Post independence, government of India has initiated several programs to alleviate poverty and improve the socio economic conditions. Thousands of crores of rupees has been spent on subsiding food, promoting education, providing low cost housing, improving rural infrastuctucture, waiving of loans etc.
But because of poor governance, inefficiency and corruption government efforts are not resulting in tangible results on the ground.

The result is that most Indians lack provision for health, education, food, housing, employment, transport, drinking water, infrastructure, security, pollution control & basic sanitation.

In spite of rapid economic growth, the social sector indices portray a very poor image of India. Some stats are worse than even the war torn sub-Saharan African countries.

•    Nearly a third of India’s people live below the poverty line

•    India ranks 171 out of the 175 countries in the world in public health spending

•    An estimated 72% of Indians still lack access to improved sanitation facilities

•    Of the 2.5 Billion people that defecate openly, some 665 million of these live in India

•    India currently has the largest illiterate population of any nation on earth

•    About 49 per cent of the world’s underweight children are in India

Dismal scenario in public education
After so many years of independence, only 35% of the population is illiterate and only 15% of the students reach high school. That is in spite of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, education cess, mid-day meal, national policy on education and the thousands of crores spent annually in education sector.
Due to poor governance and lack of political will the most critical sector i.e primary education, has been ignored. We have to suffer the ignominy of being the nation with most number of illiterates in the world.

Politics and Governance

The most surprising factor in India is that it is not necessary that people will vote for those political parties which provide or promise good governance. People mostly vote on the basis of identity and it is very easy to sway them. Political parties also engage in vole bank politics and focus more on populist measures rather than focussing on improving the socio economic condition.
Three major factors that political parties use to exploit masses are:

•    Identity Politics
India is a very diverse nation and identity plays a very important role. Dalits continue to vote for Mayawati in spite of the fact that she has done nothing in improving their economic status. Similarly Christians or Muslims do not vote for BJP in Goa & Maharashtra despite the good governance that they provided during their rule.

•    Populist measures
In spite of being the best chief minister of AP since independence Chandrababu Naidu was not re-elected. He lost the mandate in favour of huge list of populist measure promised by YSR. Since then most political parties have embarked on populist measures such as free color TV, free housing for poor, fertilizer subsidy etc which are merely symbolic and do not improve the lot of poor people.

•    Urban Decay
Due to collapse in farm income there is a very steady migration taking place from villages to cities. This has resulted in huge influx in urban population resulting in Illegal colonies, slums and collapse of infrastructure. Instead of addressing the core issue i.e improving farm income and generating employment in villages, political parties use slums as vote bank.
People also prefer their status quo to be maintained since at least in cities they are getting regular income even though they live without basic amenities.

These divide and rule and populist policies pay scant attention to good governance. Also they manage to garner votes and win elections because of voter’s apathy.

There is a genuine lack of will power in today’s politician to translate government goals, objectives and policy priorities into tangible economic benefits for poor people.

Solutions for Ushering Good Governance

To provide good governance it is essential to bring about administrative reforms and create systems to improve efficiency of public delivery mechanism. Application of Information Technology is the best method of improving efficiency, providing transparency, monitoring schemes as well as improving overall productivity.

The following methods can be adopted:

•    Create a repository of best practices, methodologies and tools in governance reforms including successful software/e-governance implementations.

•    Posting all government related information and forms etc online. This will reduce the interface of the public with government officials, eliminate queues and provide enormous relief to public in general.

•    Video Conferencing with district officials on a regular basis will ensure that the schemes launched by political leaders with fanfare are actually implemented on the ground.

•    Computerization of all records is the most essential factor in improving productivity. Computerization of police (FIR process), land records, school enrolment etc will simplify cumbersome processes and procedures of respective departments and agencies

•    Public-private partnerships can be initiated to improve the overall infrastructure development. It will not only speed up the process but also generate continuous revenues to the government.

•    Setup computerized complaint redress system/call centre for all departments and ensure that all complaints are handled within specified time frame.

•    Setup centre for good governance like www.cgg.gov.in in every state which will analyse key issues in governance, identify solutions, help develop action plans, and support implementation of these plans and the reform agenda.

Use of information technology can improve efficiency & provide transparency in government systems and procedures. It will also ensure that corruption in minimized.

Conclusion

The rapid growth in GDP is not resulting in the improvement of our quality of life. Distribution of wealth is skewed. Most of the social indicators in India suggest that we are worse than even the most poorest of third world countries.

The inadequate public pending has forced even the people below poverty line to depend on private sector for social needs like education & health care.

Only better Governance and efficient administration can stem the rot in India. India is a world leader in IT sector. It needs to use the power of technology and knowledge to improve policy-making decisions in government and enable it to respond better to the needs of the people.

The political leaders need to be responsive to the present and future needs of India. And must initiate second stage of liberalization with reforms and focus on principles and practices of good governance.

• Politics of Vote Bank
  Votes are bought to ensure victory in elections
• Growth without Development
  Rapid GDP growth is not resulting in poverty alleviation
• Concept of Paid News
  Journalists are bought and most news is now planted
• Sports mere entertainment
  The most popular sport has become a gizmo in the hands of few rich people
• Food Inflation at its peak
  While millions are starving in India, food is being exported

What is the point in having independent judiciary, political system, bureaucracy and media? When a small section of rich people are bending all the rules and eventually ruling India.

The following three steps must be immediately implemented:

• Reveal the account details of Indians who hold Swiss bank accounts
• Scrap Mauritius treaty as most black money is bought via Mauritius
• Hawala transactions must be curbed as it generates a parallel economy

The number of rich in this country far exceeds the government estimates. If actual income of rich Indians is disclosed then all the 500 people in Fortune 500 would be Indians. It is high time to stop crony capitalism in India.

But then why are our social sector figures so pathetic:

• If the daily income per head is less than $2, then the family is described as poor and about 80 percent of Indians are poor.
• Around half of Indian children are malnourished. The proportion of underweight children is nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa.
• 41.6% of its population is living below the new international poverty line of $1.25 (PPP) per day
• Only 40% of the population is illiterate and only 15% of the students reach high school
• India ranks 171 out of the 175 countries in the world in public health spending.
• The 2007 report by Transparency International ranks India at 72nd place

When it comes to showing growth figures we compare our self with US, EU, China etc but when it is the question of education, health, poverty we are bunched with sub Sahara contries,Nepal & Pakistan etc. It is a very shameful fact but our policy makes seem to be least effected by it.

The current way of development is only widening the economic inequity amongst the people. And it is because the high growth rate is oriented to benefit only a section of people.

In this latest article in New York Times an NRI shares his enthusiasm for all things Indian:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/weekinreview/23anand.html?ref=weekinreview
Some of it is old cliché. Ignore that part and be proud that today India is being portrayed in positive light. At least in International media!

India has also been affected by the global slowdown. There has been a huge outflow of funds. Stock market has collapsed, exports are down and there is news of job cuts & layoffs across several sectors. The Indian government goading over 10% growth has suddenly been caught unawares. However there is a ray of hope also. We are still not completely integrated with the global economy – especially the badly hit banking, finance and insurance sectors. Some of the steps that we can implement in order to insulate our self from the global recession:

• Implement cost savings across all sectors and reduce unnecessary spending
• Invest in long term projects like roads and infrastructure
• Reduce Imports and discourage corporate and private capital outflows
• All securities, savings and extra cash be deposited in PSU Banks
• Monitor fund inflows and outflows on a regular basis to discourage currency fluctuations

For the Indian economy managers, there are several lessons to be learned from the global economic crises. Like – Focusing on building a strong domestic economy based on local consumption. Strengthening regulating agencies such as SEBI. And most important – not depending entirely on international consultant’s, agencies and regulators.

If we go a few decades back, Enron was considered as a landmark in foreign direct investment and solution to all our power crises.

In a joint venture with U.S. companies General Electric and Bechtel, Enron was to build the power plant. The project was not open to competitive bids and that the deal was too costly. World Bank analysis questioned the project’s economic viability, citing the high cost of importing and using liquefied natural gas relative to other domestic sources of fuels. Even the power purchase agreement was kept top secret. The project was a colossal failure riddled with allegation of corruption and Enron’s highhanded behaviour. Subsequently for the first time ever, the Indian government agreed to underwrite the liabilities of a private company.

Ironically the players are the same. In India, congress government in centre is negotiating with the US lobby. G.E & Bechtel were the partners with Enron. They are also major nuclear reactor suppliers. Fuel and equipment is imported and power is too expensive.

There are too many similarities to ignore. The end result would be the same. Junk equipment worth billions of dollars will be bought at taxpayer’s expense. It will be made tax exempt. Fuel will be imported. People will get power at unaffordable rates and state government will end up subsidizing it.

All in the name of national interest and attainment of power self sufficiency, we are again falling in the trap.

There are so many alternatives to solving the long term power crises. First privatize the power distribution companies. Delhi government has shown tha way. Losses are down by over 50%.Build a network of hydel plants across the Himalayan states. Setup a power trading company to buy surplus power and sell it to the power deficient states.

Why don’t we learn from history?