NEW AGENDA FOR INDIA Governance and Political Reforms Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP

1. NEW AGENDA FOR INDIAGovernance and Political ReformsRajeev Chandrasekhar, MP

2. India : Work in Progress • Aims to be a superpower but grappling with governance deficit • Till 1960s, India figured in the top 20% of countries in governance, but has slipped to middle in recent times • A trillion dollar economy with about 360 million people below poverty line • Tremendous development over the last 15 years in the private sector; however State capacity has lagged behind

3. “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government”

4. Governance Reforms “Our Constitution, our institution, our courts and our government must work for the good of each and every citizen, and not just for a few vested interests” • Change the way our country is governed – Government will become about serving people • Ethical, Accountable, Transparent and Responsive Government • Rebuilding Governance Institutions to be credible, professional and independent • Creating a value for Money Culture within Government • Transforming Government into a smaller and more efficient Government

5. Governance Reforms • Focus has been on Economic reforms for the last two decades • Whilst the economy has moved ahead, the government and the government institutions have declined significantly. • The institutions of the government to the most part have been corroded by political interference and influence. • Professionalism has given way to political pandering and hence the institutions invariably fail (at high cost to the country and people) to fulfill their duty and role. • These Government and state institutions must be made more accountable, responsive, transparent and outcome oriented.

6. Governance Reforms I. Depoliticize, Build and strengthen Institutions • National Security, Law and order institutions - Armed forces, Police, Paramilitary, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism agencies, Investigation agencies to be professionalized, upgraded and removed from Political interference and influence of any kind including transfers, appointments, promotions. • Economic - Strengthen the Independent regulators (Amend laws to make them stronger), make them accountable only to Parliament and independent from executive/ministries, have them depose to Parliamentary committees which in turn are available for public viewing or transcripts made public, bring in non-bureaucrats into Regulatory cadre. • Judicial – Ensure justice is not delayed to any citizen – big or small. Significantly expand Judicial Capacity by hiring 80-100,000 new judges. Bring in a Judicial review commission of Judges that will be responsible to address corruption in Judges and have the power to sentence corrupt judges. Improve technology to make Judicial access for citizens easier. • Election Commission- Strengthening of Election commission and to depoliticize appointments to it. Make changes to electoral processes to remove any possibilities of election rigging.

7. Governance Reforms II. Government Spending • All spending to be outcome driven. All programs must have clear annual outcomes. Transparency is key to creating a value for Money Culture. • Subsidies - New and more effective (less leaky/corrupt) subsidy delivery model - Smart card/ID Card/Common BPL Database oriented etc. • Transparency - Reduction of corruption and leakages in public spending is a key requirement of these reforms in Government spending. • Restructure central programs into direct funding to states - Add allocations to state budgets and States can administer these programs or other programs as they see fit. Independent spending auditors to oversee these programs and publish quarterly report cards in the public domain. • Social Security - A new Social security framework that covers unemployment, health and education

8. Governance Reforms III. New transparent model for monetizing public resources • A new Mineral Depletion Policy, including possibly nationalizing mineral mines that will serve to protect the interests of the public, maximize revenues for government and also protect the environment. • A new transparent tendering approach to spectrum. IV. Reforms in City Government • All major cities to have elected Councilors and a directly elected Mayor. • New model of direct partnership with major cities / Economic Centres

9. Governance Reforms V. Others • New fairer model of partnership with States. • Setting up independent regulators for all sectors that require regulation such as public utilities, education, transportation, monetary policies, etc. • Remove Government monopolies and encourage competition in all sectors of economy (expect those of strategic nature). Sustained consumer benefit and economic efficiency will only arise from this. • All reservations/affirmative actions should have sunset/exit condition explicitly built into it based on caste, religion or any other form of identity. Government assistance to be only based on merit and that too at the entry level. • Reformed Consumer Protection laws. • Government to exit the business of running companies and focus on serving people – and therefore, encourage Disinvestment. • Reward excellence in Government so that the Government servants get an incentive to perform their task efficiently and corruption-free.

10. Political Reforms • Constitutional, legal amendments and Reforms • Having a fixed term for legislature • Concurrent state and central elections • Right to Recall • Amend the Constitution to make labor a state list • Make inducements for religious conversions a criminal offence • Devolve more power to the states • Currently for many issues there are two separate and distinct government superstructures at work adding costs and impacting effectiveness and efficiency. • There is no logic for many of the central ministries except to give un-gainful employment to ministers and bureaucrats • Subjects from concurrent list like Labor, Health, Education and Roads should be added to State list

11. “We have to repair one by one, the institutions that we have inherited and build new ones to help us meet the challenges of the coming years”- Ramachandra Guha (historian)