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Document 1 of 1 Effective governance ProQuest document link Links: Base URL to 360 Link: Full text: Assam, June 29 -- Political leaders, administrators and academics, have expressed concern overeffective governance at different times in different forums. In order to consolidate the gains from economicliberalization and to make them inclusive and sustainable, the Government of India feels there is a need forreforms in governance. Kamal Nath, Union Minister for Road Transport while delivering the first CUTS SilverJubilee Lecture at Jaipur said, 'After the first phase of reforms in trade and investment, the country needsreforms in governance. We need to consolidate the benefits of the first phase by putting more thrust ongovernance at district, State and Central levels.' Effective, responsive, transparent and accountable administration has been the goal towards which ouradministrative and political systems have been striving since independence. In the well known Vohra Committeereport it was mentioned that the conference of Chief Secretaries in November, 1996 drew attention to the factthat despite recognition of the critical role of responsive administration for achieving the goal of growth withequity, the public administration and the civil services at all levels are passing through difficult times, in terms oferoded credibility and effectiveness of the civil service. There has been increasing criticism of the low level ofhonesty, transparency and accessibility to the political and bureaucratic elements in charge of administration. There is no denying the fact that in spite of efforts we are still quite a distance away from effective governance.The time has come to analyze the reasons, identify the factors, which obstruct effective governance and theshort-term and long-term policy measures and administrative steps to be taken towards achievement of thesame. The problem has become much more crucial and complex in view of the fast changing political scenario,in the context of the present and emerging political compulsions. Some may imply that the concept of effective governance is derived from the West but this may not be whollycorrect. As far back as 300 BC, Kautilya in his treatise Arthasastra had in his own way propounded the traits ofgood governance by the ruler as follows. 'In the happiness of his subjects lies his happiness, in their welfare hiswelfare, whatever pleases himself he shall not consider as good but whatever pleases his subjects, he shallconsider as good.' Another interesting facet of Kautilya framework of governance included programmes foradvancement of weaker and vulnerable sections of the society, in some ways forerunner of our concerns today. Despite some semblance of effective governance during the British colonial rule, the primary purpose wasconsolidation of the British rule and resource exploitation for strengthening the British empire. TheAdministrative Reforms Commission also noted that the pre-independence governance was concerned mainlywith the enforcement of the law, maintenance of the order and the collection of revenue. Involvement of thegovernment during British regime in the economic and social spheres was confined mainly to the tasks likebuilding and maintaining a modest transport and communication system, regulation of indigenous trade andcommerce and providing facilities in the fields of education and health. The developmental perspective ofgovernance was obviously missing. It was neither welfare oriented nor change oriented. The first inkling of the fundamental principles of effective governance can be gleaned through the preamble andthe Directive Principles of State Policy, Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties. The Welfare State as amodern concept came in to existence during the period between 1947 and 1952, with the establishment of aNational Government in a free and republican India and the establishment of the Central Planning Commission. From the very beginning, we in India have regarded the bureaucracy as a major instrument of effectivegovernance. This has presented its own problem and their role and relationship with the political masters. Ifaccountability is the core characteristics of a democratic system, it is necessary that control should be executed

http://search.proquest.com/docview/577043803?accountid=11526http://rc4ht3qs8p.search.serialssolutions.com?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/ProQ:internationalnews&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=The%20Assam%20Tribune&rft.atitle=Effective%20governance&rft.au=&rft.aulast=&rft.aufirst=&rft.date=2010-06-29&rft.volume=&rft.issue=&rft.spage=&rft.isbn=&rft.btitle=&rft.title=The%20Assam%20Tribune&rft.issn=&rft_id=info:doi/

over those to whom power is delegated. An objective analysis of the governance system during the last fewdecades would indicate that the increasing politicization of civil service has greatly hampered the task ofeffective governance. This is the dilemma of a parliamentary system of government where the political bosses(the Ministers) have to depend a lot and work in close collaboration with top bureaucrats. Another important issue would be whether it is really possible or feasible to provide effective governance in theemerging political scenario where the prospect of a single political party dominating the national scene hasgreatly diminished. The coming decades could well be the coalition era. The moot point is whether under acoalition dispensation, with all its pushes and pulls and the compulsion of meeting requirements of divergentpolitical agenda and philosophies, effective governance is possible or not. We have positive examples of manyWest European countries like, France, Germany and Italy where effective governance has not been hampereddespite occasional periods of political instability and coalition governments. In the context of the emerging political scenario, economic reforms, and the imperatives of growing emphasis onmarket economy, downsizing of bureaucracy has come to be an important concern. However, downsizing ofbureaucracy is not an objective in itself. It must be seen in the context of what impact it would have on effectivegovernance. If downsizing is accompanied with a change in the role of the bureaucracy and its style offunctioning, if it leads to the lowered interference by the bureaucracy and greater emphasis on strategicplanning and promotion of development, reduction of the size of bureaucracy could lead to more effectivegovernance. If on the other hand, the orientation with micro-level control and authority continues and the role and style offunctioning does not change, downsizing may not lead to effective governance. Instead, greater delays anddisruption may be encountered. What is really needed is a change in the orientation and style of functioning ofpublic bureaucracies. There would be an increasing need for professionals in the civil services. Increasingprofessionalism among the public servants can be an effective anti-dote to the politicization of the bureaucrats.Further, with ever increasing complexity of economic and social problems and the emerging role of technologiesin development the 'generalist' administrators would have to be replaced by more professionals. The role of government in the economic development has changed to give more space to the private sector. Infact, role of the government has become promotional. For this purpose, there is a need for timely clearance ofprivate investment proposals. However, no amount of policy change will produce expected results unless thebureaucratic mind-set is in tune with the new liberalization policy. Effective governance of public organisations,institutions, developmental policies and programmes can only ensure progress of the nation at a pace to matchour ability to attain Vision 2020. Published by HT Syndication with permission from Assam Tribune. For more information on news feed pleasecontact Sarabjit Jagirdar at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com 123 Publication title: The Assam Tribune Publication year: 2010 Publication date: Jun 29, 2010 Year: 2010 Dateline: Assam Publisher: HT Media Ltd. Place of publication: Assam Country of publication: India

Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--India Source type: Newspapers Language of publication: English Document type: NEWSPAPER ProQuest document ID: 577043803 Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/577043803?accountid=11526 Copyright: Copyright HT Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Last updated: 2011-06-03 Database: International Newsstand

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