Challenges of Governance in India

Governance is seen as the process of policy making and policy implementation keeping the welfare of citizen and national interest in mind. It faces 3 main challenges:

Let’s examine the above in detail.

India is a country of different languages, castes, faiths, and so on. One of the most challenging tasks after independence was upholding socio-economic justice. The Dalits had been discriminated historically. To ensure their interests were protected in a modern and independent India, affirmative action was introduced. Later, it was extended to the socially backward classes. Thus, interests of multiple social groups had to be balanced via governance. Further, the fact that a multi-lingual and multi-faith country such as India has been able to reconcile diverse interests is a tribute to our Constitution makers. No other multi-lingual and multi-faith country has been able to build a polity with such harmony.

Man’s wants are infinite. The only limitation to his aspirations are the shortage of resources. Thus, it is the responsibility of the State to ensure it does a damn good job of what it is supposed to do to enable humans to achieve their potential within the framework of finite resources.

It does great disservice when it directs resources towards freebies or populist schemes. Tamil Nadu’s governance model is famous for its freebies such as color TV, grinder, fans etc. On a similar note, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are two other States that have pandered to populist sentiments via unsustainable subsidies for narrow electoral gains. Given the limited fiscal space, spending on such items eats up the resources that would otherwise have been productive had they been spent on education or healthcare.

In India, political parties exist to win elections. In the terminology of economics, this is the only incentive — to win power at any cost. Often this leads to bad governance as focus is on short-term gain by promising loan waivers, announcing doubling of pensions, etc. in their party manifestos. Unfortunately, long-term good such as investments in improving infrastructure, providing quality education and affordable healthcare is ignored.

When the above three challenges are not adequately addressed through proper governance, countries become stuck in a rut. This has a detrimental effect on a country and prevents it from realising its true potential.

India is the largest democracy in the world with great civilizational strengths. Other countries of the world want us to succeed because we believe in respecting others’ sovereignty and firmly abiding by a rules-based world order. The key to succeeding as a nation and becoming a global superpower lies in governance walking the tight-rope of balancing competing interests, managing finite resources and reconciling short-term objectives with long-term goals.

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