Good Governance and Development: Challenges in India
Contents: 1. Maoist Insurgency/Tej Pratap Singh. 2. Understanding Nomads in Contemporary India/Chandrakant Puri. 3. Sikh Identity Formation and its Contestations/Kuldip Singh and Sukhjit Singh. 4. Nationalism in Contemporary India/K.C. Sreekumar. 5. Human Security, Human Development and Human Rights: A Perspective of India’s North-East/Haans J. Freddy. 6. Natural Disasters and Relocation in India/Rajeev M.M. 7. Environmental Governance and Conservation of Western Ghats/Anju Liz Kurian and C. Vinodan. 8. Plight of the Adivasis in Kerala/K.M. Seethi. 9. Local Governance and Disaster Risk Reduction/C. Vinodan and Rajeev M.M. 10. Re-visiting Gandhian Non-cooperation Strategy/Praveen Kumar. 11. NGOs and Protection of Human Rights in India/Sijo K. Manuel. Index.
Governance is a theoretical concept referring to the actions and processes by which stable practices and organizations arise and persist. These actions and processes may operate in formal and informal organizations of any size; and they may function for any purpose. Conceiving of governance in this way, one can apply the concept to states, corporations, NGOs, partnerships, and any number of humans engaged in some purposeful activity. The World Bank defines governance as “the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development”.
Better governance is crucial for translating the large development and welfare expenditure of the public authorities into enduring outcomes on the ground. While there is general appreciation that development programmes have the right objectives, their implementation on the ground is poor. Implementation of programmes can be improved through a multi-faceted approach relying on professionalization of public service delivery, total quality management (TQM), and innovative use of digital and other technologies which improve monitoring and supervision. It can also be improved through: (a) greater emphasis on social mobilisation and capacity building, (b) strengthening of local institutions and (c) building deeper partnerships with civil society organisations and the community to determine the needs and aspirations of the people.
