Sustaining infrastructure
V. K. SRINIVASAN
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Appraisal of the ground realities of governance of state-owned service providers
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INFRASTRUCTURE AND GOVERNANCE: Edited by Sameer Kochhar, Deepak B.Phatak, H.Krishnamurthy and Gursharan Dhanjal; Academic Foundation, 4772-73/23 Bharat Ram Road (23 Ansari Road), Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 695.
This volume of speeches by 30 persons with diverse backgrounds, edited by four persons with IT background seeks to highlight concerns in policy circles and beyond about the sustainability of investments in state-owned infrastructure triggered by “the apprehension that outlays were not having the desired long term impact on the quality and extent of services.” The volume examines the recent changes effected in infrastructural build up in rural and urban areas by such schemes as the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana and the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission and various measures that seek to improve governance.
The contributions have been arranged in seven sections: infrastructure—planning and dialogue framework; learning from MCA21 and the way forward; state of panchayats—focus on e-governance; urban local bodies—moving ahead with e-governance; making public private partnership work; financial inclusion, and e-security and standards. The contributors include the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Union Ministers for Panchayati Raj and Company Affairs, several senior government officials and relatively fewer technocrats.
Diverse sectors
The speeches traverse, as should be expected, diverse areas, rural and urban and different sectors of the economy. Discussion is at different levels. At one level, is the perceptive appraisal of ground level realities of governance like the one made by Mani Shankara Aiyar that “Panchayati Raj system is here to stay… we have painstakingly accomplished half the task. The remaining half will surely take us through even more gruelling times. While more than 40 per cent of development expenditure in Kerala is both planned as well as undertaken by Panchayats, there are other village panchayats which have access to merely a hundred thousand rupees in a year. Therefore, accomplishments, goals or tasks are seemingly different for different states.” Mani Shankar explains the creation of a national consensus on the way forward, identifying 18 dimensions of Panchayati Raj and 150 specific steps that needed to be accomplished in order to achieve the goal set out in the Constitution of India.
At another level, is the reference of the Union Minister for Company Affairs, Prem Chand Gupta, to improvements in corporate governance, “a journey of significant teamwork on a number of initiatives aimed at transforming the legal, administrative and infrastructure environment for our corporate sector.” Amendments to acts governing chartered accountants, cost and works accountants and company secretaries, and the MCA-21 project and other initiatives are outlined.
Transformation of telecommunication network, postal services, banking transactions, micro-governance, rural and urban local body services receive attention from other contributors, who have had hands-on experience.
E-governance risks
As governments, regulatory authorities, service providers in public and private sectors are increasingly drawn into e-governance, citizens perform myriad tasks and transactions oblivious to the lurking risks. The Controller of Certifying Authorities, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, N. Vijayaditya, indicates that the four fundamental principles have to be kept in mind to ensure the sanctity of internet transactions: good legal mechanism, security mechanism to protect net transactions, disaster recovery system and mechanisms for investigation of cyber crimes. The need for e-security and standards is highlighted in a clear and welcome manner.
The thin and overpriced volume fulfils, in some measure, the objective of the editors providing “critical insights into infrastructure governance from different angles — policy making, urban and rural aspects, technology, connectivity, capacity building and participation.” There is, however, a vital need to move beyond mere diagnosis and come out with coherent pragmatic prescriptions, not a few but many, that can effectively address sector specific issues and accelerate the process of transforming the various service providers.
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