How to fast forward the backward states Supportive governments are an imperative to kick-start development in the least developed states The recent Bihar election was a fierce contest for political space. The stakes were high, and there were national implications. The campaign sought to focus on development, but it was also about caste and religion. […]
Read MoreTime to rethink the role of the Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha needs to be reformed to get the institutional incentives right Baijayant “Jay” Panda of the Biju Janata Dal has kicked off an important national debate on the role of the Rajya Sabha. Finance minister Arun Jaitley has also voiced his frustration with the ability […]
Read MoreMobile Governance Programme The Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Government of India has started the delivery of public services through mobile platform since July 2011. The following steps have been taken to implement Mobile Governance so far: DeitY has developed and notified the framework for Mobile Governance in February, 2012. DeitY is implementing […]
Read MoreA history lesson for Indian MPs Rather than spend taxpayer money to reaffirm their faith in values of Constitution, MPs will do well to familiarize themselves with the history of the debates at the Constituent Assembly that led to the drafting of Constitution It is something like this: we wanted the music of veena or […]
Read MoreGovernance and the Seventh Pay Commission The report of the Seventh Pay Commission has yet again lost a massive reform opportunity Pay commissions are appointed to reform government as a delivery system, not just to hike salary scales of government employees. Pay commissions have over time become trivialized into vehicles for raising the salary scales […]
Read MoreWhy government must hire more We expect that civil servants must be competent, yet instinctively recoil from paying them well. Of course implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission’s recommendations will have a fiscal impact. Even if this works out to an additional 0.65 per cent of GDP — and the odds are that the estimate […]
Read MoreUnshackling the states from central schemes A large number of central schemes end up curbing the autonomy of states n some ways, the thunder of finance minister Arun Jaitley’s first full-year budget was stolen by the Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) report. Released just a few days before the budget speech was made, the FFC brought […]
Read MoreThe progressive decline of the Indian Parliament The Lok Sabha has been progressively setting aside fewer days to meet, and meeting even less on those allotted days The Lok Sabha—the running of which rests with representatives elected by the people of India—has been in a perennial state of decline. It has been progressively setting aside […]
Read MoreWhy the Ambedkar legacy really matters More important than tactically quoting him is to understand the Ambedkarite project One of the welcome features of the parliamentary debates on the Constitution last week was the centrality given to the ideas of B.R. Ambedkar. We also saw the sorry spectacle of various political parties trying hard to […]
Read MoreText of PM’s address after the Interactive Session with Assistant Secretaries (IAS, 2013 Batch) उपस्थित सभी महानुभाव और साथियों,जीवंत व्यवस्था अगर समयानुकूल परितवर्तन को स्वीकार नहीं करती है, तो उसकी जीवंतता समाप्त हो जाती है। और जो व्यवस्था में जीवंतता न हो, वो व्यवस्था अपने आप में बोझ बन जाती है। और इसलिए ये बहुत […]
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