Editorial

AuthorSurendra NathTripathi,C. Sheela Reddy
Published date01 June 2020
Date01 June 2020
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/0019556120929460
Subject MatterEditorial
Editorial
The narrative of governance and its changing contours impact the reformist
discourse of a nation. Good governance is about creating responsible, legitimate and
credible institutions. It is the key to a country’s prosperity and progress. India’s
democratic experience of the past seven decades has clearly established that good
governance must aim at reforms in different spheres of administration to confront
efficiently emerging challenges and expand economic and social opportunities. The
reform process being dynamic, depends for its success on the accountability, legiti-
macy, leadership and impetus of the government. The multi-dimensional nature of
governance calls for capacity to deal with complex problems coherently across dif-
ferent levels and regions. This necessitates new approaches for inclusiveness,
justice, empowerment and gender sensitivity in policies to realise the overarching
goal of good governance.
Good governance, encapsulating social cohesion, public expenditure efficiency
and transparency for check and control of corruption are vital for a number of
key outcomes at the national and sub-national levels for achieving sustainable and
inclusive economic growth. This issue brings out scholarly articles on matters per-
taining to local governance, gender concerns in climate change policies, reforms
in tax administration, governance and review of institutional and developmental
issues in the North-East and regional disparities with a special focus on Western
Odisha. The significance of bottom-up approach in governance constitutes the
underlying thread of argument in all the articles.
The enactment of the Constitution Seventy-Fourth Amendment Act (74th
CAA), 1992 is a noteworthy achievement of the Indian Government to strengthen
Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Local self-government institutions in India, being
at the cutting-edge level of administration directly influence the well-being of the
people by providing civic services and socio-economic infrastructure facilities.
Ravindra Prasad and Pardhasaradhi in their article examine the context and spirit
behind the 74th CAA and assert that ULBs are not functionally and financially
empowered to be self-reliant. They point out the decentralisation deficit in
ULBs as functional and financial devolution is not commensurate with political
decentralisation. Despite changes in the political framework through reservations
and regular elections, the 74th CAA left many aspects of municipal governance
untouched. The authors examine the mismatch between promise and performance,
emphasising the need to revisit and review the 74th CAA to transform the urban
governance structures, procedures, processes and practices to enable ULBs to be
self-governing institutions in letter and spirit.
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
66(2) 155–158, 2020
© 2020 IIPA
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DOI:10.1177/0019556120929460
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