Good Governance Index

Source: The Hindu

Manifest pedagogy: Good Governance and its impact on socio economic development is far and wide. The need for better governance sets apart institutions which are lasting, able to get on with development at the grassroots and inclusive at the same time.

In news: ‘Good Governance Index’ was launched by the government on the occasion of ‘Good Governance Day’(December 25th).

Placing it in syllabus: Good governance 

Static dimensions: Good governance 

Current dimensions:

• Good governance Index
• Reforms in Railway board
• Governance reforms in India

Content:

Good governance:

• Governance is the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented).

• Government is one of the actors in governance.
• Other actors involved in governance vary from landlords, associations of peasant farmers, cooperatives, NGOs, research institutes, religious leaders to media, lobbyists, international donors, multinational corporations, etc…
• All the related actors play a major role in decision- making or in influencing the decision-making process. 

Good governance assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making. It has 8 major characteristics.

• Participation: Participation by both men and women is a key cornerstone of good governance. Participation could be either direct or through legitimate intermediate institutions or representatives. 
• Rule of law: Good governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially.
• Transparency: The decisions taken and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement.
• Responsiveness: Good governance requires that institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders within a reasonable time frame.
• Consensus oriented: Good governance requires mediation of the different interests in society to reach a broad consensus which is in the best interest of the whole community.
• Equity and inclusiveness: A society’s well being depends on ensuring that all its members (especially vulnerable) feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of society.
• Effectiveness and efficiency: The processes and institutions produce results that meet the needs of society while making the sustainable use of resources at their disposal.
• Accountability: The governmental institutions, private sector and civil society organizations must be accountable to the public and to their institutional stakeholders. 

India is ranked 111 in World Bank’s Global Governance Indicators (GGI) in 2016.

Good Governance Index (GGI):

• It is a uniform tool across States to assess the Status of Governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the State Government and UTs.
• It was released on the Good Governance Day which is observed on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Objectives of GGI:

• To provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and UTs.
• Enabling the states and UTs to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance.
• Encouraging states to shift to result oriented approaches and administration. 

Criteria followed while selecting indicators:

• Easy to understand and calculate, 
• Citizen-centric and result driven,
• Leading to improved results,
• Uniformly applicable to all states and UTs.

In total 50 indicators are used to measure the following 10 governance sectors:

1. Agriculture and Allied Sectors
2. Commerce & Industries
3. Human Resource Development
4. Public Health
5. Public Infrastructure & Utilities
6. Economic Governance
7. Social Welfare and Development,l
8. Judicial and Public Security
9. Environment
10. Citizen centric governance 

The states and UTs are divided into three groups: 

• Big States
• North-East and Hill states
• UTs

Though the states and UTs are ranked on all indicators separately, composite ranking is also calculated for these states and UTs under their respective groups based upon these indicators.

Findings of the report:

• Top performers among the big states are Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka. 
• The bottom three states are Odisha, Bihar, Goa. 
• Among the North-East and Hill states top performers are Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Tripura. 
• The bottom three states are Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
• Among the UTs, Pondicherry is top performer followed by Chandigarh and Delhi.
• Lakshadweep is at the bottom among the UTs.

Sector-wise ranking: 

Environment sector:

Top three states – West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu

Bottom three states – Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Goa

Judicial and public security ranking: Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chattisgarh are at the top of the chart.

Public Infrastructure: Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab topped the chart.

Economic governance: Karnataka is at the top under this category. 

Health: Kerala is at the top under this category.

Commerce and industries: Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana topped the chart.

Reforms in Railway board:

• The Union Cabinet has approved the downsizing of the strength of the Railway Board from eight to five, including the chairman, who will be the chief executive officer (CEO).
• There will be four other members, in charge of infrastructure, rolling stock, finance and operations, and business development.
• There will be some “outside talent”, independent members, comprising experts helping the Board to set a “strategic direction”.
• The Indian Railway Medical Service (IRMS) will be renamed the Indian Railway Health Service (IRHS).
• Eight ‘Group A’ services will be merged into one central service called the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS).

Impact of reforms:

• It will ensure end of departmentalism and promote smooth operations and expedite decision-making.
• It will lead to end of turf wars among the different cadres and departments which was harming railway operations.
• Restructuring has set the path for Indian Railways to be a unified organisation that will work single-mindedly.
• This will end the culture of working in ‘silos’ and mark the beginning of a new and unified railway with a coherent vision for the future.   
• Unification of services will streamline operations and provide flexibility in how they deploy people.

Governance reforms in India:

The government had set up 10 Sectoral Groups of Secretaries (SGoS) in June, 2019 and had tasked them with finalising the 100-agenda and five-year vision documents of ministries and departments.

Some of the recommendations that are readying to submit to the council of ministers include:

• Lateral entry of private sector experts in central government services at director and deputy secretary level,
• “Horizontal entry” or free movement of officials in CPSUs instead of restricting it at board level,
• Merging of boards of CPSUs ( in line with the Jawahar Wattal committee recommendations) by March 30, 2020,
• Creation of an All India Judicial Service, 
• A new modern and technology backed legislation on emigration, 
• Pre-departure orientation training for more than 500,000 Indian emigrant workers, 
• Bharat Drive on the lines of the Google Drive,

• Dedicated central prabharis or in-charges for the Northeast,

• Convergence of more ministries (as in the case of Jal Shakti ministry which was formed by merging Water resources, River development and Ganga rejuvenation ministry, and Drinking water and sanitation ministry),
• 10 mega social sector campaigns,
• Scaling up of Ayushman Bharat to open up the national health insurance scheme to every citizen.