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JATIN VERMA'S IAS ACADEMY Table of Content Governance: Evolution and basics (Pg. no: 2-14) E-Governance (Pg. no: 15-25) Development processes and the development industry (Pg. no: 26-35) Citizen Charter (Pg. no: 36-42) Self Help Groups (SHGs) (Pg. no: 43-46) Role of civil services in a democracy (Pg. no: 47-57) Balanced Regional Development: Transforming Aspirational Districts (Pg. no: 58-61) Salient features of Representation of People’s Act (Pg. no: 62-71) Water Management, Institutional Reforms and Conservation Efforts (Pg. no: 72-76) Policies (Pg. no: 77-85) Probity in Public Life (Pg. no: 86-87) Statutory, Regulatory and Various Quasi-Judicial Bodies (Pg. no: 88-110) 1 JATIN VERMA'S IAS ACADEMY Governance: Evolution and basics Government Introduction ● Human societies are characterised by diversity of interests, preferences, values and ideas. This creates a situation of inherent conflicts in the society which, if left unattended, would be detrimental to each and everybody’s interest. ● The existence of diverse interests and consequent conflicts within human society necessitates the existence of government. Thus, the government is the political system by which a country or community is administered and regulated. Why is the government required? ● Acceptance of the basic social principle is necessary for coexistence. Social principles are necessary to live together in a peaceful, productive and rational society and without these principles, no moral or civilised society can exist. ● Government is the legitimate authority to protect, enforce and ensure respect for the basic social principles. For example, some of these social principles in India are Access, Equity, rights and participation. There is a need for the government to ensure the implementation and respect for these principles. Difference between government and a state The terms “state” and “government” are often used interchangeably in political discourse, but they can also refer to very different entities. ● A state is like a ship, and a government is like the crew who runs the ship. ● All 4 components given in the following diagram form state and the government is just one of the subdivisions of it. i.e. the state is a political corporation, while the government is a political subdivision. 2 JATIN VERMA'S IAS ACADEMY State Government 1. A state is a geographic entity that has a 1. A government is an organization or distinct fiscal system, constitution, and is institution that creates and executes laws sovereign and independent from other and policies in a state. states as recognized by them. 2. The government is a more formal, 2. The term state encompasses a wide range tangible and defined aspect of the state. of formal as well as informal processes, 3. Government is made by the and its endeavors are directed towards representatives of the people. Only some achieving the goals and aspirations of a people who get elected act as society committed to living together. representatives of the people form the 3. The whole population is a part of the government of the State. State. All the people are citizens of the 4. Membership of the government is not State. automatic. No one can be forced to 4. To live in a state, all people must have a become its part. membership in it. People normally get 5. Governments change according to the will membership (citizenship) of a state of the people. automatically right at the time of one’s birth and continue to live life as such. 5. State remains as it is no matter which government runs it. 3 JATIN VERMA'S IAS ACADEMY Evolution: From Government to Governance ● The idea of governance is as old as the human civilisation itself, but the term governance was not heard frequently within the development community until the late 1980s. ● The rise in the popularity of the term ‘governance’ is closely linked with the redefinition of the role of the government towards development enterprises and managing the economy of a state in an efficient and effective manner. ● The term came into existence in the 1980s with the initial efforts of international economic and financial organisations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, United Nations Development Programme and International Development Assistance. ● Notion about the competence of the structure of Government framed post-world war II, began changing in the 1980s, and the process of transformation from government to governance was triggered. Following were the factors contributed to it: ○ Government was found ineffective and inefficient in delivering the policy objectives relating to the progress and well-being of the common people in the developing countries. ○ This period also witnessed the expansion of the term development and prosperity of the people and began encompassing health, education, happiness, human rights, and freedom and participation of the stakeholders in the decision-making procedures. ○ The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, proved the authoritarian model of government, a failure. ○ The term governance came to be used to define the reinventing of public administration, particularly in the developing countries, to make it more receptive to the needs of globalization. Difference between government and governance Government Governance Participants are clearly defined and are linked Participants in governance are many and non- to the state. state actors like market and civil society are also participating. Follows top-down approach. Follows a multi-layer approach. Domination through rules or force may be Acceptance of and support for decisions by all required to ensure universal acceptance of a players arises out of wide participation in decision. earlier debate. Process-Oriented Outcome-oriented Structural and quantitative Qualitative Evolution of governance in India ● Like any other post-colonial state, India after gaining Independence, adopted the policy of planned economy, led by the government and its public sectors. ● But this policy found to be inadequate and inappropriate in achieving the required goals of economic progress and poverty alleviation. 4 JATIN VERMA'S IAS ACADEMY ● By the late 1980s, there was a growing realisation among the policymakers in the government that the planned strategy of economic development failed to achieve the developmental goals of India. Some of the reasons behind it were: ● Deep entrenched corruption in governmental institutions and programmes along with all- pervasive political corruption. ● Rapid transformation in the international political and economic environment. ● Due to the financial crunch and lack of competitiveness in the public sector, there was a critical pressure on the state to open the economy for the private sector (market). ● Public sector proved to be incapable and inefficient in delivering public goods, leaving a vacuum in service delivery. ● It provided legitimacy to the role of the market and civil society. ● It was an acknowledgement of the limits of the government in terms of resources and legitimacy. ● The term governance gained currency in India with the liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991. What is governance? ● The concept of governance indicates a shift away from well-established notions of the way the government sought to resolve social issues through a top-down approach. The emphasis is on the reduced role of the state and acknowledgement that it is no longer the only actor that steers society. ● Governance is understood in many different ways but there is a baseline agreement that governance refers to the development of governing styles in which boundaries between and within public and private sectors have become blurred. ● The core thrust of the idea of governance is the Network relationships of three actors – state, market and civil society in reaching the decisions. 5 JATIN VERMA'S IAS ACADEMY Features of governance ● Reduced role of the state and acknowledgement that it is no longer the only actor that steers society. ● It is an interactive process where government frames policies in collaboration with other non- state actors. ● None of the actors in governance is dominating, services depend upon the process of exchange ● between actors. ● The monopoly of political institutions in providing services is diluted; the private sector and institutions of civil society fill in the space previously occupied by these institutions. ● Curbing of the role of state and expanding the space for market and competition. Institutions involved in governance In Governance, there are networks of institutions involved in all stages of the policy process viz; policy formulation, implementation, evaluation and feedback. Some of the examples of such networks are as follows: Policy network: Policy networks are sets of formal institutional and informal linkages between governmental and other actors structured around endlessly negotiated beliefs and interests in public policymaking and implementation. These actors are interdependent and policy emerges from the interactions between them. ● Governments have instituted advisory bodies and various kinds of Councils where representatives of government and other two actors – business and civil society are members. ● For example, at the formal level, business organizations like FICCI and CII were represented in government advisory bodies. ● NGOs have also become partners in new policy networks. The National Advisory Council has representatives of civil society and acts as a voice to influence government policy. ● In May