Indian Journal of Public Administration

Publisher:: Sage Publications, Inc.
Publication date:: 2021-08-12

ISBN:: 0019-5561

Issue Number

Latest documents

Book review: Shashi Bhushan Kumar, Indian Prime Ministers: Nehru to Modi
Shashi Bhushan Kumar, Indian Prime Ministers: Nehru to Modi. Delhi: Ankur Book Distributors, 2022, ₹1,495.
Buying and Selling of Vote in Local Body Elections: A Case Study of Telangana
This research is an in-depth study on the influence of money in local body elections in India, particularly Gram Panchayat, which is the lowest tier of local governance, and consequences thereof. The age of the voters, genders and their education plays a significant factor in stigmatising the vote-buying behaviour. Women, youths and educated have more stigma towards vote buying. Vote buying takes different forms in different places and is more intense in some places than others. The degree to which democracy is afflicted by these ills, and the particular kind of damage inflicted, thus vary. Vote-buying, should also be noted, has consequences that extend beyond the political realm. Certain kinds of vote buying affect the economy by driving up land prices and concentrating landownership which may have long-term political implications. Most of the cases of the incidence of money is found in the places where real estate business is booming with huge population. The competition is more in the Panchayats where there is more income and grants available in these bodies.
Book review: Mahendra Prasad Singh, Federalism in India
Mahendra Prasad Singh, Federalism in India. Delhi: SAGE, 2022, 294 pp., ₹1,295.
Land and Social Power Relations in Bihar: Tale of Two Villages
There is a complex relationship between land and the network of social power in Bihar, which cannot be comprehended by a single lens. This article argues that depending upon the historical and local contexts of a place, various patterns of social power configurations evolve, which present an opportunity for theorists to move beyond the established set of narrations and broaden their lenses, thereby challenging the conformity and reposing trust in variations based on day-to-day experiences. To highlight this varied pattern of complex relations between the network of social power and its historical linkages, the article tries to look into the local narratives of land relations of two villages of Samastipur district in Bihar, namely Shri Kameshwar Nagar and Banda. Through critical discourse analysis (CDA), the article attempts to illustrate that the shifting politico-economic status is intrinsically related to complex land relations, which, in turn, reinforces and perpetuates social inequality in various ways, and therefore, there is a need to have greater insight on the local histories of the land-relations.
Finance Commissions and Disaster Risk Funding: A Paradigm Shift in Methodology by Fifteenth Finance Commission
Disaster risk financing has been in practice since the Second Finance Commission in the form of a Margin Money Scheme. Later, it was replaced with a Calamity Relief Fund and a National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF)/National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF). These funds were based on expenditure-based funding, from which a state is provided relief funds based on its past expenditure. There have been a lot of discrepancies as states like Uttarakhand, with high hazard risk vulnerability, received ₹1,158 crore, and Haryana, comparatively a less hazard risk vulnerability state, received ₹1,699 crore for 2015–2020 from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). States and other agencies like National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) have been demanding, for replacing this expenditure-based funding with a state-specific hazard/disaster risk vulnerability for a long time. The Fifteenth Finance Commission addressed this long-standing demand by incorporating an innovative methodology for disaster risk funding. It made a slight departure from the past method and included area, population and disaster risk index for calculating a state’s share in disaster risk funding. This article analytically examines the past and present methodologies of disaster risk funding by applying quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Unintended Effects of Policy Interactions in the Health Sector: A Case of Kerala, India
The governments of developing countries, including India, are pursuing policy mixes in collaboration with the private sector to strengthen the public health system. However, little is known about the interaction of public policies with different instrument logics. We conducted a contextual analysis of two health policies with different instrument logics—emergency care and social health insurance programme—for over a decade in Kerala, employing primary and secondary data, government reports, newspaper articles, and published and unpublished literature. Our analysis suggests that the competition between policies has led to policies working at crossroads. The low political salience of emergency care has led to the diversion of resources and attention to government health insurance programmes. Thus, emergency care is increasingly facilitated at private facilities, shifting the government’s role from service delivery to financing. Our findings also highlight that the interaction effects among health policies receive limited attention among researchers and practitioners. These findings are relevant to countries of similar economies undergoing New Public Management reforms leading to the weakening of the public system in dealing with health functions such as emergency care.
Designing a Framework for Bidding and Estimating Life Cycle Cost in Indian Defence Sector: A Systematic Approach
Lifecycle Management (LCM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of products or services right from the inception (design, manufacture, supply) stage to the maintenance and disposal oSf products. It integrates the people, data, processes and business systems and provides product information backbone for enterprises and their extended units. LCM in the defence sector is a very critical and complex process. This is specifically mandated in the operational framework defined by the Government of India at the proposal stage itself. The main objective of the current study is to identify the various challenges being experienced by the companies in executing LMC, especially in the defence sector and critically examine various methods and practices of the bidding system. Crafting a strategy for participating companies, in defence projects in India and winning them, is considered a difficult task. This study evaluates the international best management practices and applies the maturity model for contract management as being practised in the Netherlands. This maturity model consists of a model for the identified tactical level and operational level in contract management. These two models can help an organisation to determine their ‘as is’ situation and structured review system, identify key factors those having influence on the optimal level found in this process, and their ‘to be’ situation. The current research also proposes a review gates system to enable organisations to facilitate a systematic approach in analysing any project opportunity in the context of the procurement life cycle as per guidelines and policies defined by Defence Procurement Procedures (DPP), Government of India. Additionally, a detailed framework has been suggested to generate and maintain agreed cost estimates within the wider business context.
Book review: R. K. Mishra and Geeta Potaraju, Creating, Building and Sustaining an Institution
R. K. Mishra and Geeta Potaraju, Creating, Building and Sustaining an Institution. New Delhi: Academic Foundation, 2022, 189 pp.
Citizen–Administration Relationship: A Case Study of Public Service Delivery in Chandigarh—The City Beautiful, India
In recent years, the nature of citizen–administration relationship has undergone considerable transformation within the current global context. This article presents the citizen–administration relationship through a case study of the Department of Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA), Chandigarh—the city beautiful. The article is an empirical study based on primary data, with an objective to gauge the general awareness among citizens of Chandigarh regarding the introduction of the online system of getting a driving license, the extent of satisfaction with the system and the procedural difficulties faced by them. For the purpose of collecting the primary data, a structured questionnaire was prepared for the citizens and an interview schedule for the officials of RLA, Chandigarh. A sample of 100 citizens who were issued driving license during the year 2019–2020 was taken using purposive sampling method. The findings of the study revealed that citizens were well aware about the online system and there was high level of satisfaction among them for this system. However, they were not satisfied with the procedure, as they had to face a number of difficulties due to the introduction of a new system. Therefore, the article suggests measures to revamp the system and make it more citizen-friendly.
Book review: Shashi Bhushan Kumar, Indian Prime Ministers: Nehru to Modi
Shashi Bhushan Kumar, Indian Prime Ministers: Nehru to Modi. Delhi: Ankur Book Distributors, 2022, ₹1,495.