SRINIVAS
Towards a New India by V.Srinivas; Published by Konark ;
Pages 202; Price Rs 800/-
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The author of the book under review V. Srinivas is presently Additional Secretary to Government of India in the Department of Administrative Reforms. He was the Deputy Director at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Director General, National Archives of India and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Textiles and Culture for seven years. He was the Chairman of the Board of Revenue for Rajasthan and Chairman of the Rajasthan Tax Board in 2017-2018. In 2017, he was awarded the Indian Council of World Affairs Book Research Fellowship for his first book, “India's Relations with International Monetary Fund 1991-2016”. He is a senior civil servant and this is his second book.
According to the author “ In my long years of experience in governance, the last five years have been quite transformational, because the pursuit of radical reforms has benefited millions of Indians in a manner in which governance has been taken to the doorstep of people through digital means.”
India’s welfare-state programmes have undergone a sea-change and there has been a massive digital transformation in the past quinquennium. The highlights of the programme are
i)the universal issue of over 120 crore Aadhar cards;
ii) opening of over 31.6 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts;
iii)the construction of toilets to serve more than 85 percent of our population.
A staggering achievement by any standards.
The book discusses in depth issues like healthcare for all, education and rural development, Jan Dhan Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana, Digital India, Skill India and Make in India, Social Inclusion, Fight against Corruption among others.
We have a first-hand account of the author’s implementation experience in a leadership role. India’s fight against corruption and the efforts to improve justice delivery systems have been graphically presented. It is not for the people but also by the people. It is this participatory process that distinguishes Governance from mere Government.
We are treated to a stirring saga of how lives in our rural areas are being transformed.
India is on the march to achieving inclusive growth and all round development that will lift crores of people out of poverty. India’s Social Inclusion programmes are comprehensive and their implementation is supervised by independent Minstries with dequate resorce allocations.
The strength and resilience of critical institutions of the Lokpal, GST Council and the Niti Aayog, along with the government's sponsored programmes, should enable the country realise its strategic objectives.
"Corruption impacts service delivery, when speed money is asked for registration of documents, sanctioning bank loans, amendments in land records, driving licences, and other routine services. Every form of corruption has an economic impact, and fighting corruption is an imperative need.
Srinivas highlights the role of cooperative federalism through the working of some of the constitutional institutions.The appointment of the Lokpal demonstrates to the world that India is not second to any nation in making its public administration clean and fair.
The strength and resilience of India's 3 critical institutions - the Lokpal, the GST council and the NITI Aayog, coupled with the government's numerous centrally sponsored programs should enable the nation realise the strategic objectives laid down in New India@75.
The Niti Aayog had released the strategy for New India@75 (in 2022) in December 2018. The strategy paper seeks to bring together innovation, technology, enterprise and efficient management, at the core of policy formulation and implementation, to ensure that development becomes a "jan andolan" (mass movement).
The qualitative changes in the centrally sponsored schemes remain a part of the New India@75 strategies. While the Niti Aayog has been a significant player in cooperative federalism, other institutions have emerged.
The GST Council, a constitutional body created under Article 279 A of the Constitution as a joint forum of the Union and the states, after 34 meetings has emerged as India's foremost federal institution, where decision making has been consensus driven and covers a diverse range of subjects.The Council is a permanent institution entrusted with the responsibility to make recommendations on tax rates, cesses and surcharges to subsumed under the GST, as also exemptions under GST.
"Corruption impacts service delivery, when speed money is asked for registration of documents, sanctioning bank loans, amendments in land records, driving licences, and other routine services. Every form of corruption has an economic impact, and fighting corruption is an imperative need.
Srinivas highlights the role of cooperative federalism through the working of some of the constitutional institutions.The appointment of the Lokpal demonstrates to the world that India is not second to any nation in making its public administration clean and fair.
The strength and resilience of India's 3 critical institutions - the Lokpal, the GST council and the NITI Aayog, coupled with the government's numerous centrally sponsored programs should enable the nation realise the strategic objectives laid down in New India@75.
The Niti Aayog had released the strategy for New India@75 (in 2022) in December 2018. The strategy paper seeks to bring together innovation, technology, enterprise and efficient management, at the core of policy formulation and implementation, to ensure that development becomes a "jan andolan" (mass movement).
The qualitative changes in the centrally sponsored schemes remain a part of the New India@75 strategies. While the Niti Aayog has been a significant player in cooperative federalism, other institutions have emerged.
The GST Council, a constitutional body created under Article 279 A of the Constitution as a joint forum of the Union and the states, after 34 meetings has emerged as India's foremost federal institution, where decision making has been consensus driven and covers a diverse range of subjects.The Council is a permanent institution entrusted with the responsibility to make recommendations on tax rates, cesses and surcharges to subsumed under the GST, as also exemptions under GST.
It is essential to cull out some of the major achievements cited in the book. A few examples are given below.
Nagaon district of Assam, where 78 percent of the population is dependent on agriculture and most transactions were in cash, has been transformed into a locality with heightened awareness of cashless transactions.
In North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, Salma Khatun, a resident of Amdanga village, wanted to pursue higher studies and become self reliant. She was awarded the Kanyashree Scholarship, an incentive of the West Bengal government for appearing in the Madhyamik examination, and the money was deposited in the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana account. With the money, Salma plans to buy text books and study material to realise her dream of becoming a doctor.
In Bikaner, the first Open Defecation Free district of Rajasthan, following a campaign by the government, the women started pressurizing their menfolk to build toilets, to avoid the compulsion of having to wait for the sunlight to fade in order to be able to relieve themselves. They also highlighted the safety issues of venturing alone into the fields in the dark, as well as the health and hygiene issues related to open defecation.
This was all thanks to the massive counselling sessions undertaken by the district collector, who roped in all the gram panchayats to sensitise them of the need to build toilets. The Swachh Bharat Gramin Campaign in Bikaner covered 17 lakh rural population in 290 Gram Panchayats and 1,035 villages. On January 26, 2016, Bikaner was recognized as the first ODF district of Rajasthan and the second in India.
India is on the march to achieving inclusive growth and all round development that will lift millions of people out of poverty. The author’s present book brings this out with clarity .There have been several District level success stories in implementation of programs which have reduced social insecurities and improved economic well-being. The book gives a detailed and insightful account of an administrator's experiences in implementing the digitalization practices, improving justice delivery systems and in identifying the challenges for the civil servants in a 21st century India.
The book is of immense use to all interested in our nation’s development, especially students of economics, public policy and welfare economics.
P.P.Ramachandran
8/03/2020.
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