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
● The Public Accounts Body is a committee of selected members of Parliament established by the Indian Parliament to audit the Government’s revenue and expenditure.
● They ensure that Parliament has control over the executive, based on the fundamental idea that Parliament represents the people’s will.
● A social audit, in the context of Government schemes, is an accountability mechanism that measures, assesses, and identifies gaps in service delivery, as well as pledges to fix those gaps, with the direct participation of intended beneficiaries.
● The Right to Information gained power when Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 providing everyone the right to seek, receive, information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
● The International Covenant on Civil and Political rights 1966 states that everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression, the freedom to seek and impart information and ideas of all kinds.
● According to Thomas Jefferson “Information is the currency of democracy,” and critical to the emergence and development of a vibrant civil society. However, with a view to set out a practical regime for the citizens to secure information as a matter of right, the Indian Parliament enacted the Right to Information Act, 2005.
● Genesis of RTI law started in 1986, through judgement of Supreme Court in Mr. Kulwal v/s Jaipur Municipal Corporation case, in which it directed that freedom of speech and expression provided under Article 19 of the Constitution clearly implies Right to Information, as without information the freedom of speech and expression cannot be fully used by the citizens.
● To empower the citizens
● To promote transparency and accountability
● To contain corruption and
● To enhance people’s participation in democratic process.
● Corruption and scandal
● International pressure and activist
● Modernization and the information society
● Section 1(2): It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
● Section- 2 (f): “Information” means any material in any form, including Records, Documents, Memos, e-mails, Opinions, Advices, Press releases, Circulars, Orders, Logbooks, Contracts, Reports, Papers, Samples, Models, Data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a Public Authority under any other law for the time being in force.
● Section- 2(j): “Right to Information” means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority and includes the right to:
o Inspection of work, documents, records;
o Taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records;
o Taking certified samples of material;
o Obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in any other device.
“Public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self-Government established or constituted—
● by or under the Constitution;
● by any other law made by Parliament/State Legislature.
● by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any—
o body owned, controlled or substantially financed;
o Non-Government organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government.
● Section 4 of the RTI Act requires suo motu disclosure of information by each public authority. However, such disclosures have remained less than satisfactory.
● Section 8 (1) mentions exemptions against furnishing information under RTI Act.
● Section 8 (2) provides for disclosure of information exempted under Official Secrets Act, 1923 if larger public interest is served.
● The Act also provides for appointment of Information Commissioners at Central and State level. Public authorities have designated some of its officers as Public Information Officer. They are responsible to give information to a person who seeks information under the RTI Act.
● Time period: In normal course, information to an applicant is to be supplied within 30 days from the receipt of application by the public authority.
o If information sought concerns the life or liberty of a person, it shall be supplied within 48 hours.
o In case the application is sent through the Assistant Public Information Officer or it is sent to a wrong public authority, five days shall be added to the period of thirty days or 48 hours, as the case may be.
● The RTI Act, 2005 did not create a new bureaucracy for implementing the law. Instead, it tasked and mandated officials in every office to change their attitude and duty from one of secrecy to one of sharing and openness.
o It carefully and deliberately empowered the Information Commission to be the highest authority in the country with the mandate to order any office in the country to provide information as per the provisions of the Act. And it empowered the Commission to fine any official who did not follow the mandate.
● Right to information has been seen as the key to strengthening participatory democracy and ushering in people centred governance.
● Access to information can empower the poor and the weaker sections of society to demand and get information about public policies and actions, thereby leading to their welfare. It showed an early promise by exposing wrong doings at high places, such as in the organisation of the Commonwealth Games, and the allocation of 2G spectrum and coal blocks.
● Right to information opens up Government’s records to public scrutiny, thereby arming citizens with a vital tool to inform them about what the Government does and how effectively, thus making the Government more accountable.
● Improves decision making by public authority by removing unnecessary secrecy.
● Different types of information is sought which has no public interest and sometimes can be used to misuse the law and harass the public authorities. For examplea. Asking for desperate and voluminous information.
b. To attain publicity by filing RTI
c. RTI filed as vindictive tool to harass or pressurize the public authority
● Because of the illiteracy and unawareness among the majority of population in the country, the RTI cannot be exercised.
● Though RTI’s aim is not to create a grievance redressal mechanism, the notices from Information Commissions often spur the public authorities to redress grievances.
Some provisions of Indian Evidence Act (Sections 123, 124, and 162) provide to hold the disclosure of documents.
● Under these provisions, head of department may refuse to provide information on affairs of state and only swearing that it is a state secret will entitle not to disclose the information.
● In a similar manner no public officer shall be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official confidence.
● The Atomic Energy Act, 1912 provides that it shall be an offence to disclose information restricted by the Central Government.
● The Central Civil Services Act provides a Government servant not to communicate or part with any official documents except in accordance with a general or special order of Government.
● The Official Secrets Act, 1923 provides that any Government official can mark a document as confidential so as to prevent its publication.
● Conceptually, RTI and the right to privacy are both complementary as well as in conflict to each other.
● While RTI increases access to information, the right to privacy protects it instead.
● At the same time they both function, as citizen rights safeguarding liberty, against state’s overreach.
● When the question of harmonising the contradicting rights arises, it should give justice to the larger public interest advance the public morality.
The OSA was enacted in 1923 by the British to keep certain kinds of information confidential, including, but not always limited to, information involving the affairs of state, diplomacy, national security, espionage, and other state secrets.
● Whenever there is a conflict between the two laws, the provisions of the RTI Act override those of the OSA.
● Section 22 of the RTI Act states that its provisions will have effect notwithstanding anything that is inconsistent with them in the OSA.
● Similarly, under Section 8(2) of the RTI Act, a public authority may allow access to information covered under the OSA, “if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interest”.
Why activists want political parties to be brought under RTI?
● To contain corruption
● Huge donations from corporates which lead to favouritism or crony capitalism
● Illegal foreign contribution
● The leader of the opposition is statutorily mandated to be part of the select committees to choose Chairperson
for CIC, Lokpal, CBI Director and CVC
● Various members of the opposition are also part of various parliamentary committees
● They enjoy multiple benefits like concessional office spaces, free airtime on DD & AIR from Government
Stand of Political Parties
● PP’s are not public authorities, hence cannot be brought under RTI Act.
● Disclosed information can be misused.
● Can disclose financial information under the IT Act.
Recent Amendments
● The RTI amendment Bill 2013 removes political parties from the ambit of the definition of public authorities and hence from the purview of the RTI Act.
● The draft provision 2017 which provides for closure of case in case of death of applicant can lead to more attacks on the lives of whistle-blowers.
● The proposed RTI Amendment Act 2018 is aimed at giving the Centre the power to fix the tenures and salaries of state and central information commissioners, which are statutorily protected under the RTI Act. The move will dilute the autonomy and independence of CIC.
● The Act proposes to replace the fixed 5 year tenure to as much prescribed by Government.
Other Issues
● Information commissioners do not have adequate authorities to enforce the RTI Act.
● In case of award of compensation to activist by public authority as ordered by commission, compliance cannot be secured.
● Poor record-keeping practices
● Lack of adequate infrastructure and staff for running information commissions
● Dilution of supplementary laws like the whistle-blowers protection Act.
● RTI is crippled by rising backlog: Seventeen years after the Right to Information (RTI) Act, came into force, there has nearly 3.15 lakh pending complaints or appeals with 26 information commissions across India.
According to a report by Satark Nagrik Sangathan, the backlog of appeals or complaints is steadily increasing in commissions every year.
● Most Commissions are functioning at reduced capacity: nine out of 29 information commissions (31%) in the country were functioning without a chief information commissioner.
● Vacant PIOs posts: As per the report by Transparency International, one-fourth (42 of the total 165) information commissioner posts are vacant.
● Lack of transparency: 20 out of 29 ICs (69%) have not published their annual report for 2020-21.
● Killing of RTI activists: Since the implementation of the RTI Act, On average, there have been about 28 RTI activists who have been threatened, attacked, or killed annually.
Way forward:
● Mechanism for online filing: ICs in collaboration with appropriate governments should put in place a mechanism for online filing of RTI applications, along the lines of the web portal set up by the central government.
● Balancing with Privacy Right: This right is enshrined within the spirit of Article 21 of the Constitution. The right
to information must be balanced with the right to privacy within the framework of law.
● Open Data Policy: Government institutions should put all disclosable information on their respective websites. By this, the petitioners may immediately access whatever information they need.
● The Public Information Commissioners must be given adequate training to be cooperative enough towards the
Information seekers. External agencies must be appointed to train the officers within and beyond the Act.
● Performance Audit: It has been proposed by the Comptroller and Auditor on the implementation of the Right to Information Act.
● Law commission recommendation: The commission is in 275th report recommended that owing to the monopolistic character of BCCI coupled with its functions and ‘substantial financing’ from appropriate governments over the years, it can, within the existing legal framework, be termed to be a ‘public authority’ and be brought within the purview of the RTI Act.
Conclusion
● The Right to Information Act was made to achieve social justice, transparency and to make accountable Government but this act has not achieved its full objectives due to some impediments created due to systematic failures.
● As observed by Delhi High Court that misuse of the RTI Act has to be appropriately dealt with; otherwise the public would lose faith and confidence in this “sunshine Act”.
● It is well recognized that right to information is necessary, but not sufficient, to improve governance. A lot more needs to be done to usher in accountability in governance, including protection of whistle-blowers, decentralization of power and fusion of authority with accountability at all levels.
● This law provides us a priceless opportunity to redesign the processes of governance, particularly at the grass roots level where the citizens’ interface is maximum.
“The beauty of e-governance is that a few keystrokes can bring smiles on a million faces.” — Narendra Modi
Definition:
A new paradigm shift has been developed in the field of governance by the application of ICT in the processes of governing called Electronic-Governance or E-Governance.
E-governance raises the transparency, accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness and inclusiveness in the governing process in terms of reliable access to the information within Government, between Government, national, state, municipal, and local level Governments, citizens, and businesses and empowers business through access and use of information
E-governance is not just about Government websites or e-mail or financial transactions. “It will change how citizens relate to Government as much as it changes how citizens relate to each other”. It also refers to the utilization of IT in the country’s democratic processes itself such as the election.
The objectives of e governance are as follows-
● One of the basic objectives of e-governance is to make every information of the Government available to all in the public interest.
● One of its goals is to create a cooperative structure between the Government and the people and to seek help and advice from the people, to make the Government aware of the problems of the people.
● To increase and encourage people’s participation in the governance process.
● E-Governance improves the country’s information and communication technology and electronic media, with the aim of strengthening the country’s economy by keeping Governments, people and businesses in tune with the modern world.
● One of its main objectives is to establish transparency and accountability in the governance process.
● To reduce Government spending on information and services.
It has been proven from the concept of e-governance that it is a powerful means of public service in the present era. Some of its features can be found by observing the functioning of e-governance.
● De bureaucratization: Due to e-governance, the gap between the people and the Government in all the services of the Government is narrowing and the dependence of the people on the bureaucracy is also greatly reduced.
● E-Services: Its main feature is the provision of services through the Internet. As a result, we get G2C, G2B, G2E, etc. services.
● International Services: Through e-governance, all the essential services can be delivered to the citizens who are living outside of their country for job purposes or any other reasons.
● It enhances the right to express to the citizens. Using the means of e-governance anyone can share their views with the Government on any bill or act or decision taken by the Government.
● Economic Development: With the introduction of e-governance, various information like import-export, registration of companies, investment situations, etc. are available through the internet. As a result, time is saved, procrastination decreases, and economic dynamism increases.
● Reduce inequality: Using e-governance tools everyone can gather information and empower themselves. In this globalized world, knowledge is power, and means of e-governance empower us by providing relevant information at minimal cost, effort, and time.
● Increased effectiveness and efficiency: Improved Government services in terms of accomplishing the Government purpose and functioning.
● Better services: E-Government can provide quick and timely services to stakeholders.
● Transparency by dissemination and publication of information on the web: This provides easy access to information and subsequently makes the system publicly accountable. Also as the web enables the free flow of information, it can be easily accessed by all without any discrimination.
● Accessible anytime and anywhere: As e Government services are provided through web-enabled technology they can be accessed anytime and anywhere.
● User-centred ICT enabled services: The services are primarily intended for the use of citizens, businesses, and the Government itself.
● Reduced cost and time: As the services are provided through internet they are effective in terms of time and cost.
● Economic Development: The deployment of ICTs reduces the transaction costs, which makes services cheaper. For example, rural areas suffer on account of lack of information regarding markets, products, agriculture, health, education, weather, etc. and if all this could be accessed online would lead to better and more opportunities and thereby prosperity in these areas.
● Social Development: The access to information empowers the citizens. The informed citizenry can participate and voice their concerns, which can be accommodated in the programme/ project formulation, implementation, monitoring and service delivery. Web-enabled participation will counter the discriminatory factors affecting our societal behaviour.
● Reduced bureaucracy: E-Government minimizes hierarchy of authority for availing any Government services
● Automation of Administrative Processes: A truly e-governed system would require minimal human intervention and would rather be system driven.
● Enhanced communication and coordination between Government organizations: An automated services can be accessed by different organizations coordination and further communication became relative
● Paper Work Reduction: An immediate impact of automation would be on the paperwork. Paperwork is reduced to a greater extent with communication being enabled via electronic route and storage and retrieval of information in the electronic form. All this has led to the emergence of less paper office.
● Quality of Services: ICT helps Governments to deliver services to citizens with greater accountability responsiveness and sensitivity. Quality of services improves, as now the people are able to, get services efficiently and instantaneously.
● Elimination of Hierarchy: ICT has reduced procedural delays caused by hierarchical processes in the organisation. Through Intranet and LAN, it has become possible to send information and data across various levels in the organisation at the same time.
● Change in Administrative Culture: Bureaucratic structures have been plagued by characteristics aptly described by Victor Thompson as ‘bureau-pathology’. From the days of New Public Administration, efforts have been made to find ways to deal with the pathological or dysfunctional aspects of art.
● Strategic Information System: Changing organisational environment and increasing competitiveness have put pressures on the performance of the functionaries. Information regarding all aspects nee ds to be made available to the management at every point to make routine as well as strategic decisions.
● Department of Electronics: The establishment of the Department of Electronics in 1970 was the first major step towards e-governance in India as it brought ‘information’ and its communication to focus.
● National Informatics Centre (NIC): established in 1977, launched the District Information System program to computerize all district offices in the country
● NICNET – National Informatics Centre: The main thrust for e-governance was provided by the launching of NICNET in 1987 – the national satellite-based computer network.
The Indian experience demonstrates that the onset of e-Governance proceeded through the following phases:
● Computerisation: In the first phase, with the availability of personal computers, a large number of Government offices got equipped with computers. The use of computers began with word processing, quickly followed by data processing.
● Networking: In this phase, some units of a few Government organizations got connected through a hub leading to sharing of information and flow of data between different Government entities.
● On-line presence: With increasing internet connectivity, a need was felt for maintaining a presence on the web. This resulted in maintenance of websites by Government departments and other entities.
Generally, these web-pages/web-sites contained information about the organizational structure, contact details, reports and publications, objectives and vision statements of the respective Government entities.
● On-line interactivity: A natural consequence of on-line presence was opening up of communication channels between Government entities and the citizens, civil society organizations etc. The main aim at this stage was to minimize the scope of personal interface with Government entities by providing downloadable Forms, Instructions, Acts, and Rules etc. In some cases, this has already led to on-line submission of Forms. Most citizen-Government transactions have the potential of being put on eGovernance mode.
● Different Language: India is a country where people with different cultures and different religions live. The diversity of people in context of language is a huge challenge for implem enting e-Governance projects as e-Governance applications are written in English language.
● Low Literacy: Literacy level of India is very low which is a huge obstacle in implementation of e-Governance projects. Illiterate people are not able to access the e-Governance applications; hence the projects do not get much success.
● User friendliness of Government websites: Users of e-Governance applications are often non-expert users who may not be able to use the applications in a right manner.
● Services are not accessible easily: Even if the users of Internet are growing but still there is a major part of Indian population which is not able to access e-Governance activities for variety of reasons.
● Population: Population of India is probably the biggest challenge in implementing e-Governance projects.
● Lack of integrated services: Most of the e-governance services which are offered by the state or central Government are not integrated.
● Cost: In developing countries like India, cost is one of the most important obstacles in the path of implementation of e-Governance where major part of the population is living below poverty line.
● Privacy and Security: A critical obstacle in implementing e-Governance is the privacy and security of an individual’s personal data that he/she provides to obtain Government services.
● It is an umbrella program to prepare India for a knowledge-based transformation.
● It weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single comprehensive vision so that each of them is seen as part of a larger goal.
● It has been launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity).
Vision Areas
● Digital infrastructure as Utility to Every Citizen
● Governance and services on demand
● Digital empowerment of citizens
a. MyGov: It aims to establish a link between Government and Citizens towards meeting the goal of good governance. It encourages citizens as well as people abroad to participate in various activities i.e. ‘Do’, ‘Discuss’, ‘Poll’, ‘Talk’, ‘Blog’, etc.
b. DigiLocker: It serves as a platform to enable citizens to securely store and share their documents with service providers who can directly access them electronically.
c. e-Hospital-Online Registration Framework (ORF): It is an initiative to facilitate the patients to take online OPD
appointments with Government hospitals. This framework also covers patient care, laboratory services and medical record management.
d. National Scholarships Portal (NSP): It provides a centralized platform for application and disbursement of scholarship to students under any scholarship scheme.
e. DARPAN: It is an online tool that can be used to monitor and analyse the implementation of critical and high priority projects of the State. It facilitates presentation of real time data on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of selected schemes/projects to the senior functionaries of the State Government as well as district
administration.
f. PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation): It has been aimed at starting a culture of ProActive Governance and Timely Implementation. It is also a robust system for bringing e-transparency and eaccountability with real-time presence and exchange among the key stakeholders. It was launched in 2015.
g. Common Services Centres 2.0 (CSC 2.0): It is being implemented to develop and provide support to the use of information technology in rural areas of the country. The CSCs are Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) enabled kiosks with broadband connectivity to provide various Governments, private and social services at the doorstep of the citizen.
h. Mobile Seva: It provides Government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets.
i. Jeevan Pramaan: It is an Aadhaar based Biometric Authentication System for Pensioners. The system provides authenticity to Digital Life Certificate without the necessity of the pensioner being present in person before his/her Pension Dispensing Authority (PDA).
j. National Centre of Geo-informatics (NCoG): Under this project, Geographic Information System (GIS) platform
for sharing, collaboration, location based analytics and decision support system for Departments has been developed.
k. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP): It takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision and a shared cause. It comprises of 31 Mission Mode Projects, approved in 2006, but later it was integrated into Digital India Program.
i. Jeevan Pramaan: It is an Aadhaar based Biometric Authentication System for Pensioners. The system provides authenticity to Digital Life Certificate without the necessity of the pensioner being present in person before his/her Pension Dispensing Authority (PDA).
j. National Centre of Geo-informatics (NCoG): Under this project, Geographic Information System (GIS) platform for sharing, collaboration, location based analytics and decision support system for Departments has been developed.
k. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP): It takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision and a shared cause. It comprises of 31 Mission Mode Projects, approved in 2006, but later it was integrated into Digital India Program.
● It is an essential pillar of the Digital India initiative.
● It was approved in 2015 with the vision of “Transforming e-Governance for Transforming Governance”.
● There are 44 Mission Mode Projects under e-Kranti, which are at various stages of implementation.
Thrust Areas of e-Kranti
● e-Education: All schools will be connected to broadband. Free WiFi will be provided in all secondary and higher secondary schools (coverage would be around 250,000 schools).
o PMGDISHA: Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan aims to make six crore people in rural India digitally literate.
o SWAYAM: It includes Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) for leveraging e-Education. It provides for a platform that facilitates hosting of all the courses, taught in classrooms from Class 9 till post-graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time.
● e-Healthcare: e-Healthcare would cover online medical consultation, online medical records, online medicine supply, pan-India exchange for patient information, etc.
● Farmers: This would facilitate farmers to get real-time price information, online ordering of inputs and online cash, loan, and relief payment with mobile banking.
● Security: Mobile-based emergency services and disaster-related services would be provided to citizens on a realtime basis so as to take precautionary measures well in time and minimize loss of lives and properties.
● Financial Inclusion: Financial inclusion shall be strengthened using mobile banking, Micro-ATM program, and CSCs/ Post Offices.
● Justice: Interoperable Criminal Justice System shall be strengthened by leveraging several related applications, i.e. e-Courts, e-Police, e-Jails, and e-Prosecution.
● Planning: National GIS Mission Mode Project would be implemented to facilitate GIS-based decision making for project planning, conceptualization, design, and development.
● Cyber Security: National Cyber Security Co-ordination Centre has been set up to ensure a safe and secure cyberspace within the country.
Building a congenial environment is a sine qua non for successful implementation of e-Governance initiatives. This should be achieved by
● Creating and displaying a will to change within the Government
● Providing political support at the highest level
● Incentivizing e-Governance and overcoming the resistance to change within Government
● Creating awareness in the public with a view to generating a demand for change.
Identification of e-Governance Projects and Prioritisation
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has defined four stages of e-Government Projects, each one more demanding than the next. These are:
● Information: Putting information on web-sites
● Interaction: Allowing citizens to enquire about services, procedures etc. and filling up forms and submitting them online
● Transaction: Allowing payments online
● Transformation: A mix of all the above and allowing the citizen to participate in governance through ICT.
The basic idea behind such re-engineering is to avail of the opportunity provided by ICT in transforming Governmental processes and not just in modifying them.
● For every function a Government organisation performs and every service or information it is required to provide, there should be a step-by-step analysis of each process to ensure its rationality and simplicity.
● Such analysis should incorporate the viewpoints of all stakeholders, while maintaining the citizencentricity of the exercise.
Capacity Building and Creating Awareness
The success of an e-Governance project would depend on building human capacities in terms of necessary knowledge and skills to conceptualize, initiate, implement and sustain e-Governance initiatives across Government as also on the ultimate use by citizens of the facilities created.
● Capacity building efforts must attend to both the organizational capacity building as also the professional and skills upgradation of individuals associated with the implementation of e -Governance projects.
● Each Government organization must conduct a capacity assessment which should form the basis for training their personnel.
● A network of training institutions needs to be created in the States with the Administrative Training Institutes at the apex.
Implementation
● Breaking up entire e-Governance projects into components/ activities
● Planning each activity in detail
● Allocating resources, both human and financial
● Commencement of activities as per the plan and continuous tracking
● Need-based mid-course correction
Monitoring and Evaluation
● Monitoring of e-Governance projects should be done by the implementing organization during implementation in the manner in which project monitoring is done for large infrastructure projects.
● Evaluation of success or failure of e-Governance projects may be done by independent agencies on the basis of parameters fixed beforehand.
Protecting Critical Information Infrastructure Assets
● There is need to develop a critical information infrastructure assets protection strategy.
● This should be supplemented with improved analysis and warning capabilities as well as improved information sharing on threats and vulnerabilities.
Conclusion:
Thus, e-Governance has led to better access to information and quality services for citizens; Simplicity, efficiency and accountability in the Government and expanded reach of governance. In the light of wide range of e-Governance initiatives that have been carried out in India with varying degrees of success as well as the diversity of conditions in the country, the report recognizes that e-Governance projects have to be designed for specific contexts and environments
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, has visualized e-Governance in the Indian context to mean: “A transparent, smart e-Governance with seamless access, secure and authentic flow of information crossing the interdepartmental barrier and providing a fair and unbiased service to the citizen.”
MAINSTREAM MEDIA: ROLE AND IMPORTANCE
● Historical significance: Promotion of national consciousness in the freedom struggle.
● Protection of democracy: Media has played a significant role in protection of democracy from threats such as national emergency (1975-77).
● Accountability of government: Media fixes accountability of the government by raising issues of national and local importance, exposing scams and corruption etc. e.g. 2G scandal.
● Watchdog of public interest: Media is the watchdog of public interest in democracy as the fourth pillar of democracy.
● Voice to voiceless: Media ensures participation of the vulnerable sections in society by highlighting their issues, e.g. Hathras incident, issues of transgender community etc.
● Public information: Media helps in spread of information to the public, e.g. critical role of media during COVID19 pandemic in spreading information about the virus.
● Success stories: Media highlights success stories from different walks of life, e.g. ISRO’s achievements etc.
● Platform for public debates: Media is an important platform for public debates over various issues plaguing the country
ISSUES PLAGUING MAINSTREAM MEDIA:
● Sensationalization: Media suffers from the issue of sensationalization and ‘breaking news’ phenomena.
● Media trial: Media trial is a serious issue that prejudices criminal proceedings.
● Political biases: Media lacks political independence as almost every news media is affiliated with any particular political ideology.
● Short span: Coverage of any issue is generally limited to the short span when a particular incident occurs and rarely followed up.
● Corporate influence: The media is also dependent on the corporate houses for their funding with stakes of corporate houses in media. This influences their independent functioning.
● Legitimacy: Indian media is losing its credibility and trust among the people because of the above issues.
● Glorification of criminals: While highlighting the issues, media houses many times glorify the criminals and their lifestyle.
● Insensitivity: The media also suffers from insensitivity in coverage of critical issues such as the Mumbai terror attack.
● Privacy concerns: Sting operations by media houses violate the privacy of individuals.
● Sexual harassment: There have been several complaints of harassment of female journalists by powerful people in the media.
STEPS TAKEN:
● Press Council of India: Established under PCI Act, 1978 to preserve the freedom of the press and maintain and improve the standards of newspapers and news agencies in India.
● News Broadcasters Association: It has been established as a self-regulatory body for news channels. It has devised a Code of Ethics to regulate television content.
● Broadcasting Content Complaint Council: A complaint relating to objectionable TV content or fake news can be filed to the BCCC if a broadcaster incites communal hatred, encourages violence against women or child abuse, and airs content having gory scenes of violence.
● Indian Broadcast Federation: It looks into the complaints against content aired by 24×7 channels.
● Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995: It regulates the content and operation of cable networks in the country through Program and Advertisement Codes.
● Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act, 2013: The act has been enacted to prevent sexual harassment with establishment of internal complaints committee.
WAY FORWARD:
● Independent assessment: There is a need to establish a genuinely independent and transparent system for assessing circulation and ratings of media.
● Disclosure: Introduce internal systems for disclosing potential conflicts of interest, deal with complaints and have mandatory disclosure of ownership or relationship conflicts at the end of each print article or visual program.
● Paid news: Paid news should be tackled with effective guidelines that define what constitutes paid political news and naming and shaming of media houses involved.
● Provide diverse perspectives: The media should strive to represent diverse voices and perspectives to ensure that all viewpoints are heard and considered.
● Coverage of online harassment: Journalists should not only be protected in the physical world but also on social media platforms with effective regulation of social media platforms.
● Media literacy: Media literacy programs can help viewers understand how media works, how to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources and how to engage in informed public discourse.
● Legal protection: Journalists should be protected against attacks and intimidation from various sources through legislation.
● Adherence to media ethics: Media should stick to core principles of journalisms such as truth and accuracy, fairness, independence etc.
Social media can be defined as any web or mobile based platform that enables an individual or agency to communicate interactively and enables the exchange of user generated content. Social media has become synonymous with social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. In 2022, on average there are about 470.1 million active social media users in India on a monthly basis
POSITIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA:
● Government and citizens: Social media has enabled two-way communication between the government and citizens, e.g. use of Twitter by ministers during COVID-19 etc.
● Increased democratic potential: Social media has increased the democratic potential with people expressing their opinions and lodging protests over social media, e.g. use of social media in the Arab Spring.
● Women empowerment: Social media has empowered women by providing them a platform to raise their concerns and issues, e.g. MeToo campaign etc.
● Global connect: Social media has connected people to the world more extensively and people are much more aware about global events, cultures etc.
● Interest groups: It has enabled creation of special interest groups and provided support to everyone and anyone in the society.
● Reconnect: It has enabled people to locate long-lost relatives and united them at the time of disasters.
● Brand and consumers: Social media is an important marketing place for businesses today with an opportunity to provide information, connect with people etc.
● Countering hegemony: It provided an alternate source of Knowledge in a world where mainstream media has come under severe public criticism for fake news and propaganda.
NEED FOR REGULATION:
● Exponential increase: Social media platforms have increased exponentially in recent times, especially among digitally illiterate sections of society.
● Fixing responsibility: Social media platforms claim to promote freedom of speech but they are not willing to take responsibility for misuse of their platforms.
● Threat to democracy: Social media platforms have been used for promotion of misinformation during elections which threaten free and fair elections, E.g. 2016 US elections.
● Social media trolls: Social media trolls are quite active with targeted attacks. There have been many complaints of cyber bullying, online stalking and harassment of women.
● Invasion of privacy: Social media platforms have been allegedly compromising the privacy of users and there is a need to protect personalized data of users. E.g. Cambridge analytica case.
● Fake news: Social media platforms have become the source and promoter of fake news, E.g. fake news over child kidnapping etc.
● Terror promotion: Social media platforms have been used by terror organizations for radicalisation, recruitment and training of their cadre.
● Fake trends: Many groups with their vested interest promote fake trends on social media, E.g. fake trends by Pakistan’s ISI against cricketer Arshdeep Singh.
● Hate speech: Social media platforms have been used for promotion of hate speech and rumors which have led to riots, E.g. Delhi riots of 2020.
STEPS TAKEN:
In order to regulate social media, Government has notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 that provide for:
● Due diligence to be followed by social media intermediaries.
● Grievance redressal: Grievance redressal officer to acknowledge complaint within 24 hours and resolve within 15 days.
● Online safety of users: Ensure online safety and dignity of users, especially women users and remove or disable access within 24 hours of receipt of complaints of obscene material.
● Significant social media intermediaries: Additional diligence to be followed by significant social media intermediaries:
o Appoint Chief Compliance Officer for compliance of Act and Rules.
o Appoint Nodal Contact Person for 24×7 coordination with law enforcement agencies.
o Appoint Resident Grievance Officer for grievance
redressal mechanism.
o Publish a monthly compliance report.
o Provide for identification of the first originator
of the information.
● Provide for a voluntary user verification mechanism.
● Giving users an opportunity to be heard.
● Removal of unlawful information based on the order of the court, appropriate government or its agencies.
What are Citizen Charters (CC)?
● About: A Citizen Charter is a document which represents a systematic effort to focus on the commitment of the Organisation towards its Citizens in respects of Standard of Services, Information, Choice and Consultation,
Non-discrimination and Accessibility, Grievance Redress, Courtesy and Value for Money.
o This also includes expectations of the Organisation from the Citizen for fulfilling the commitment of the Organisation.
o A CC emphasizes on citizens as customers by ensuring that public services are responsive to the citizens they serve.
o It comprises of the Vision and Mission Statement of the organization, stating the outcomes desired and the broad strategy to achieve these goals and outcomes.
o A Citizen’s Charter is not legally enforceable and, therefore, is non-justiciable.
● Origin: The concept was first articulated and implemented in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Government of John Major in 1991 as a national Programme with a simple aim:
o To continuously improve the quality of public services for the people of the country so that these services respond to the needs and wishes of the users.
● Nodal Department: The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, to provide a more responsive and citizenfriendly governance, coordinates the efforts to formulate and operationalise Citizens’ Charters.
o The Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011 (Citizens Charter) was introduced to create a mechanism to ensure timely delivery of goods and services to citizens.
The concept of Citizens’ Charter enshrines the trust between the service provider and its users. Six principles of the Citizens Charter movement as originally framed, were:
● Quality – improving the quality of services
● Choice – for the users wherever possible
● Standards – specifying what to expect within a time frame
● Value – for the taxpayers’ money
● Accountability – of the service provider (individual as well as Organization)
● Transparency – in rules, procedures, schemes and grievance redressal
● Participative – Consult and involve
What About CC in India?
● The DARPG initiated the task of coordinating, formulating and operationalising Citizens’ Charters.
● Guidelines for formulating the Charters as well as a list of do’s and don’ts are communicated to various Government departments/organisations to enable them to bring out focused and effective charters.
The Charters are expected to incorporate the following elements:
● Vision and Mission Statement
● Details of business transacted by the organisation
● Details of clients
● Details of services provided to each client group
● Details of grievance redress mechanism and how to access it
● Expectations from the clients
● Devoid of Participative Mechanisms: In a majority of cases, CC is not formulated through a consultative process with cutting edge staff who will finally implement it.
● Poor Design and Content: There is a lack of meaningful and succinct CC and absence of critical information that end-users need to hold agencies accountable.
● Lack of Public Awareness: Only a small percentage of end-users are aware of the commitments made in the CC since effective efforts of communicating and educating the public about the standards of delivery promise have not been undertaken.
● Charters are Rarely Updated: Making it a one-time exercise, frozen in time.
● No Proper Consultation: End-users, civil society organizations and NGOs are not consulted when CCs are drafted. Since a CC’s primary purpose is to make public service delivery more citizen-centric, consultation with stakeholders is a must.
● Measurable Standards of Delivery are Rarely Defined: Making it difficult to assess whether the desired level of service has been achieved or not.
● Lack of Interest: Little interest is shown by the organizations in adhering to their CC since there is no citizen friendly mechanism to compensate the citizen if the organization defaults.
● Uniformity in CC: Tendency to have a uniform CC for all offices under the parent organization. CCs have still not been adopted by all Ministries/Departments. This overlooks local issues.
● One Size Does Not Fit All: Formulation of CC should be a decentralized activity with the head office providing only broad guidelines.
● Wide Consultation Process: CC be formulated after extensive consultations within the organization followed by a meaningful dialogue with civil society.
● Firm Commitments to be Made: CC must be precise and make firm commitments of service delivery standards to the citizens/consumers in quantifiable terms wherever possible.
● Redressal Mechanism in Case of Default: Clearly lay down the relief which the organization is bound to provide if it has defaulted on the promised standards of delivery.
● Periodic Evaluation of CC: Preferably through an external agency.
● Hold Officers Accountable for Results: Fix specific responsibility in cases where there is a default in adhering to the CC.
● Include Civil Society in the Process: To assist in improvement in the contents of the Charter, its adherence as well as educating the citizens about the importance of this vital mechanism.
What Should be the Way Forward?
● A Citizens’ Charter cannot be an end in itself, it is rather a means to an end – a tool to ensure that the citizen is always at the heart of any service delivery mechanism.
● Drawing from best practice models such as the Sevottam Model (a Service Delivery Excellence Model) can help CC in becoming more citizen centric.
● Sevottam is a generic framework for achieving excellence in public service delivery. It comprises of 3 modules namely:
o Citizen’s Charter
o Grievance Redressal Mechanism
o Capability Building for Service Delivery
● The first component of the model requires effective charter implementation thereby opening up a channel for
receiving citizens’ inputs into the way in which organizations determine service delivery requirements.
● The second component of the model, ‘Public Grievance Redress’ requires a good grievance redress system
operating in a manner that leaves the citizen more satisfied with how the organization responds to
complaints/grievances, irrespective of the final decision.
● The third component ‘Excellence in Service Delivery’, postulates that an organization can have an excellent
performance in service delivery only if it is managing the key ingredients for good service delivery well and
building its own capacity to continuously improve delivery.
Sevottam Model
Basics and Background:
● Sevottam is an assessment – improvement model that has been developed with the objective of improving the
quality of public service delivery in the country.
● Sevottam Model is a model proposed by 2nd ARC (Administrative Reforms Commission) for public Service
Delivery.
● The model was conceived by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in 2006.
● The word “Sevottam” is a combination of two Hindi words: Seva (Service) and Uttam (Excellent). It means “Service Excellence”, emphasizing the idea of “Service”.
● It symbolises the change in mindset within the Government, from administration and control to service and enablement. The model was suggested by the 2nd ARC in its 12th report Citizen Centric Administration.
● The framework enables implementing organisations to undertake a systematic, credible and authenticated selfassessment (or ‘gap analysis’) for citizen-centric service delivery. Using this analysis, practical solutions are gradually and systematically incorporated into the organisation’s day-to-day routine thereby ensuring sustainable
results.
There are four broad ways in which the Sevottam model can be used:
● As a self – assessment tool by organisations already motivated to improve service delivery
● As a requirement standard
● As a benchmark assessment process to be established
● As a rating model to recognise and reward organisations that are doing commendable work in service delivery.
● Define services and identify services
● Set standards and norms for each service
● Develop capability to meet the set standards
● Perform to achieve the standards
● Monitor the performance against the set standards
● Evaluate impact through an independent mechanism
Continuous improvement based on monitoring and evaluation.
● Initially, Sevottam framework was undertaken from April 2009 to June 2010 in ten Departments of the Government having large public interface. These are, Department of Post, CBEC, CBDT, Railways, Passport office, Pensions, Food Processing, Corporate Affairs, Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools and EPFO.
● Later, Sevottam has been launched as a certification scheme which provides for the award of the Sevottam symbol of excellence to public service organisations that implement and are able to show compliance to a set of management system requirements that have been specified in a specially created standard document. This standard, known as IS 15700:2005, was developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS based on the objectives of Sevottam.
● The standard takes into account unique conditions of service delivery by Public service organisations in India and the sectoral and regional variations in service delivery standards. It offers a systematic way to identify weaknesses in specific areas and rectify them through systemic changes and process reengineering. India is among the first countries in the world to have a Quality Standard for public service delivery.
Sevottam model prescribes seven principles to maintain quality-
● Customer focus
● Leadership
● Engagement of people
● Process approach
● Improvement
● Evidence based decision making
● Relationship management.
Time bound delivery of goods and services – The Law in Making:
● To ensure Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services, “the Right of Citizens for Time-bound
Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011”, was introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2011, but it lapsed with the term of the last House.
● The need of the hour is to identify delivery of services as a matter of right and bring legal provision for time bound delivery of services.
Highlights of “the Right of Citizens for Time-bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances
Bill, 2011”:
o Every public authority was required to publish a Citizens Charter within six months of the commencement of the
Act.
o A citizen may file a complaint regarding any grievance related to:
a) citizens charter;
b) functioning of a public authority; or
c) violation of a law, policy or scheme.
● The Bill required all public authorities to appoint officers to redress grievances.
● Grievances were to be redressed within 30 working days.
● The Bill also provided for the appointment of Central and State Public Grievance Redressal Commissions.
● A penalty of up to Rs 50,000 to be levied upon the responsible officer or the Grievance Redressal Officer for failure
to render services.
Some other states have also brought legislation to guarantee the right to public services delivery, but a Central law is required to provide an overarching framework across the country.
Conclusion:
Sevottam is a continuing journey to revamp and refurbish our public service delivery systems to a level of excellence desired by the citizens. It incorporates e-governance solutions, process re-engineering, capability building of public servants and partnership with social groups to achieve transparency and accountability in the delivery systems
and make the good governance a reality.
Meaning of Social Audit?
● Social Audit is a process in which details of the resources, both financial and non-financial, is used by public agencies for development initiatives and is shared with the people often through public platforms.
● It includes in-depth scrutiny and analysis of the working of an entity in which the public is involved vis-à-visits social relevance.
| Financial Audit | Operational Audit | Social Audit |
|---|---|---|
| Directed towards recording, processing, summarising and reporting of financial data. | Establishing standards of operation, measuring performance against standards, examining and analysing, deviations, taking corrective actions and reappraising standards based on experience are the main focus. | Social Audit provides an assessment of the impact of a department’s non-financial objectives through systematic and regular monitoring on the basis of the views of its stakeholders. |
Origin of social audit in India:
● In India, the initiative of conducting social audits was taken by Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Jamshedpur in the year 1979.
● Social audit serves as an instrument for the measurement of social accountability of an organization. It gained significance after the 73rd amendment of the constitution relating to Panchayat Raj institutions.
● The approach paper to the 9th FYP (2002-07) emphasised upon social audit for effective functioning of Panchayat Raj institutions (PRIs) and empowered Gram Sabhas to conduct SAs in addition to its other functions.
● National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 provides for regular “Social Audits” so as to ensure transparency and accountability in the scheme.
Eight specific key principles have been identified from Social Auditing practices around the world:
● Multi-Perspective/Polyvocal: Reflect the views of all the stakeholders.
● Comprehensive: Report on all aspects of the organisation’s work and performance.
● Participatory: Encourage participation of stakeholders and sharing of their values.
● Multidirectional: Stakeholders share and give feedback on multiple aspects.
● Regular: Produce social accounts on a regular basis so that the concept and the practice become embedded in the culture of the organisation covering all the activities.
● Comparative: Provide a means whereby the organisation can compare its performance against benchmarks and other organisations’ performance.
● Verified: Social accounts are audited by a suitably experienced person or agency with no vested interest in the organisation.
● Disclosed: Audited accounts are disclosed to stakeholders and the wider community in the interests of accountability and transparency.
Social Audit Cycle:
1. Identify Indicators of Performance
2. Collect Data – Both Quantitative and Qualitative
3. Evaluate Data – Internal and External Comparision
4. Publish Social Audits Reports
5. Define Values and Objectives of the organisation
The main reason for the push for social audit is the huge disconnect between what people want and what people get. As soon as social audit kicks in, it exercises its control over the policy developers and
implementers in the following manner:
● Reduces corruption: SA uncovers irregularities and malpractices in the public sector and maintains oversight on Government functioning, thus reducing leakages and corruption.
● Monitoring and feedback: It monitors social and ethical impact of an organisation’s performance and provides feedback on the work.
● Accountability and transparency: SA ensures
accountability and transparency in working of local Government bodies and reduces trust gap between people and local Governments.
● Participative and democratic: SA promotes participation of people in implementation of programmes and makes people more forthcoming for social development activities.
● Strengthens the Gram Sabha: SA gives voice and influencing power to the Gram Sabha, the lynchpin of rural governance structure.
● Generates demand: Serves as the basis for framing the management’s policies by raising demands in a socially responsible and accountable manner by highlighting the real problems.
● Improves professionalism: SA boosts professionalism in public bodies by forcing Panchayats to keep proper records and accounts of the spending made against the grants received from the Government and other sources.
● Collective platform: SA provides a collective platform such as a social audit Gram Sabha, for people to express their common needs, resulting into social cohesion.
● Collective Platform
● Curbs Corruption
● Generates Demand
● Professionalism
● Accountability and Transparency
● Strengthens Gram Sabha
● Monitoring and Feedback
● Participative & Democratic
● The scope of social audits is highly localised and covers only certain selected aspects.
● Social audits are often sporadic and ad hoc.
● Monitoring is informal and unprocessed.
● The findings of social audit cannot be generalised over the entire population.
● Individual programs present their own unique challenges. For example literacy program for adults require data on migration.
● Several problems require a package of programme to be implemented simultaneously. For example, rural health requires convergence between water supply, education, sanitation, nutrition etc. Social audit may therefore need a more holistic approach.
● Absence of trained auditors.
● Lack of action on audit reports and findings.
Way Forward:
● For empowerment of the Demand System, investment in education and awareness of Public/ Gram Sabha members is required.
● Institutional capacity need be increased at PRI, Block, and DRDA level, in terms of information Storage and distribution mechanism
● Support may be provided to committed and competent NGOs to play the catalytic role including conducting Social Audit.
● Media need be more Rural and Development focussed
● Recognise and Reward the members who have contributed to the process of strengthening Demand System and improved service delivery
● Develop an Institutional Framework for, organising PRI Accounting Audit and Social Audits and putting them on the Internet.
● Promoting proactive disclosure of information to facilitate social audits.
● In India, the initiative of conducting social audits was taken by Tata Steel or Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Jamshedpur in the year 1979.
● Social audit gained significance after the 73rd amendment. The approach paper to the 9thFYP (2002-07) emphasised upon social audit for effective functioning of Panchayat Raj institutions (PRIs) and empowered Gram Sabhas to conduct SAs in addition to its other functions.
● National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 provides for regular “Social Audits” so as to ensure transparency and accountability in the scheme.
● The State Government shall identify or establish, under the NREGS, an independent organisation, Social Audit Unit (SAU), at the state level, to facilitate conduct of social audit by Gram Sabhas.
Social Audit and MGNREGA: Issues/challenges with social audits
● Rules not followed: In many states Social Audit Units (SAUs) don’t seek record from Gram Panchayats regarding execution of works and expenditure (CAG report), social audit reports are either not prepared or not made available to Gram Sabha in local languages.
● Not institutionalised: Government has not mandated institutionalisation of SA thus making auditors vulnerable to implementing agencies, who face resistance and intimidation and find it difficult to even access primary records for verification.
● Apathy of implementing agency: The implementing agency requests for postponement of social audit, fails to provide documents on time, does not send independent observers for the Gram Sabha, and fails to take action on the findings of the social audit.
● Lack of stringent penalty: Flouting of SA principles and norms does not attract any penalty or legal proceeding which makes SA a toothless exercise.
● Lack of awareness: Lack of awareness among Gram Sabha members and their rights on social audit
● Absence of a well-conceived information system: Government agencies rely on hazy and incomplete system of referring to Government accounts and Government methods of reporting to track progress of scheme due to which it becomes difficult for auditor to take stock, speed up, slow down or apply corrective measures.
● No incentive to participate: Lack of interest in people about the village activities due to their livelihood reasons.
● SAUs lack independence:
o Some SAUs have to obtain sanction from the project implementation agency before spending funds.
o Many states don’t follow the open process specified in the standards for the appointment of the SAU’s director.
o Several SAUs do not have adequate staff to cover all the panchayats even once a year.
Social Audit – Way Forward:
● Providing more finances to SAUs: In 2012, MoRD had recommended 1 per cent of the expenses under MGNREGS for SA, which got reduced to 0.5 per cent later.
● Director and staff selection: The selection of Directors of SAUs should be free of political control and the selection process should be strictly followed.
● Resource Hub on Social Audit: A resource hub should be constituted under the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR) to provide assistance to State Governments and SAUs on parameters like training support, monitoring and evaluation, action research, documentation and certification of trainers etc.
● Support of implementing agencies: Rules must be framed so that implementation agencies are mandated to play a supportive role in the social audit process and take prompt action on the findings.
● Legally sanctioned outcomes: Outcomes of social audit must have legal sanction and state Governments should enact specific rules for this.
● Increased frequency: Social audits must be conducted in every Gram Panchayat once in every 6 months.
● Using Management Information System (MIS): Usage of MIS to track details of schemes at all levels to streamline the life-cycle of programme planning, implementation and feedback.
● Punitive action against non-compliance: State Government should promptly fix responsibility as well as take action against errant officials in SAUs and other ground level auditors.
● Monitoring of SA: MoRD should monitor the response (or the lack of it) by the implementing agency to the social audit findings; a quarterly meeting should be held between SAU, implementing agencies and MoRD officials to monitor the action-taken reports.
● Displaying Information of Notice Board: Gram Sabha should demand from the Panchayat, display of all the information, on Panchayat notice board from time to time, about the works being carried out or planned in near
future.
● Knowledge dissemination through regular meetings: Meetings of Gram Sabha should be held regularly and members/villagers must be educated about their role in social audit process through these meetings by Programme Officers.
● Civil society participation: People including students from different universities should be encouraged to participate as Village Resource Persons. Example, Jharkhand has instituted a formal mechanism by inviting prominent civil society representatives to be part of the SA panel.
● Role of media: Media should also take responsibility to reach to the rural areas and spread the awareness through their designed programmes focusing on the issues of the rural concerns especially Gram Sabhas and their powers of social audit.
● Refurbishing social audit process by:
● Convening the Gram Sabha at a neutral place and not in the village of the head of the panchayat.
● Meeting to be chaired by an elderly member who is not a part of Panchayat.
● Putting the resolutions and decisions to voting.
● Video recording of the meeting and uploading the Social Audit Reports (SAUs) on Government website in local languages.
● Meghalaya became the first state in India to operationalise a social audit law – ‘The Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017’.
● Important Features of the Act:
● A Social Audit Facilitator will be appointed to conduct the audit directly with the people who will present findings to the Gram Sabha, which will further add inputs and the result will finally go to the auditors.
● A Social Audit Council (SAC) has been established as a panel to review Government programmes during the course of their implementation.
● The Act provides a list of programmes, schemes and projects to be audited.
| Andhra Pradesh: |
Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency, an autonomous body insulated from Government interference, was set up in Andhra Pradesh. The state of
Andhra Pradesh has become a role model for all the other states as far as implementation of SA is concerned.
|
| Jharkhand: |
|
The Indian civil service system is one of the oldest administrative systems in the world. In India, it had its origin in the Mauryan period.
● Kautilya’s Arthashastra lays down the following principles:
a. selection and promotion of the civil servants,
b. the conditions of loyalty for appointment to the civil service,
c. the methods of their performance evaluation
d. the code of conduct to be followed by them.
● During the medieval period (1000-1600 AD), Akbar the Great founded and nurtured the civil service. His civil
service had welfare and a regulatory orientation.
● In medieval India, the Mughals set up their own civil service systems which centred on the management of land revenue, administration of Government factories and establishment of the patrimonial state.
● The British civil service came on the Indian scene after the takeover of the East India Company in the 1860s.
● Initially the British civil service was a part of a police state, with the major task being that of carrying out law and order functions. It was separated as the different provinces had different civil services.
● During the period of Warren Hastings, the institution of the collector was created in 1772.
● Lord Cornwallis is known as the father of civil services in India. He reformed and organised civil services. He separated revenue administration from judicial administration. The collector was made head of revenue administration of the district.
● Charter Act of 1853 provided for open competition to civil services. But the Indian Civil Service was divided into covenant and non-covenant with Indians being restricted to non-covenant posts of lower bureaucracy only.
● In 1854, on the recommendations Macaulay’s report, Civil Services Commission was set up to recruit civil servants. Initially examination was conducted only in London with minimum and maximum age being 18 and 23 years respectively.
● Satyendranath Tagore became first Indian to become a civil servant in 1864.
● Aitchinson Commission (1886) recommended the division of services into three groups – Imperial, Provincial and Subordinate.
● The recruiting and controlling authority of Imperial services was the ‘Secretary of State’ and for provincial services, it was states.
● The British Government setup Indian Civil Service in 1911, primarily with the objective of strengthening British administration.
● From 1922 onwards, examination was conducted in India as well. First in Allahabad and then in Delhi with setting up of Federal Public Service Commission.
● The Government of India Act 1919 divided the Imperial Services into All India Services and Central Services. The central services were concerned with matters under the direct control of the Central Government.
● This Act also provided for the establishment of Public Services Commission in India. But it was established in 1926 after recommendations of Lee Commission.
● Further, the Government of India Act, 1935 envisaged a Public Service Commission for the Federation and a Provincial Public Service Commission for each Province or group of Provinces.
● The Indian civil service was set apart from other imperial services for manning top civil posts under a rigid hierarchy of a bureaucratic system which Lloyd George termed as the “Steel Frame” of the British Raj.
● In 1947, free-India inherited the Indian Civil Service (ICS). After prolonged consideration, its Constituent Assembly decided to continue to run the Indian Administration with the help of the Indian Civil Service.
● After independence the Indian Civil Service was reorganised as a two-tier system. The central Government controlled the All-India Services (AIS), namely, the Indian Administrative Service (lAS), the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the central services which were classified as Group A, B, C, and D services. The selections to the All India Services and Group A and B services are conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
● The All–India Services (AIS) are a unique feature of federal polity. It is the view of any constitutional experts that the Constitution though federal form is unitary in substance.
● The AIS scheme is a part of this general plan of making the Centre strong in the overall constitutional arrangements.
| Forest Services |
|
● As per Articles 53 and 154, the executive power of the Union and the States vests in the President or Governor directly or through officers’ subordinate to him. These officers constitute the permanent civil service and are governed by Part XIV of the Constitution (Services under the Union and States (Article 308- 323)).
● Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules: The manner in which the officers are required to help the President or Governor to exercise his/her executive functions is governed by these Rules.
● Article 309: Powers of Parliament and state legislatures – It empowers the Parliament and the State legislature regulate the recruitment, and conditions of service of persons appointed, to public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of any State respectively.
● Article 310: Doctrine of Pleasure – Every person of Defence service, Civil Service and All India Service holding any post connected with the above services holds office during the pleasure of the President or Governor of the State.
● Article 311: Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank.
● Article 311 – Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the Union or a State.
● Article 312 – All India Services.
● Article 323A: Administrative Tribunals
● Basis of Government: All nations, irrespective of their system of Government, require some sort of administrative machinery for implementing policies.
● An instrument for implementing Laws and Policies: Civil services are responsible for implementing the laws and policies of Government.
● Participation in policy formulation: Civil servants participate in policy making by giving advice to ministers and providing them the necessary information.
● Provides continuity: Civil services carry on the governance when Governments change due to elections or otherwise.
● Role in socio- economic development: The developing nations are struggling to achieve modernisation of society and economic development and realize welfare goals. These objectives have placed challenging tasks on public administration such as formulation of economic plans and their successful implementation to economic growth and social change.
● Developing a sense of nationhood: Several divisive forces such as communal and ethnic conflicts, caste feuds and regional rivalries often threaten the national unity. In order to develop a sense of nationhood among the
people of these countries, the civil servants have to resolve the sub-national and sub- cultural differences among the people.
● Facilitating democracy: The civil servants play a vital role in maintaining the democratic ideals by assisting their political heads (Ministers) in policy-making function and in implementing the policies made.
● Calamities and crisis: Natural calamities such as earthquakes, floods, droughts and cyclones have also enhanced the importance of civil services
● Administrative adjudication: This is a quasi- judicial function performed by the civil service. The civil servants settle disputes between the citizens and the state.
The civil servants have always played a pivotal role in ensuring continuity and change in administration. However, they are dictated by the rules and procedures which are formulated taking their advice into account.
● It is the ‘rule of law’ rather than the ‘rule of man’ that is often blamed for widespread abuse of power and corruption among Government officials.
● The explosion of media in the recent past has opened civil servants to external scrutiny and called for transparent accountability mechanisms in terms of outcomes and results not processes.
● The issues of accountability of civil servants in service delivery have come to the forefront in all dialogues regarding civil service reforms. The credibility of civil service lies in the conspicuous improvement of tangible services to the people, especially at the cutting edge.
● Conceptually, the civil servants are accountable to the minister in charge of the department, but in practice, the accountability is vague and of a generalised nature.
● Since there is no system of ex ante specification of accountability the relationship between the minister and the civil servants is only issue-sensitive.
● The civil servants deal with the minister as the issues present themselves. The accountability relationship can be anything from all-pervasive to minimalistic and it is left to the incumbent minister to interpret it in a manner that is most convenient to him.
● Shortfall in personnel: Overall shortage of personnel, especially in mid-level and higher level services as highlighted by the Baswan Committee Report (2016) leads to delay in service, burden on existing staff, etc.
● Rule-Book Bureaucracy: Due to rule book bureaucracy, some civil servants have developed the attitude ‘bureaucratic behaviour’, which evokes issues like red-tapism, the complication of procedures, and the maladapted responses of ‘bureaucratic’ organisations to the needs of the people.
● Undue political interference: This interference sometimes leads to issues like corruption, arbitrary transfers of honest civil servants. Also this led to substantial inefficiency where the vital positions are not held by the best officers and ultimately this can lead to institutional decline.
● Lack of specialized skills among bureaucrats: In decisions regarding promotion and staffing, general competency is valued. However, lack of specialised skills can make them redundant in a fast changing world.
● Detachment from the public: This leads to a gap in policy formulation and implementation, especially regarding welfare activities, if bureaucrats are unaware of the ground reality.
● Increased corruption: High level of corruption in bureaucracy is associated with low levels of investment and growth.
● Lack of transparency and accountability: This can result in discretionary decisions by officers for their personal benefits.
● Resistance to change: Bureaucracy has often been criticized for its resistance to change towards adopting technology and decentralization of governance.
● Cadre literally means a small group of trained people who form basic unit of a military, political or business organisation.
● In All India Services, once selected, candidates are assigned cadres based on their preferences, merit and availability of positions.
● In India, each state is a cadre with some exceptions like AGMUT and DANICS. These are joint state cadres with multiple states.
Need of Cadre system in civil Service
● Key administrative and police positions in state Governments are designated as ‘cadre posts’ signifying that they may only be held by IAS/IPS.
● This is deliberate features of All India Service to promote quality, impartiality, integrity and All India outlook.
Issues with Cadre based Civil Services
Civil Services in India has been constitutionally designed in way that it maintains all India character and ‘outsiders’ are posted in state cadre. ‘Outsiders’ to state cadre would ensure a higher level of objectivity and neutrality in a system which was likely to face enormous regional and local pressure. But in the 1980s and 90s, partisanship, local considerations and nepotism crept into the system.
● Permanency of cadres: It results in inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the working of civil services. It diminishes the all India character and limits the officers’ concern to local issues.
● Provincialization: According to ‘Public Institutions in India – Performance and Design by Mehta and Kapoor’ there is a feeling that IAS officers are ‘all India’ in name only. As the proportions of officers who genuinely alternate between state and central Government has declined.
● Adoption of best practices: Provincialization of civil services reduces capacity of the civil services to adopt and disseminate good practices of other cadres.
● Collusion with local politicians: For the want of preferred and plum postings, the officers collude with local politicians and officers.
● Specialized Positions: According to 2nd ARC, cadre based civil services has limited the recruitment of persons with specialized knowledge at important positions through lateral entry.
● Large variation: There are large variations in the size of IAS cadres with respect to total state populations. As a result, the IAS cadre in UP is 40% smaller than it should be while in Sikkim it is 15 % more than it should be, based on population alone.
● Central Deputation: According to ‘Public Institutions in India – Performance and Design by Mehta and Kapoor’ many small states have much better representation in central ministries and departments than their larger peers.
● Reluctance to ‘de-cadre’ positions: Due to changing social and economic conditions some posts diminished in importance. But they were rarely ‘de-cadred’. For ex – In many states, the post of Land Settlement Officer is still en-cadred, decades after overwhelming majority of land tenure/land revenue settlement work was completed.
In the new policy, aimed at “national integration”, divides the 26 states into 5 zonal cadres.
a. Zone-I – AGMUT, Jammu, and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana
b. Zone-II – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha
c. Zone-III – Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
d. Zone-IV – West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam-Meghalaya. Manipur, Tripura
e. Zone-V – Telangana. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala
● Candidates have to give cadre choices in descending order of preference from among the various zones. Candidates can only select one state/cadre from a zone as their first choice.
● Their next choice has to be from a different zone. It is only after selecting first choice in all the zones, one can select the second state/cadre from the first zone.
● Earlier the candidates used to choose their home state as their first choice and neighbouring states as their subsequent preferences.
Way Ahead
● The New Cadre Policy (2017) looks to resolve these issues. The new policy is aimed at ensuring ‘national integration’ in the country’s top bureaucracy.
● The new policy will seek to ensure that officers from Bihar, for instance, will get to work in southern and northeastern states, which may not be their preferred cadres.
● All India Services officers are supposed to have varied experience which can be earned if they work in different states.
● Lateral Entry: Also, the recent move by the Government to directly recruit experts for specialised position is a welcome move.
● Reduction in size of cadres: The proliferation of inconsequential posts is a proximate cause of both demoralisation and the ability to use transfer as a penalty. Therefore, the size of cadres should be reduced after periodic reviews.
Weberian Model of Bureaucracy and Related Issues:
India inherited Weberian model of bureaucracy from the British. The Indian civil service system is rank-based and does not follow the tenets of the position based civil services. This has led to the absence of a specialised civil service system in India. Thus, main issues associated with civil services in India can be summarized as:
● Problems of All India Services
● Absence of accountability
● Out-dated laws, rules and procedures
● High degree of centralization
● Poor work culture and Lack of professionalism
● Politicization of services and political Interference
● Negative power of abuse of authority and Corruption
● Generalist civil servants in globalized world
All these issues create a conflict between civil services and democracy in following ways:
● Rigid organization structures and cumbersome procedures.
● Elitist, authoritarian, conservative outlook.
● Men in bureaucracy fulfil segmental roles over which they have no control. Consequently, they have little or no opportunity to exercise individual judgment.
● The requirement that a bureaucrat should follow the principles of consistency and regularity automatically limits his capacity to adapt to changing circumstances.
● The general rules which may take for overall efficiency produce inefficiency and injustice in individual cases.
● Civil services’ difficulty to cope with uncertainty and change is a key limit on its efficiency.
● Relevance of AIS years after independence: The framers of the Constitution provided for the AIS because of the serious problems of politico-administrative management and instability then faced by the country. However, the Union and the State Governments have since acquired adequate political, administrative and managerial experience.
● Indian Police Service (IPS): As all key positions in the State police are held by members of IPS, the State Government’s responsibility in regard to public order has got whittled down.
● Against Federalism: It is argued that winding up AIS and separate civil services of state and centre would bring the working of these Governments closer to a federal system.
● The unity and integrity of the country and national integration should rest on more durable factors, like economic prosperity, strong elective institutions, etc., and not on an administrative apparatus, like the AIS.
● Authority –Responsibility Gap: AIS officers tend to think that they are under the disciplinary control of the Union Government and not the State Government. A few State Governments have emphasised that an AIS officer should be under the full disciplinary control of ‘the State Government under which he is serving.
● Cadre allocation Policy: The policy of the Union to induct at least 50% outsiders in each State cadre of an AIS implies that these outsiders are more amenable to the control of the Union Government than the insiders. This approach accentuates hostility between the AIS and the State Services as well as between the former and the political leadership in a State. States perceive this to be a clever ploy of the union Government to gain control over state Government.
● Son of soil theory: Outsiders are vaguely aware about language, ethos, profile of the state which they are posted.
● AIS under Union List: AIS are joint responsibility of centre and state, yet it is under Union list (Entry 70).
● The AIS are as much necessary today as they were when the Constitution was framed.
● The AIS should be further strengthened and greater emphasis laid on the role expected to be played by them.
This can be achieved through well-planned improvements in selection, training, deployment, development and
promotion policies and methods.
● Greater specialisation in one or more areas of public administration.
● Every AIS officer, whether be is a direct recruit or a promoted officer, should be required to put in a minimum period under the Union Government and, for this purpose, the minimum number of spells of Union deputation should be laid down for direct recruits and promoted officers, separately.
● The Union Government may persuade the State Governments to agree to the constitution of the Indian Service of Engineers, the Indian Medical and Health Service and an AIS for Education.
The important areas of civil services reforms and the recommendations of 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission (2nd ARC) and some other committees in these areas are as follows:
Bringing Accountability in Public Services
The traditional measures of accountability that rely upon line or top-down measures do not necessarily provide a good guide to the accountability culture as a whole. Thus, multi-dimensionality of accountability means both multiple measure and new mandates is the need of the hour.
The 2nd ARC recommended the following in this regard:
● A system of two intensive reviews – one on completion of 14 years of service, and another on completion of 20 years of service – should be established for all Government servants.
● The first review at 14 years would primarily serve the purpose of intimating to the public servant about his/her strengths and shortcomings for his/ her future advancement.
● The second review at 20 years would mainly serve to assess the fitness of the officer for his/her further continuation in Government service.
● The services of public servants, who are found to be unfit after the second review at 20 years, should be discontinued.
● A provision regarding this should be made in the proposed Civil Services Law.
● For new appointments it should be expressly provided that the period of employment shall be for 20 years.
Emphasize Performance
● The present promotion system in civil service is based on time-scale and is coupled by its security of tenure.
● These elements in our civil service are making the dynamic civil servants complacent and many of the promotions are based upon the patronage system.
● A Government servant’s promotion, career advancement and continuance in service should be linked to his actual performance on the job and the dead wood should be weeded out.
● The promotions should be merit based and the respective authorities have to benchmark the best practices and evaluate the performance of the civil servants both qualitatively and quantitatively with a variety of parameters.
● Performance Related Incentive Scheme: The Sixth Pay Commission recommended introduction of a new performance based pecuniary benefit, over and above regular salary, for the Government employees. It is based on the principle of differential reward for differential performance.
2nd ARC recommendations on Performance Management system:
● Making appraisal more consultative and transparent – performance appraisal systems for all Services should be modified on the lines of the recently introduced PAR for the All India Services.
● Performance appraisal should be year round: provisions for detailed work-plan and a mid-year review should be introduced for all Services
● Guidelines need to be formulated for assigning numerical rating
● Government should expand the scope of the present performance appraisal system of its employees to a comprehensive performance management system (PMS).
● The PMS should be designed within the overall strategic framework appropriate to the particular
ministry/department/organisation.
Competition and Specialist Knowledge for Senior Level Appointments
● The task of policy making in Government is complex and needs specialist knowledge of the subject.
● Under the existing system, the most senior level appointments in the Central secretariat as well as top field level posts are made from amongst the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers who are generalists.
● The First Administrative Reforms Commission, far back in 1969, had emphasized the need for specialization by civil servants as a pre-qualification for holding senior level posts. It suggested that all the Services should have
an opportunity to enter middle and senior level management levels in Central Secretariat and selection should be made by holding mid-career competitive examination, which should include interview, to be conducted by UPSC.
● The Surendra Nath Committee (2003) and Hota Committee (2004) had also emphasized domain knowledge and merit as the basis for appointment to the posts of Joint Secretary and above.
● The 2nd ARC identified 12 domains in which officers should specialize such as general administration, urban development, security, rural Development etc. It has recommended that domain should be assigned to all the officers of the All India Services and Central Civil Services on completion of 13 years of service and vacancies at the level of Deputy Secretary/ Director should be filled only after matching the domain competence of the officer for the job.
● The Commission has suggested introduction of competition for senior positions in the Senior Administrative Grade and above (Joint Secretary level) by opening these positions to all the Services.
● For Higher Administrative Grade posts (Additional Secretary and above) recruitment for some of the posts could be done from open market.
● It has further suggested constitution of a statutory Central Civil Services Authority which should deal with matters of assignment of domain, preparing panel for posting of officers at different levels, fixing tenures and determining which posts should be advertised for lateral entry.
Effective Disciplinary Regime
● Presently, the provisions of discipline rules are so cumbersome that it becomes very difficult to take action against a delinquent employee for insubordination and misbehaviour.
● Thus, once appointed, it is almost impossible to remove or demote an employee. This results in poor work culture and all-round inefficiency.
2nd ARC recommendations in this regard:
● The 2nd ARC has observed that legal protection given has created a climate of excessive security without fear of penalty for incompetence and wrong doing.
● In the proposed Civil Services law, the minimum statutory disciplinary and dismissal procedures required to satisfy the criteria of natural justice should be spelt out leaving the details of the procedure to be followed to the respective Government departments.
● The present oral inquiry process should be converted into a disciplinary meeting or interview to be conducted by a superior officer in a summary manner without the trappings and procedures borrowed from court trials.
● No penalty of removal and dismissal should be imposed, except by an Authority, which is at least three levels above the post which the Government servant is holding.
● No penalty may be imposed, unless an inquiry is conducted and the accused Government servant has been given an opportunity of being heard.
● The two-stage consultation with the CVC in cases involving a vigilance angle should be done away with and only the second stage advice after completion of the disciplinary process should be obtained.
● Consultation with the UPSC should be mandatory only in cases leading to the proposed dismissal of Government servants and all other types of disciplinary cases should be exempted from the UPSC’s purview.
Most Government departments suffer from poor work culture and low productivity. In order to provide costeffective efficient services, following measures can be taken:
● The multi-level hierarchical structure should be reduced and an officer oriented system with level jumping be introduced to speed up decision making.
● Government offices should be modernized with provision of computer and other gadgets and a conducive work environment should be created.
● Officers need to be motivated and empowered by giving them more responsibility and decision-making authority.
● There is a need to create a lean, thin and efficient Government machinery by modernising procedures and work
methodology and abolishing the ‘babu’ culture in the Government offices.
Streamline Rules and Procedures
● A large number of rules and procedures relating to citizen’s day to day interface with Government in matters such as issue of passport, registration of property, sanction for construction of dwelling unit, licence for starting a business, inspection of factories, are outdated and dysfunctional and give opportunity to public servants to delay and harass.
● These rules should be updated, simplified and discretionary power of public servants be eliminated.
● A good part of efficiency of a Government office depends on personnel, financial and procurement management systems. The rules relating to personnel management are outdated and rigid and give no flexibility to departments
to adapt to local conditions resulting in inefficiency.
● The budgetary and procurement rules should be changed, giving sufficient flexibility to departments to be able to use their judgement to secure the best value for money.
Privatization and Contracting Out
● In an era of liberalization, there is economic logic to privatize those state owned enterprises which are either running in loss or in the tertiary sector of the economy such as hotel, tourism, engineering and textile sector, where they cannot compete with private sector and are a big drain on national resources.
● There is a strong case for privatization of services like municipal street cleaning, garbage collection, power distribution, city transport etc.
● Experience has shown that increasing use of competition in the delivery of public services, including competition between public and private sector providers has improved cost effectiveness and service quality.
Adoption of IT and E-Governance
● The revolution in information technology has brought into focus its adoption for good governance.
● E-governance can reduce distances to nothing, linking remote villages to Government offices in the cities, can reduce staff, cut costs, check leaks in the governing system, and can make the citizen-Government interaction smooth, without queues and the tyranny of clerks.
● But it must be remembered that e-governance is only a tool for good governance. It cannot succeed independent or responsive officers and it has to be owned by the political leadership.
Stability of Tenure
● There is a genuine problem being faced by officers, especially in the case of All India Services serving in the state Governments, relating to their tenures.
● There is usually a reshuffling of officers with change in Government and in certain states the average tenure of DM and SP has now come to less than a year only. Such a rapid turnover of officers adversely affects delivery and quality of services provided to the common man.
● The ever present threat of transfer also affects the morale of the officers and their capacity to stand up to undesirable local pressures
In this context Hota committee on civil services reform suggested the following:
● A fixed tenure of at least three years for an officer of the higher civil service along with annual performance targets.
● A Civil Services Act has to be enacted to make the Civil Services Board / Establishment Board both in the states and in the Government of India statutory in character.
● If a Chief Minister does not agree with the recommendations of the Civil Services Board/Establishment Board, he will have to record his reasons in writing.
● An officer transferred before his normal tenure even under orders of the Chief Minister can present the matter before a three-member Ombudsman.
● In all such premature transfers the Ombudsman shall send a report to the Governor of the state, who shall cause it to be laid in an Annual Report before the State Legislature.
Following are the recommendations of 2nd ARC on relations between political executive and civil servants:
● There is a need to safeguard the political neutrality and impartiality of the civil services.
● The onus for this lies equally on the political executive and the civil services.
● This aspect should be included in the Code of Ethics for Ministers as well as the Code of Conduct for Public Servants.
● While examining the definition of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, the “abuse of authority unduly favouring or harming someone” and “obstruction of justice” should be classified as an offence under the Act.
It is essential to lay down certain norms for recruitment in Government to avoid complaints of favouritism, nepotism, corruption and abuse of power. These norms are:
● Well-defined procedure for recruitment to all Government jobs.
● Wide publicity and open competition for recruitment to all posts.
● Minimisation, if not elimination, of discretion in the recruitment process.
● Selection primarily on the basis of written examination or on the basis of performance in existing public/board/university examination with minimum weight to interview.
To insulate the bureaucracy from political interference and to put an end to frequent transfers of civil servants by political bosses, the Supreme Court in 2013 issued a series of directions to insulate civil servants from political
influence. Following are the directions issued by the Supreme Court in T.S.R. Subramanian and others vs. Union of India:
● Officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), other All India Services and other civil servants were not bound to follow oral directives, since they “undermine credibility”. All actions must be taken by them on the basis of written communication.
● Establishment of a Civil Services Board (CSB), headed by the Cabinet Secretary at the national level and chief secretaries at the state level, to recommend transfers and postings of All India Services (IAS, IFS and IPS) officers. Their views could be overruled by the political executive, but by recording reasons only.
● Parliament to enact a Civil Services Act under Article 309 of the Constitution setting up a CSB
● There should be fixed minimum tenure.
● Group ‘B’ officers would be transferred by heads of departments (HoDs).
● No interference of ministers, other than the chief minister, in transfers or postings of civil servants.
● Lateral entry into civil services refers to induction of eligible candidates into bureaucracy by bypassing the regular mode at a higher level of its hierarchical structure.
● In June 2018, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued notification inviting applications for 10 senior level positions at the joint secretary level in the Departments of Economic Affairs, Revenue, Commerce and Highways among others.
● The eligibility criteria include:
a. “Individuals working at comparable levels in Private Sector Companies, Consultancy Organisations,
International/Multinational Organisations with a minimum of 15 years’ experience”
b. Besides those working in central public sector undertakings, autonomous bodies, statutory organisations, research bodies and universities
Need for lateral entry
● Shortage of Officers
● Specialists and domain experts
● Burden to Exchequer
● Incentives to innovations and out of the box thinking
● To induce Competition
Issues With Lateral Entry
● Bypassing UPSC: UPSC is a constitutional body and has retained legitimacy and credibility of selection process over the years. Some experts opine that lateral entry is unconstitutional in nature.
● Not a Panacea: It is also argued that it is a piecemeal effort to deal with a systemic problem. Bureaucracy needs major overhauling.
● Offers not lucrative enough: Most of the times, the terms of recruitments are not rewarding enough to attract best of talents. Even the recent lateral entry initiative would recruit professionals for only 3 years with remuneration not competitive with private sector.
● Open door to privatization: Some civil servants believe that it would open the floodgates to privatisation. And eventually Government would lose its socialist and welfare characteristics.
● Transparency is recruitment: Government should ensure that the recruits remain independent of “fissiparous tendencies”. The sanctity of the selection procedure should remain for the services to stay insulated from the Government of the day.
Way Ahead
● 2nd ARC recommended an institutionalized, transparent process for lateral entry at both the Central and state levels. But pushback from bureaucrats, serving and retired, and the sheer institutional inertia of civil services that have existed largely unchanged for decades have prevented progress.
● Also the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs headed by Shashi Tharoor has urged the Government to facilitate the entry of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) into foreign service in order to expand the country’s diplomatic corps.
● In addition to lateral entry, the method of civil service training also needs to be revamped.
● Mid-career Performance appraisal is meant to be a joint exercise between the Government servant reported upon and the Reporting Officer particularly after every fixed period for taking note on performance.
● While fixing the targets, priority should be assigned item-wise, taking into consideration the nature and the area
of work.
Importance of Mid-Career Performance appraisal
● It’ll update the knowledge and efficiency in work base of the participant in the rapidly changing environment.
● Will help to develop competencies for changes in the job profile, as would happen when a promotion takes place.
● Can also serve as a medium for enhancing formal qualifications, thereby creating greater confidence in an officer.
● Good hardworking civil servants will get rewarded
● Clear performance standard shall be fixed.
● Reduction in political interference due to fixed targets and continuous reports of performance of civil servants.
● It would compel bureaucrats to put more diligence to score a better review.
● Induce professionalism in the departments.
● Weeding out of the inefficient lot would make place for better candidates.
Positives of Compulsory retirements:
● Deterrence for non-performing officials.
● It may induce culture among officials of hard work and efficiency.
● Inertia among bureaucrats to start new work or take risk will be reduced
● Provide motivation to bureaucrats
Negative effects of Compulsory retirements:
● May be misused as a political tool against honest officers.
● Although ministers and bureaucrats work hand in hand but this may give former greater control on latter sometimes detrimental to officers efficiency.
Conclusion:
Compulsory retirement is a desirable approach as the efficacy of a system is determined by the set of incentives facing people who exercise power. As bureaucrats continue to wield enormous power, a guaranteed job provides the wrong incentives. Hence the mid-term appraisal and compulsory retirement might be the much needed bureaucratic reforms in India.
Adopting Specialist Approach:
● In a developing economy specialists should be right at the top in the line authority rather than in a staff-cell attached to the generalist line authority. The advantage is the Government would become less bureaucratic, more programme-oriented and committed.
● The generalist administrator usually does not develop a sustained interest in any particular field of activity. Even in exceptional cases when he does develop such an interest, this becomes infructuous because by the time he has learnt the job he is transferred to some other job.
● The management and the administration (such as that of PSUs) should be well- trained in the know-how of the enterprises that they manage. The emphasis should shift from mere theoretical, bureaucratic control to a self contained knowledgeable set-up.
● It is said that generalists are prisoners of rules, regulations and precedents and there is too much stress on continuity, caution, and red tape.
● Understanding amongst experts (i.e. people with similar domain expertise) is better and it may result in conducive work environment and better policy.
Adopting Generalists Approach:
● Generalists Administration is politics in action. As one rises up the hierarchy, there is less hands-on job and more management of resources. It vests in a bureaucrat a successively larger responsibility for enforcing the general point of view of the Government.
● Top management job requires a general understanding. It requires a view of the whole.
● Most specialists usually employ an esoteric language to convey their ideas. In administration it leads to difficulty in communication between the non-expert minister and the highly specialized expert secretaries.
Civil services thus require a mix of both generalists and specialists. However, the current stranglehold of career bureaucracy has prevented willing and able experts from outside the system to join the Government. Even in ministries as complex as finance, academic economists have been confined to that of advisory roles rather than executive roles in most cases. Creating a specialist system of bureaucracy would mean ending of monopoly at the top with the introduction of lateral entries, ending of ageism as younger people will get to hold higher positions. These changes will improve performance management and bring rationalist bureaucracy, as demanded by the 21st century.
Civil Service Neutrality
● Unfortunately, the concept of civil service neutrality no longer holds good. Changes in Governments particularly at the state level often lead to wholesale transfer of civil servants.
● Political neutrality is no longer the accepted norm with many civil servants getting identified, rightly or wrongly, with a particular political dispensation.
● There is a perception that officers have to cultivate and seek patronage from politicians for obtaining suitable positions even in the Union Government. As a result, the civil services in public perception are often seen as increasingly politicized.
● The political neutrality and impartiality of the civil services needs to be preserved. The onus for this lies equally on the political executive and civil servants.
● Ministers must uphold the political impartiality of the civil service and not ask the civil servants to act in any way which would conflict with the duties and responsibilities of the civil servant.
● In a nutshell arbitrary and illegal interference by ministers or MPs or MLAs in the work delegated to the bureaucracy is neither desirable nor beneficial for an efficient Government.
Criticality of relationship between Civil Servant and Political Executive
● In a democracy, power vests with the people. This power is exercised through its elected representatives who have the mandate to govern them for a specific period.
● The civil services by virtue of its knowledge, experience and understanding of public affairs assist the elected representatives in formulating policy and are responsible for implementing these policies.
● Therefore, a healthy working relationship between Ministers and civil servants is critical for good governance.
● Once a law is framed or rules and regulations are approved, they apply to everyone, whether a member of the political executive or of the permanent civil service.
● A civil servant is required to implement the orders of Government without bias, with honesty and without fear or favour.
360 Degree Appraisal:
● A 360 degree system of appraisal has been passed by the Government for empanelment of senior level officers in the Government of India. This system involves a multi-source feedback from various stakeholders in the Government such as seniors, peers and juniors.
● The empanelment process also takes into account the overall service record of the individual, the vigilance status and the suitability of the officers concerned.
● The Government first introduced this system in April 2015 as a supplement to the existing Annual Confidential Report (ACR) system.
Karmayogi Yojana:
● Karmayogi Yojana’ or the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB), in a bid to transform status-quoist and rule-obsessed civil servants working in silos into “experts”.
iGOT:
● The iGOT (Integrated Government Online Training Programme) developed by Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, was launched.
● To provide a broad training eco-system creating synergies across various premier training institutes of the country and to cater the training needs which can encompass all the officials in the entire hierarchy of Central and State Government
| 1. Has digital illiteracy, particularly in rural areas, coupled with lack of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility hindered socio-economic development? Examine with justification. (250 words) | 2021 |
| 2. “Recent amendments to the Right to Information Act will have profound impact on the autonomy and independence of the Information Commission”. Discuss. | 2020 |
| 3. “The emergence of Fourth Industrial Revolution (Digital Revolution) has initiated e-Governance as an integral part of Government”. Discuss | 2020 |
| 4. “Institutional quality is a crucial driver of economic performance”. In this context suggest reforms in Civil Service for strengthening democracy | 2020 |
| 5. Implementation of information and Communication Technology (ICT) based Projects / Programmes usually suffers in terms of certain vital factors. Identify these factors, and suggest measures for their effective implementation. (10m 150 words) | 2019 |
| 6. E-Governance is not only about utilization of the power of new technology, but also much about critical importance of the ‘use value’ of information Explain. | 2018 |
| 7. Citizens’ Charter is an ideal instrument of organizational transparency and accountability, but. it has its own limitations. Identify the limitations and suggest measures for greater effectiveness or the Citizens Charter. | 2018 |
| 8. Discuss the role of Public Accounts Committee in establishing accountability of the Government to the people. | 2017 |
| 9. Initially Civil Services in India were designed to achieve the goals of neutrality and effectiveness, which seems to be lacking in the present context. Do you agree with the view that drastic reforms are required in Civil Services. Comment | 2017 |
| 10. “Effectiveness of the Government system at various levels and people’s participation in the governance system are inter-dependent.” Discuss their relationship with each other in context of India. | 2016 |
| 11. In the integrity index of Transparency International, India stands very low. Discuss briefly the legal, political, economic, social and cultural factors that have caused the decline of public morality in India. | 2016 |
| 12. “Traditional bureaucratic structure and culture have hampered the process of socio-economic development in India.” | 2016 |
| 13. In the light of the Satyam Scandal (2009), discuss the changes brought in corporate governance to ensure transparency, accountability. | 2015 |
| 14. “If amendment bill to the Whistleblowers Act, 2011 tabled in the Parliament is passed, there may be no one left to protect.” Critically evaluate. | 2015 |
| 15. Has the Cadre based Civil Services Organisation been the cause of slow change in India? Critically examine | 2014 |
| 16. Though Citizen’s charters have been formulated by many public service delivery organizations, there is no corresponding improvement in the level of citizens’ satisfaction and quality of services being provided. Analyze. | 2013 |
| 17. ‘A national Lokpal, however strong it may be, cannot resolve the problems of immorality in public affairs’. Discuss. | 2013 |
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