Public Policy in India

Public Policy in India After Independence:

• After independence in 1947, the Indian economy was suffering from poverty, unemployment, low national income, stagnation in agriculture, etc.
• India adopted a mixed economy, and the major goal of public policy was socioeconomic development.
• Five-year plans focused on industrial and agriculture development. First, the fiveyear plan gave emphasis to boosting the growth of agriculture, and the second FYP focused on heavy industrialisation.
• Along with these, defence expenditure, public development expenditure, exports, rural development infrastructure, social infrastructure, etc also received attention in planning.

Achievements of Planned Development:

• Increase in growth rate: India’s GDP stood at ₹ 2.7 lakh crore at Independence. It increased after LPG stood at 232.15 lakh crore at the current value.

• Rise in the national and per capita incomes.
• Increase in savings.
• Development of Physical and Social infrastructure.
• Self-sufficiency in agriculture production.

Failures of Planned Development: 

• Economic inequality: Even though the national income rose, the economic inequality also increased.

• Social injustice: The Public sector has failed in achieving its objective of “Economic growth with social justice”.

• Unemployment: ‘Jobless growth’ has been observed in India.

• Slow growth in the production sector: The sector is stagnated and contributes only 16% to the GDP and gives employment to 12% of the country’s workforce.

• Inefficient administration.

• No mechanism of feedback, monitoring, and evaluation.

• Standard of living: India ranks 131 out of 189 countries in the Human development index, this is one of the indicators to show the poor standard of living.

Weakness in India’s Public Policy Making:

• Fragmentation in thinking and action: The fragmentation of structure of policymaking fails to recognise that action in one sector can make an impact on another. For example, Policy of women, education can also have an impact on the health indicators of girl children.

• Overlap between policy-making and implementation: The focus is mostly on the operational convenience rather than public needs.

• Over-centralization: Even after scrapping the planning commission, the centre still dominates in policy formulation. While the states are given the responsibility of its implementation.

• Lack of non-governmental inputs and informed debates: Government does not have a proper mechanism in place for inputs from outside. For instance, Sweden holds national referendums which are consultative.

• Lack of systematic evaluation and integration prior to policy making: Policy decisions are made without analysis of cost, benefits, trade-offs, and consequences.

• Sense and Solidarity – Jholawala Economics for everyone: It argues for an increased role for action-oriented research in development policy. Action research demands cooperation between the researchers and the participants involved.

• Lack of evidence-based research: Often the policy decisions are not backed by sound data from the design stage. Secondly, evaluation of implementation should be carried out through data-gathering exercises.

• Politically motivated policies: State governments of different parties from centre see no political advantage in implementation of centrally sponsored schemes resulting in poor implementation.

Strengthening Public Policy in India:

• Reduction in fragmentation: Appointing fewer secretaries will reduce the fragmentation.

• Decentralising implementation authority and separating policy-making from implementation.
• Improving the flow of information from outside the government and improving integration.
• “Policy Advisory Group” combines a diverse set of abilities and extensive experience in fields such as law, business, economic policy, and social policy.
• Selected top civil servants, having experience of working in various fields and a generalist approach can give actionable insights.
• Academics with expertise in the field can provide sector-specific and technical knowledge related to the field.

Policy Evaluation and Monitoring:

• Government institutionalised various mechanisms for policy monitoring and evaluation. A few of them are:

⇒ National Productivity Council under Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

⇒ The Ministry of Finance has introduced outcome budgeting.

⇒ Management Information System

⇒ Evaluation Organisation (under erstwhile Planning Commission)

⇒ Niti Aayog

⇒ Comptroller and Auditor General: Constitutional bodies audits the expenditure from the consolidated fund, contingency fund, and public account of India.

⇒ Public Interest Litigation is the mechanism to ensure monitoring and evaluation of policy for instance M.C. Mehta vs Union of India brought against Ganga water pollution to prevent further pollution.