Best Podcasts for Public Policy, Governance, and Social Impact Professionals

Sharing a thoughtfully curated podcast that offers sharp insights into the development sector and public policy. It brings grounded perspectives from the field, policy debates, and real-world implementation—definitely worth a listen.

Indian Podcasts

1. Puliyabāzī (पुलियाबाज़ी) is promoted by The Takshashila Institution. It is a Hindi podcast hosted by Pranay Kotasthane and Saurabh Chandra, in association with Takshashila. The podcast discusses politics, public policy, technology, philosophy, and current affairs in a conversational and accessible Hindi style to reach a broad audience.

Where to listen: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and Spotify

2. All Things Policy is The Takshashila Institution’s flagship English podcast, designed as a primer and deep dive into the mechanics of public policy in India and beyond. Hosted by Takshashila faculty and visiting experts, each episode tackles a specific policy arena—such as fiscal federalism, climate regulation, or digital governance—by breaking down foundational concepts, showcasing case studies, and interviewing practitioners from government, academia, and industry.

Where to listen: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and Spotify

3. Decoding Impact with Rathish is a thought-provoking YouTube podcast series hosted by Rathish Balakrishnan, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Sattva Consulting, a leading social impact consulting firm. This channel explores complex developmental challenges and real-world solutions across domains like governance, education, climate finance, agriculture, digital public infrastructure, and social innovation. 

Where to listen: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and Spotify

4. Policy Podcast, IIT Kharagpur focus on how innovation is reshaping policy & governance in India; interviews with experts on electoral politics, public administration, etc.

Where to listen: Policy Podcast, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and Spotify

5. Policy Beyond Politics is a public policy podcast produced by the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) — an independent think-tank in Kochi, Kerala focused on evidence-based research and actionable ideas for social transformation. The series brings together policy researchers, practitioners, and subject matter experts to discuss contemporary issues in governance, economics, democracy, and institutional reform that shape public life in India and beyond.

Where to listen: Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts and Spotify

6. Policy Talks by Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business: Conversations with policy thinkers and leaders about recent challenges & policymaking in India. 

Where to listen: Podcast Republic

7. Urban Planning in India (CEPT / CAU / CUPP): Deep, reflective conversations about urban planning, city development, governance at local levels in Indian context. 

Where to listen: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Spotify

  

International Podcasts

1. Governance Uncovered is a globally oriented podcast produced by the Governance and Local Development Institute (GLD) at the University of Gothenburg, with support from the Swedish Research Council. Hosted by Professor Ellen Lust, the series dives deep into the complex dynamics of governance, politics, state and non-state actors, and local development processes across diverse regions of the world.

Where to listen: Governance Uncovered - A Podcast by GLD | My new site

2. Building State Capability (Harvard): This podcast features interviews on research & practice in public sector capability, leadership in crises, policy implementation, etc. 

Where to listen: Building State Capability, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Spotify

3. ADB Knowledge & Innovation Talks: This short series features ADB specialists and guest experts sharing practical insights on policy solutions, evidence-based governance, and development strategy. 

 Where to listen: Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music and Spotify

4. Brookings Cafeteria (Brookings Institution): Great for hearing experts discuss public policy problems, governance and development economics around the world, including how governments are (or are not) coping with current challenges.

Where to listen: Brookings, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Spotify

5. Policy Pathways by International Water Management Institute: Focuses on how evidence, complexity and coherence interplay in domains like food, land, water systems. Especially relevant if you’re interested in environment, resource policy, systems thinking.

Where to listen: Policy Pathways, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Spotify

6. The Development Podcast (World Bank) - Focus: development challenges, data, research, policy solutions across sectors. 

Where to listen: World Bank, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music and Spotify

7. Future of Agriculture : Apple Podcasts, 

Why Government Schemes Fail? - 3

Over ten years and countless reflections, the third part of "Why Government Schemes Fail?" explores why government schemes often fail at the grassroots level. The first and second of "Why Government Schemes Fail" can be accessed. 

Government schemes are essential tools aimed at uplifting vulnerable populations and promoting inclusive growth. Yet, many schemes fall short of their intended outcomes due to a complex mixture of design flaws, governance shortcomings, and operational inefficiencies. Good policy, like good literature, takes personal lived experience as its starting point. 

Let me start with Scheme Design: The Blueprint for Success or Failure. Policy design is inseparable from governance outcomes. Schemes structured with complex rules, poor monitoring, unclear eligibility criteria, or ambiguous grievance mechanisms open doors to inefficiencies and corruption. Government schemes often lack transparency while in the design. Greater openness and participation before launching schemes can ensure better planning and public trust.  

Bringing together insights from practical experience, internet research, and foundational economic policy thought leaders like Vijay L. Kelkar and Ajay Shah, please find some insights: 

1. Leakage (Inclusion Errors): When benefits reach ineligible individuals, wasting scarce resources and weakening political support for programs.  Governments often focus on reducing leakages because they represent immediate financial losses and corruption. 

2. Exclusion Errors: When eligible individuals remain unserved due to bureaucratic failures and lack of social awareness which hurts the very citizens these schemes intend to help. 

3.  Poor state capacity means that government institutions struggle to properly plan, carry out, and track policies.  Indian states face challenges like excessive power in hand of the few skilled bureaucrats, lack of technical staff, and very poor institutional memory. 

4. Many poorly paid ad hoc staff and officials juggling multiple tasks reduce the overall effectiveness of government. Additionally, frontline workers are often overworked with high workloads, which strains their ability to perform efficiently and weaken government service delivery.

6. Weak incentives for better work hinder efficient government service delivery. Issues like poor monitoring of vendors and delays in payments reduce motivation for timely and quality performance.

7. Poor public procurement procedures in the government add to inefficiencies and reduce accountability. Complex, inconsistent, and bureaucratic procurement rules limit competition, cause delays, and enable corruption through practices like favoritism, bid-rigging, and limited vendor participation. 

8. Elite capture of public policy and bureaucratic dominance in decision-making lead to the control of resources and benefits to serve their own interests. Powerful local elites often sideline the poor, which fosters corruption. The corrupt money is then transferred back to the elites and bureaucrats, perpetuating the cycle.

9. Insufficient integration across government departments leads to siloed implementation. Schemes are often designed for the convenience of departments rather than focusing on the needs of the users. 

10. Schemes do not operate in an apolitical vacuum. Political incentives often favor launching high-visibility programs over investing in challenging, long-term institutional strengthening.

11. Especially, there is an 'ABCD' culture from top to bottom in rights-based services—A stands for Avoid, B for Bypass, C for Confuse, and D for Delay. 

No amount of sensitization can hope to overcome resistance from vested interests. be it of a financial, power, or political nature. The government scheme is doomed to fail but those who have designed the scheme will not be made to own the responsibility for its failures.  In conclusion, it is important to approach case studies based on "success stories" with caution, as they often emphasize positive outcomes while overlooking challenges. There is a lot of talk about an ‘action-oriented government,’ but it often involves dramatic announcements praised by a media that rarely asks follow-up questions. 

Caste Census and Public Policy

Public policy should be an outcome of democratic practice, a data-driven approach, and professional expertise. While data poverty has been attributed as one of the major challenges in framing policies for development, the democratic representation of the population can be attained through quota reservations in the decision-making process. Dealing with the thorny issues around quotas, meritocracy, social justice, inclusion, and opportunity leads to huge public debate with implications extending beyond the electoral politics realm. Since the social change is intrinsically political, data on caste is crucial because, in the absence of it, the only evidence we have is anecdotal.

Evidence-based policymaking based on caste census data is a better approach leading rather than arbitrary decisions lobbied by a dominant group and populist narrative. Caste-based data can reveal disparities in education, employment, healthcare, and other socio-economic indicators among different caste groups. This information is crucial for identifying marginalized communities and designing targeted interventions to address their needs.

What are the ‘natural’ building blocks of Indian society – gender, class, caste, region, and religion? The answer may vary but the development of Indian society be discussed without mentioning caste as the pivotal factor. Caste continues to be a determinant of educational opportunities, a robust indicator of economic status, and a gateway to decent employment opportunities. The commission, headed by B.P. Mandal, submitted its report in 1980, recommending a reservation of 27% of government jobs for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The reservation was implemented based on the 1931 caste census, which found that 52% of Indians were OBC and did not fall into the category of scheduled castes or tribes. Our reservation policy is based on caste data that is outdated by a century.  Having reliable data from such caste census can serve as a foundational element for developing targeted and effective public welfare schemes to address the diverse needs of different communities.

Even though politics is controlled by the prism of caste, public policy is often focused on the problems of market failure or state failure. By prioritizing human development and implementing meaningful social reforms, we can invest meaningfully toward unlocking democratic dividends. The primary purpose of reservation is to make public institutions more representative and diverse by including the voices of caste groups who don’t find inclusion due to entrenched discrimination. The most well-intentioned social interventions fail because of the ground realities that consultants /bureaucracy/ policymakers often fail to grasp due to a lack of data. Analyzing the state capacity with the data-driven approach can help us anticipate unintended consequences and help pick a context-appropriate policy instrument.

In urban India, the debate on caste, especially among educated classes, revolves around the quota. While very conveniently, its other aspects - mental isolation, stigma, discrimination, bullying, etc. are ignored. Representation, inclusion, and diversity are all liberal progressive ideas. Only through intelligent use of caste census data can contribute to public reasoning. There are two opposing perspectives, one by Yogendra Yadav and the other by Pratap Bhanu Mehta worth reading.  

जातीय जनगणना होनी चाहिए या नहीं? Pros and Cons of a Caste Census | Puliyabaazi Hindi

Analyzing Model Contract Farming Act

The agriculture ministry on 22nd May released the Model Contract Farming Act, 2018. Mr. Ashok Dalwai, CEO, National Rainfed Area Authority has chaired the committee that drafted the model law.

Contract Farming: Contract farming is a container concept that covers a wide range of contractual arrangements, which makes it difficult to draw overly general conclusions. Under contract farming, agricultural production (including livestock and poultry) can be carried out based on a forward agreement between buyers (such as food processing units and exporters), and producers (farmers or farmer organisations) frequently at predetermined prices.

The Model APMC Act, 2003 provided for contract farming however, only 14 states notified rules related to contract farming, as of October 2016. Only Punjab has a separate law on contract farming. The NITI Aayog observed that market fees and other levies are paid to the APMC for contract framing when no services such as market facilities and infrastructure are rendered by them. In this context, the Committee of State Ministers on Agricultural Reforms recommended that contract farming should be out of the ambit of APMCs. Instead, an independent regulatory authority must be brought in to disengage contract farming stakeholders from the existing APMCs. (Reference)

Salient features of Model Contract Farming Act, 2018

1. In addition to contract farming, services contracts all along the value chain including pre-production, production and post-production have been included.
2. “Registering and Agreement Recording Committee” or an “Officer” for the purpose at district/block/ taluka level for online registration of sponsor and recording of agreement provided.
3. Contracted produce is to be covered under crop / livestock insurance in operation.
4. Contract framing to be outside the ambit of APMC Act 2003.
5. No permanent structure can be developed on farmers’ land/premises
6. No rights, title ownership or possession to be transferred or alienated or vested in the contract farming sponsor etc.
7. FPO/FPC can be a contracting party if so authorized by the farmers.

Policy Analysis by Experts:

1. As per Professor Sukhpal Singh of IIMAhmedabad: The new model Act 2018 opens up agricultural markets to contracting agencies without adequate safeguards for farmers.

2. Opinion Piece by Smriti Sharma, Policy Analyst with the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy on role of the government in Contract Farming Act

3. Opinion Piece by Jayshree Sengupta, Senior Fellow (Associate) with ORF's Economy and Development Programme on making contract farming suitable for Indian farmers.

Policy Analysis and Suggestions:

1. FPOs as aggregators: From the draft Model Act, it is not clear whether FPOs can also be contract farming sponsor. There may be a situation where FPOs would like to expand the cultivated area without increasing number of the farmers as members. The model law should clarify that how can FPO will be able to expand farming activities adhering to contract farming route.

2. Pro Farmer Policy: The Act lays special emphasis on protecting the interests of the farmers, considering them as weaker of the two parties entering into a contract and has been provided for reasonable protection to the weaker party to the contract, i.e., the producer, the pre-agreed price, category wise as under Section 18(2). Where no price premium exists, and a competitive price is paid on local markets, the intermediary role of FPOs may become more important for enabling higher income effects of the contract farming arrangement.

3. Capacity of State: The model contract farming Act proposes a state-level agency, the Contract Farming (Development and Facilitation) Authority, which would put contract farming outside the scope of the APMC. There is already acute shortage of extension services in Agriculture Department and current Act is proposing for an officer at the district/block/taluka level.

4. Corruption and Transaction Cost: More the responsibilities taken by the government staff, there is a higher chances of bribery for the online registration of sponsor and recording of agreement with a registering and agreement recording committee. Registration imposes extra procedure mechanism and costs on the parties, while small and marginal farmers cannot easily afford these transaction costs. Transaction costs embedded in contract farming need to be outweighed by the benefits, both for sponsoring corporates and farmer.

5. Monopoly, Fraud and& Settlement of disputes: Sponsoring agri business companies will exploit the monopoly position and similarly farmers will sell outside the contract (extra-contractual marketing) and divert inputs supplied on credit to other purposes, thereby reducing yields. There is no provision of budget for the establishment of body for dispute settlement mechanism at the lowest level possible required for quick disposal of disputes.

6. Insurance and Risk Management:  Agricultural investments always involve risk. The five most likely reasons for investment failure in agriculture are poor crop management, climatic disasters, pest epidemics, market failure and price volatility. The standard approach in agribusiness to compensate the farmer against quantity shortfalls is crop insurance. The contracted produce will also be covered under crop/livestock insurance in operation. But the government-run crop insurance schemes are proving to be unsatisfactory

7. Price Discovery and Market: Normally, contract farming does not work in an ecosystem when either party is looking to fetch a better price without any product differentiation. This is where derivative market integration with farm sector can help. This will eventually lead to both party trying to get the best price from the market instead of the each other. Where there are fixed price contracts there is no apparent risk to farmers with regard to payment for their crops. If a market collapses, the sponsor should automatically shoulder the loss. However, if the sponsor becomes bankrupt, farmers could be permanently affected. Where contracts are on a flexible or spot-price basis the stability of farmers' incomes is always at risk.

8. Farm income varies between commodities: The costs associated with contracting is high hence, it tends to be limited to high-value commodities (including meat, milk, fish, fruits, vegetables, and cash crops) being grown for processors and exporters who sell into quality-sensitive markets. An apple grower benefit from higher yields (presumably due to technical assistance), while contract green onion growers receive higher prices (presumably due to better quality).

9. Establishment of Forum: A major feature for market to work is a "market matching" exercise. This can be done by organizing forums where agribusiness entrepreneurs could meet FPO/ farmers' representatives to discuss their requirements. The forums can be followed by more detailed discussions between individual sponsors and individual cooperatives or farmer organizations.

10. Literature Review: All studies report at least one case of contract farming that has a positive and statistical significant income effect. The lack of studies on ‘failed treatments’ leads to an overestimation of the effectiveness of contract farming. The practitioner-oriented literature indicated the high risk of failure in the first years and stressed the need for adaptive management and mechanisms to settle disputes. Apart from food security effects, the role of contract farming in rural development, such as (sector-wide) innovation, and livelihood resilience, will need more research.

Conclusion: Modest expectations and careful planning are needed for contract farming to be effective and sustainable. However, it is important for policymakers to be realistic about the potential scope of contract farming. Thus, policymakers should not think of contract farming as a solution to the problems of credit, information, and market access for all small and marginal farmers . Model Contract Farming Act should be a promoting and facilitating Act as is intended, and should not end up as a over-regulating act distorting the market for both players.

Good Governance & Public Policy

What is Public Policy ? Public policy focuses on the processes by which various types of policies and regulations that affect members of the public are created and enforced. Public Policy deals with public goods delivery – political economy, taxation, law and order, good social and physical infrastructure, including better education and health facilities – and facilitate provision of private goods (cheaper power, flexible labour laws and other subsidies). The guiding principles for better public policy include building people’s ownership and participation in the governance and decisions affecting their lives. Regulation, Redistribution and Equity came to the forefront of policymaking.

Resources be it human, natural or financial are limited in a country and a government must utilize them in the most productive manner can achieve the best possible growth. That is the essence of good governance. The first and foremost requirement of good governance is broadly distributed political rights among citizens and the government accountability and and transparency in public administration. An ideal public service institutions will be decentralized, professional and autonomous management structures.

The theoretical framework however doesn't work smoothly in the real world. Governments in many developing & underdeveloped countries are corrupt and never work in favor of the people. They work for the interests of specific groups. It would be naive to think that governments work for the public all the time. Economics works alongside and interacts with social and political forces framing the policy. Politically motivated decisions, the undisclosed profiteering, the conflicts of interest, the vested interests, & the bad experiments with good intentions can lead to the flawed policy making process. So how the end objective is achieved ?

Policy makers must be open-minded and open-armed to combat such conflicting interests arising due to potentially corrupt motivation. They must have sound knowledge of the local context of a community – its history, politics, social structure, and culture, along with its economics. More the diverse the stakeholders in policy making, the probe in the issue will examine ground realities, re-validate assumptions on which our policies rest, and evaluating  new initiatives. The real impact of policy decisions are measured by three factors:

* Number of beneficiaries covered under the policy
* Number of beneficiaries who experience a positive change with the implementation
* Participation of the people and innovation springing from the outcomes.

Public opinion is varied and contested space, continually shaped and reshaped over time. Popular opinion in India generally overlook corrupt vested interests or don't want to go for long term reform. Hence, Indian state has always insulated public policy from open debate. The bureaucracy in India has never let the control of policy shifts to an autonomous institutions and public has suffered the ill results of lack of knowledge among civil servants. Bureaucracy seldom promotes creativity and, under the cover of neutrality, preserves the advantages of the powerful by dominating the weak. In the government systems, professionals are always crowded out by the imprisoning logic of bureaucracy. As described aptly by Prof Ajay Shah: In the West, leaders choose the direction of public policy. Government is like a car, which goes where the leader directs. But in India, the car is broken, and just turning the steering wheel is ineffective. To do public policy in India, the skill required is that of an engineer and not the driver. It is about opening the hood, understanding what is wrong with the institution, and fixing it.

Each policy must face several test: Are the policies realistic? How will they be implemented? What results will they produce in the long run? Were there more reasonable, less risky, cost effective, user friendly, & more inclusive policy measures that would have yielded as much benefit as the rolled out one ? There is no ultimate policy measure but always a solutions-oriented approach means more innovative outreach and trade-offs in a wiser way. I will be putting more on the non academic and self learned diagnosis of public policy in coming days. Watch this space and hear buzz words like committees, accountability, check and balances, transparency. Have I lost you yet? I will.

Why Government Schemes Fail? - 2

India's new prime minister, Narendra Modi's slogan "minimum government, maximum governance" is a serious goal. Its implementation on the grass root level will be tried and tested, and that is where most of the government’s schemes fail. There are myriad of difficulties faced by the government in properly designing and implementing of the public policy. Continuing from the previous article: 'Why Government Schemes Fail?', I will examine same question from another angles.

Design: Let us start with the design of the government schemes. What works well in the coastal belt of Kerala is unlikely to work in the Terai region of Uttar Pradesh, or for that matter, hilly lands of Garhwal. Hence, one size fits all schemes must be carefully reviewed. There is a strong tendency for planners to go in for prestige and grand projects. Through this they can leave monuments to their activity, even if defunct. The visibility is major emphasis than actual proposed work. It helps every level of government machinery to justify their budget and performance.

Most of the schemes even if redesigned are just shadows of past failed schemes. Reforms exclusively based on experience of the past suffer from another infirmity as it fails to factor in the innovations and transformations of the relevant sector. Any government scheme should be designed as a business model with incentives built for each stakeholder. Illegality in transaction slowly crumbles the scheme merely from the fact that the policy was not right from the beginning.

Involvement and Access: More democracy is required in making designs for the schemes! Currently, the only option left with people is of protest on bad implementation of schemes. There must be welcome and feel comfortable atmosphere for non-IAS experts with domain expertise to operate in regulatory bodies and government-run organisations. Advisers from the NGO sector like CRHP, Pradan had helped in shaping better schemes in the past.

Our huge ignorance to understand the functioning of the government and the local institutions is barrier to good governance. There is need for proper channel so that people can mobilize for effective political action to prevent mismanagement of resources by government. A small time broker and politician help poor to navigate a system that gives them so little access. Hence, the complex web of subsidy, entitlements and schemes in a very well intention-ed and well designed scheme hit the rock solid wall of the gargantuan system.

Political Interference: Government ministers announces huge scheme without having a concrete plan. It ends up similar to attempting to build a house without a blueprint. Political parties whenever come to power in central/state governments try to adopt developmental plans to suit their manifestos. This jeopardizes the future trajectory and intensity of implementation of schemes. The politically motivated decisions of fund allocation led by the relationship of the incumbent State and Central governments hinder welfare schemes and huge investments. Most of the time old developmental projects are either ignored or rejected in favour of new political discourse. There is always misalignment between financing of scheme, condition of economy and political campaign promises. This can go hugely wrong and ours current government current fight to hold Fiscal Deficit is one such glaring example. When a subsidy scheme becomes a non-viable financially, no matter how well-meaning, it must be restructured or abolished to extinction.

Planning and Coordination: Planning is done in ad-hoc manner and is generally a mere collection of schemes. This is an under-discussed problem of coordination between the intra- and inter- government departments. The right word is Convergence. Each scheme is being implemented by the respective department in isolation. Hence, it is imperative to make directed and organized efforts for converging such schemes. Convergence improves the deliver-ability of the benefits and services, it also gives better value to the public money. The Perpetuating Problem of Coordination will explain intrinsic details of the issue. The lack of reliable data for planning also causes failure of policies. With many of our allocations in schemes based on unreliable secondary data. There is dire need for collecting relevant data pertinent to all sectors, updating it periodically and planning and allocating financial and human resources based on this data. A new type of public good, Open data banks must be promoted among public, among companies and other non-government entities. With the availability of massive, publicly-held data sets in machine-readable “liquid” form can unlock the potential to spur innovation in all sectors.

Regulating and Implementation: How do you prevent abuse? The old mindset in which the command and control instinct dominated with emphasis to restrict, stifle, manipulate, control and micro-manage with new rule curb both private and public sector.A rule of thumb for efficiency standards is that they should be 'tough' but not panic inducing'. Time and space is needed to react with new initiatives.  There is heavy scrutiny of projects in implementation when problem arises due to poor design. The problem of implementation without clearly defined or sometimes ill-defined rules creates a lot of room for manipulation and hence make it inconsistent and unfair.

If you want to understand how the government functions, you must understand movement of files. All decisions in the government are taken on files through office orders. If projects/ schemes are not moving on file, then all public policy is waste. No person in bureaucracy want to take a decision without any political support and risk career damage. It eventually led to stalled projects and failure of the scheme.

Budgeting and Auditing: Why Development is considered in Terms of Expenditure Done? I am still looking for answers. Nobody is looking for the quality in government and this task has been left to the social audit. The delay in releasing funds and issuing UC (Utilization certificate) deter all the stakeholders involved in the scheme. There is always difference between fund requirement and allotment in budget. Even unimaginative funds required are just 10% increment of previous year budget. Take any scheme in government, the usual discussion in meetings revolves around Target Chase. There is a new idea floating to move away from the usual bureaucratic jargon of “targeting numbers” to “targeting names".

90 per cent of the government is now covered by the CAG, but much of this has been done through executive orders, not an amendment in our act. All PPPs, Panchayati raj institutions and NGOs getting government funding under need to be brought under the ambit of CAG. Due to no expertise on this topic, I will refrain from putting more words on the blogpost.

We are seeing that NRHM, NREGA & NRLM are delivering better result than government departments. Mission mode is working relatively well in the new order of scheme design. Accountability mechanisms and examples of government schemes that worked are quite low in our country. We need solid discussion on reports to understanding of the policies, scope, mechanisms, drivers and benefits of various schemes across different states and sectors. Everything has an expiry date, no matter how good their past performances. There is logic for having a provision to discard schemes once their utility is over. All programmes need strong monitoring, which is absent most of the times. A separate blog post is entirely needed to showcase the problem of monitoring and evaluation. That is a another story for another time.

Why Government Schemes Fail?

All claims of the development by the government appear to be a hoax ...obviously ! Because we always see huge margin of difference between announcement and implementation. Let us redefine government for our own understanding. It is a crucible of interest groups, rather than a black box of noble intentions. So, the responsibility of failure of schemes lie with various stakeholders in the development process.

Growth can never be inorganic and the system needs to learn before they grow. Now replace the system’ with a ‘welfare scheme’. Example: Gradual improvement (IRDP - SGSY - NRLM) is better approach for development. Not all schemes are so much lucky. They are renamed and often termed as 'old wine in new bottle'. Sometimes if any scheme is a completely prone to the corruption, we have hinged for its immense benefit to power holders. Bad schemes is like giving perpetual gifts that has made people into beggars rather than partners. India's government programmes are riddled with corruption and leakage. The main source of corruption arises from the identification of beneficiaries. Identification is not a statistical exercise, but is a major political activity. Nitin Pai has written an article focusing on this issue only - Where are the Poor?.

Rajiv Gandhi’s famous and oft-quoted statement that out of every Rs 1 spent on development only 15 paisa reaches the poor. Monitoring and Evaluation is often the weakest part of the chain of the schemes. Officials are getting salary for what they are supposed to serving the people. They get away clean either with not doing anything at all or doing with bribes. This is the most damaging aspect of the government jobs. Even harsh reviews and suspension does not mean anything to them.

Unused knowledge is a buried treasure. Government officials at block levels have brilliant expertise but they rarely display an ounce of integrity. The block level officials and extension workers are inadequately available and most of the posts were vacant. So, the staff is always overburdened by additional charges. None of govt official will talk openly of their exasperation with the stiff deadlines. But off the record, most are forthcoming. And, their feedback is rarely taken serious. There is also lack of specialization at the top level of bureaucracy. Same officer can look sports affairs with equal expertise as livelihood ! Such is the way of functioning government. This system has began to change positively from the last 10-15 years with the incoming flux of new officers. 

The reformers calling for heads of government servants and public representatives are not free from all blame. I will not give detail here in the corrupt practices of NGO sector but will take a dig on activist mode workers. Most of the activist are either committed right Swadeshi or a leftist social workers . They are staunch and passionate persons who are anti-globalization, anti- market and assumed that all decisions however big or small had to be taken in GramSabhas and will turn up invariably the right ones. Hence, not all feasible solutions are put on table and negotiation becomes ideological battleground.

Poor can not be served poorly; Government must stop thinking that PRI as low-cost and voluntary. People’s Participation for Empowerment and Good Governance may sound like a jargon in the reading but it is not. It is a simple process of taking voice of an important stakeholder i.e. public. There will be corruption in the early years, but surely spread of awareness will happen in upcoming years.

The hunger and poverty that one sees all around must be tackled with better designed scheme. Structural transformations at the top to allow local actors to participate with their potential is required. We must focus on convergence of existing schemes of the government rather than launching new schemes. Only then, we can roll back redundant schemes and put in their what is required. Even we got a new scheme. "The Implementation Part" is key to measure any success of intervention rather than allocation of fund. I will leave readers with quote by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi in his article "The contractor state": The government of India is a government of contractors, by contractors, for contractors.