By Vinod Kumar Dhall, PGP 1976
Synopsis
India’s current governance system has drifted away from its constitutional goals because the individuals manning the Governance Institutions have increasingly acted in self-interest: It’s a given and fair too.
This book proposes a management-based redesign of India’s democratic governance architecture that is “lean and mean”, works “faster, better and cheaper”. It uses the basic management principles of “Structures, Systems, Processes AND incentive structures, to compel the incumbents to work for “Dignity of the Individual and unity of the nation”: the Constitutional Goal.
To be fair, the Constituent Assembly, working in 1946-49, did not have access to the body of work on “Management Sciences” that has developed over the last 60-odd years. The CA could not effectively operationalize the “Separation of powers’ and ‘checks and balances”: Recall the “good men, good constitution, bad men, bad constitution’ apprehension of Dr Ambedkar.
*The Elected/Selected manning the wheels of Power will start their Government Service career at the bottom of the pyramid: The Panchayat.
*About 3 Lakh Panchayats, on average, serve 5000 Indians ~1200 households, will have adequate ‘community connect’ to effectively oversee and serve as a conduit for delivery of government services to “We the people”.
*Post one-time Delimitation, all organs of the State, the Executive and Administration, Judiciary and Police, and economic agencies will serve the same corresponding geographical area- Panchayat & Blocks, Taluka (~6000) & Districts (~600).
*The work-flow/ processes have been “reset’ to ensure synergy between them and all governance agencies: They will, through quarterly public reviews, be kept focused on the “Goals/Outcomes’ (of their respective jurisdiction).
*Given the complexity of their job they will be incentivized in Crores, CTG: And Tax intensity drops from 17% now to likely 15% of GDP.
*It is a Business Plan for Democratic Governance: including the Fourth Pillar and for nurturing the “democratic citizens.
About the Author
Vinod Kumar Dhall is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur (1971) and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (PGP 1974–76). Over the course of his professional career, he successfully transformed several businesses through the effective application of management principles, organisational structures, systems, processes, and incentive design.
Vaanprastha years started in 2015: Events in our public life threw up a challenge to work on transforming “Governance System”- a humongous organisation /task. Over seven and a half years, this “Business Plan” to ensure “Dignity of the Individual and Unity of the Nation”, the “Goal of the Indian Republic” as per the Preamble, was developed.
The Author is acutely aware that “We the People” spent ₹2.87 Lakh per year to educate him as an Engineer. ₹28.7 Lakh has been budgeted to promote and send this book to 6000 Indian Thought Leaders: you may ask for your copy.
