Proactive administrative initiatives
V.K. SRINIVASAN
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Stories of success that illustrate breakthrough innovations in public administration through participatory methods
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SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS — Innovations in Administration Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances: Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11, Community Centre, Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi-110017. Rs. 495.
This collection of 16 case studies, 11 Indian and five from other countries like Kenya, the U.S., Australia and, Malaysia, claims to record “how innovations were evolved and implemented using proactive administrative methods based on relevance, large civic participation and social equity for far reaching changes.”
The introduction of computerised passenger reservation system in the Indian Railways, the second largest reservation system in the world, initially through five centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Secunderabad in the 1980s and its transformation into a single network by April 1999, and the subsequent improvements affected to provide passenger reservation related information through internet by August 2002 and to facilitate e-ticketing by April 2005 receives, well deservedly, a detailed exposition. The remarkable change has not only benefited the Railways in terms of manpower and cost savings but also the travelling public by way of frequent visits to the railway station or booking offices.
E-governance
The introduction of e-governance in the Indian Customs and Excise Department (ICES) through the ICES-Electronic Data Interchange said to be operational now in 40 locations and covering 95 per cent of India’s international trade, is considered helpful to trade firms at various stages of processing of their declarations like appraising, auditing, duty and payments. The initiatives of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to “transform its paper based process to a nearly complete electronic system” and to improve the quality of services provided to various stockholders are set out by a Ministry official in detail covering process reengineering ensuring integrity and security of documents through digital signatories and e-filing of statutory reforms. The vast expansion of the corporate sector with the number of companies increasing from 30,000 in 1956 to about two lakhs in 1990 and over eight lakhs in 2007, has been facilitated by the introduction of the forward looking e-architecture of MCA-21 system for its part, and the government has also benefited from better realisation of statutory fees with revenue increasing from Rs. 474 crore in March 2005, to Rs.728 crore in 2006 and Rs.1038 crore in 2007.
An equally interesting account of the introduction NICNET-based Agricultural Marketing Information systems Network (AGMARKNET) providing details on over 300 commodities, daily mandi-wise/commodity-wise prices and arrivals, 7000 agricultural marketing committees sets out the difficulties experienced in stabilising the system.
Case studies
The collection fortunately, is not all about only e-governance for there are informative accounts of the features and implementation of the Right to Information Act 2005; innovative approach of community mobilisation to reduce maternal mortality and female infanticide in Tamil Nadu in the 1990s; the Asraya scheme for destitutes in Kerala combining the principle of self help with support of organisations of the poor themselves; the rather interesting experiment in human resources management in Gujarat that involved an opinion poll of government employees on reforms and training programmes to change the mindset of government employees as also a “clean Gujarat programme” with a holistic approach to cleanliness; community-oriented policing promoting police-public relationship in Trichy District of Tamil Nadu, and the re-engineering of park administration in the Nandadevi Biosphere Reserve and Valley of Flowers National Park in Uttarakhand.
There are five case studies of innovative approaches from other countries. These are: performance contracts as an effective means of improving the performance of public enterprises and government departments in Kenya; performance budgeting, linking performance measurement to the allocation of budgetary resources and implementations of a system called PART (Performance Assessment Rating Tool) in the U.S.; administration of training and education programmes of the Health Department in North Australia and some schemes for preparing women prisoners for reintegration with community after their release in Western Australia; and a case study of pilot project for introducing online communication to a remote rural community in Malaysia.
Insights
The volume offers valuable insights into the manner in which well meant and properly organised initiatives can visibly transform what appears to be administrative tasks. While case studies are interesting, they cover diverse areas. The volume could have benefited from a backdrop introduction and a critical review linking the diverse themes, and bringing out the vital common elements that characterise an innovative approach to public administration. On the whole, the volume provides illustrations of successful attempts to initiate changes in the style and content of public service administration that encourage administrators elsewhere to make more than incremental difference to their tasks.
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