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EDITORIAL ANALYSIS : Good governance beyond motherhood and apple pie

 

Source: The Hindu

 

  • Prelims: AI, Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP), Governance, etc
  • Mains GS Paper I and II: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies, Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS

  • Sir Winston Churchill on governance: “So, they [the government] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful for impotency.

 

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context

Governance:

  • It is commonly defined as the exercise of power or authority by political leaders for the well-being of their country’s citizens or subjects.
  • A great deal about governance is the proper and effective utilization of resources.
  • Governance includes three sectors:
    • The public sector (state actors and institutions)
    • The private sector (households and companies)
    • The civil society (non-governmental organizations)

 

Good governance:

 

E-Governance:

Goals:

 

What should we know?

  • Corruption is bad for good governance
  • Red-tape: we should cut red-tape in the country.
  • e-governance: we should use more e-governance in India.

 

Laws repealed by present government:

  • Appropriation acts
  • Excise Act 1863
  • Foreign Recruiting Act 1874
  • Elephants Preservation Act 1879
  • Bengal Districts Act, 1836

 

Karnataka as model for governance:

  • Karnataka is one of India’s fastest growing States:
    • GSDP of ₹20.50(twenty point five zero)lakh crore
    • 34(thirty eight point three four)lakh enterprises
    • 2(nine point two)lakh provident fund payers
    • 84(seventy point eight four)lakh workers.
  • IT Services: The State is also the highest exporter of IT services.

 

Some issues:

  • Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) national ranking: Karnataka ranked 17th in the
  • Avantis RegTech report: Karnataka features in the top five States in India in terms of compliance burden.
    • 26,134 criminal clauses across India
    • 40% of compliances can send an entrepreneur to jail.
    • MSME operating in Karnataka currently deals with an average of 778 compliances annually across labour, finance, and taxation, secretarial, environment etc

 

Steps for good governance taken by Karnataka:

  • KUTUMBA: family beneficiary database
  • FRUITS: Farmer Registration and Unified beneficiary Information System)
  • SVAMITVA: drone-based property and land mapping or Survey of Villages Abadi and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas
  • GraamaOne: single point assistance center for citizen centric activities at panchayat level.

 

Steps taken for good governance:

  • DigiLocker (an integral part of the India stack): It has more than five billion documents and 100 million
    • Union and State governments can set up enterprise DigiLockers to store all documents that any small or large business is expected to possess (Pan card, GSTN number, Aadhaar card, bank account details, etc.).
    • Multiple departments which seek the same information over and again can just download these at the click of a button
  • No State government or the Government of India has any common portal through which businesses even get to know fully the extent of the compliance burden which is spread across multiple departments and agencies.

 

Way Forward

  • Create a common portal where all the compliances for a particular industry are listed as well as an update of periodic changes to government orders or any court judgment.
    • This will ensure that an entrepreneur or a businessman does not have to search for information across 40 to 50 different websites.
    • The Reserve Bank of India has the concept of a “master circular: It should be adopted by governments too.
  • Use of technology is critical in engendering good governance: Some examples abound in Government already, and many more are possible.
    • There are startups such as Avantari and ai which use artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to create “mass personalization” in advertising and communication.
  • Good governance is also the responsibility of enlightened citizens who should give some thought to complex trade-offs like these and not just only demand good governance but also contribute to it.
  • India has made a lot of progress on good governance beyond motherhood, but it is an endless journey, not a one-off destination to be reached.
  • The Right to Information Act: It was made to achieve social justice, transparency and to make government accountable but this act has not achieved its full objectives due to some impediments created due to systematic failures.

 

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. What do you understand about the term ‘good governance’? How far have recent initiatives in terms of e-Governance steps taken by the State have helped the beneficiaries? Discuss with suitable examples.(UPSC 2022) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)