Letter from the Editor
 When the admission of a governance crisis comes from no less a person than Rahul Gandhi himself, we must pause and think twice. Addressing annual general meeting of industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi, he declaimed that the clogged political system is holding India back. He stressed the importance of ideation to spur inclusive growth and creation of fresh opportunities to kick start the growth momentum.
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Good governance is central to equitable
socioeconomic progress and political legitimacy.
From administrative and judicial reforms, sustained
economic growth to social inclusion, India faces
a host of governance challenges. India’s ability to
rethink governance will determine how good the
country’s demographic dividend would be,
reports Team Inclusion ...read more |

The leadership must develop a habit to listen to its citizens before thinking of bringing any durable change. It is important for the leader to stay calm and listen to the unheard. It is only then the true Swaraj will usher, insists Wajahat Habibullah
Reaching the government’s social sector and anti-poverty outlays to the intended beneficiaries at the grassroots poses the fundamental governance challenge facing the country, writes Mani Shankar AiyarSocial unrest bred by youth unemployment will have serious consequences for governance. The possibility of social exclusion as a consequence of youth unemployment is a serious problem for India now. To harness India’s demographic dividend, skill development is the key. To address the issue, the government is attempting to bring about a paradigm shift in skill development, says Minister of Labour & Employment Mallikarjun Kharge in an interview with Sameer Kochhar, Editor-in-Chief, InclusionDomestic consumption is going to increase with growth in GDP. It will be our effort to put together all the governance imperatives necessary to help the textile sector to achieve its goals and take the benefit of abundant opportunities available today. We need to seize the opportunity particularly in the area of exports, says Zohra ChatterjiAgriculture marketing needs to move to farmers, away from politicians. This would require changes in the state agriculture marketing acts and huge investments in technology at each market yard where a farmer should be able to unload his produce with the swipe of his SMART card and walk away with cash in his bank account, suggests B Yerram RajuDespite achievements on the growth front, India faces developmental challenges and needs to revamp its fiscal management to provide more funds for the social sector, better policies and sound delivery mechanisms, says N C SaxenaAs liberalisation progressed, competitive markets have started supporting the thriving public sector organisations and the new private sector players co-exist harmonically while at the same time adding value to the society not only by means of reducing prices but also by means of improving our overall competitiveness, says Joseph Massey
The many reports of violence against women over the last few months have had one clear effect - the silence regarding existence of gender disparities has finally been broken. While gender inequalities are rooted in culture, tradition, custom, religion and hierarchy, they cut across and pervade all religions, hierarchies and classes. The Draft 12th Plan notes, “Women span the entire income spectrum, but there are gender-based issues of inclusiveness that are relevant all along the income spectrum.” Aasha Kapur Mehta and Dakshita Das argue
While
India’s top officials and key thought leaders are thinking big time
about the e-governance to transform core areas of government functions
particularly service delivery and to bring governance to the doorsteps
of common citizens, much of the developed world is moving closer to
smart governance. Team INCLUSION reports

Punjab
Decision-making has become more complex in India because the governance system has become unwieldy and tardy. India needs to have a fresh look at our governance and the structures to implement it. The change has to be in a gradual manner and in the states’ interests — particularly border and land-locked states like Punjab, says Rakesh Singh
Haryana Haryana today is at the forefront of harnessing the potentials of ICT and other new age technologies to improve services delivery and bring government closer to people. Aadhaar will be the real game changer, says Y S Malik
Gujarat Capturing demand-side issues of citizens and other stakeholders is critical to the effectiveness of e-governance architecture, says Ravi S Saxena
Andhra Pradesh Mee Seva paves the way for Smart Governance in Andhra Pradesh, says Sanjay Jaju

Madhya Pradesh A robust e-governance architecture is critical to meet service guarantee milestones, says Hari Ranjan Rao

West Bengal West Bengal is following an e-governance roadmap. The state government understands that e-governance is central to each and every department’s functioning facilitating enhanced citizen interface, says Susanta Majumdar

Karnataka
Till such time we meet the aspirations, demands and needs of last man standing in the queue, e-governance has not completed its key task, says M N Vidyashankar
Maharashtra
UID initiative will lead us to achieve many parameters of smart governance in India, says Rajesh Aggarwal
Odisha The newly enacted Public Service Guarantee Act will pave the way for Odisha to embrace several of the smart governance practices, says Madhusudan Padhi
| The direct benefit transfers is scheme expected to rid the system of leakages and will accurately identify the people whom the government wants to help. It empowers the people and anyone concerned about the poor should be in strong favour of the experiment, argues Montek Singh AhluwaliaWhether it’s judicial, administrative or financial reforms, the time has come to think ambitiously, argues Yashwant SinhaTo improve every facet of governance, the time has come to think of radical shifts, argues Sitaram YechuryThe Aadhaar-based identity authentication platform is a win-win for both the government and the people. The government obtains huge fiscal gains and the people higher degree of empowerment, argues Nandan Nilekani Ten years from now, India could well become the first country in the world to dissociate healthcare from affluence. Millions of people will still live in slums with no amenities, but access to hi-tech healthcare may not be one of the problems for them. India will prove that wealth of the nation has little to do with the quality of healthcare, writes Devi Shetty
Equality still remains a distant dream for most women in our country, particularly those who come from the poorer and most marginalised sections of society, writes Kirti Singh
In spite of constitutional amendments to empower urban local bodies and the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, India’s cities continue to reel under poor basic services, poor planning and lack of funds. How can we revamp the urban governance system, asks M Ramachandran
Commercial banking would continue to be predominantly in the public sector and it is essential that growth of public sector banking should be driven by efficiency and not by the weakest unit. New private commercial banks could inject a significant element of competition which would bring about a qualitative improvement in the banking sector. S S Tarapore explains
Auction is a good way of discovering the market price of natural resources like spectrum. But there has to be enough competition for the auction to realise the true price, notes R ChandrashekharThough JNNURM has dramatically changed India’s urban landscape, public-private partnerships show the way forward, says Sudhir KrishnaInformation
and Communication Technologies have been adopted aggressively by Indian
Customs to expedite the processes leading to clearance of import and
export cargo and provide an electronic system of assessment and
clearance. This was more of a governance decision than a simple
implementation of IT, says Arun Sahu
Effective
information technology governance is at the heart of business success.
An efficient IT governance framework enhances the company’s overall
capacity to stay ahead of competition. In every sense, IT governance is
an extension of corporate governance, writes Team INCLUSION
 Several studies show India scores poorly on corporate governance.
However, recent developments show India is on track to rethink the
issue. But how will the government and the regulator ensure compliance?
What are the compliance costs? Will the new measures guarantee fairplay
to foreign companies doing business in India? These questions are
central to rethinking corporate governance, argues Team INCLUSION 
The concept of corporate governance has changed over the years. Consequently, the duties and responsibilities of the board have also changed. The Companies Bill, 2012 presents a futuristic model of company regulation and with this, it is expected to usher in a new era of corporate governance, writes Bhaskar Chatterjee 
Public sector companies are happy about the new corporate governance guidelines that seek to strengthen the checks and balances they work under, argues O P Rawat 
Q&A: Subodh Kumar Agrawal
Corporate governance awareness has heightened in India and there is a realisation that it is not all about compliances, says Subodh Kumar Agrawal, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), in an interview to Team Inclusion. Highlighting the important role that ICAI plays as an accounting and auditing regulator, he says its accounting standards have succeeded in laying down the benchmarks of corporate governance |
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Oct -Dec 2012 |
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| Feedback |
Feedback - Inclusion: October -December 2012
It addresses the issues regarding direct benefit transfer scheme of UPA-II. Prithviraj Chavan, Chief Minister, Maharashtra I look forward to INCLUSION’s suggestions and comments on various issues. Kodikunnil Suresh, Minister of State, Labour & Employment An informative and a well documented publication. Congratulations. Jaswant Singh, Member, Lok SabhaINCLUSION
mentions the flaws in the revival and inclusion strategy of the
government particularly the direct benefit transfer scheme. While many
of these issues have been covered in various publications, a small note
highlighting the major deficiencies and the corrections which may be
needed, would be helpful for taking up this matter in the Parliament. N K Singh, Member, Rajya SabhaINCLUSION’s thoughtfulness is appreciated. Bijay ‘Jay’ Panda, Member, Lok Sabha
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