Good Governance

In general terms, governance defines the principles adopted for dealing with multiple issues arising in a country and approaches taken to improve the future and implement new laws and reforms for well-being. India is a democratic country with a two-tier government system. The central government, run by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet of Ministers, deals with all decisions and reforms within the nation and outside. Under the central government is the state government. Each state government has the Chief Minister as the head, and they are concerned with maintaining law and order within the concerned state and neighbouring states. With such a diverse administrative and political structure, complications and issues are bound to emerge, which introduces the concept of what is good governance. 

What is Good Governance? 

In the wake of mitigating several administrative, executive, and judiciary issues in India, the concept of what is good governance was adopted. There is no specific definition of this term because its meaning depends on context and reference. Post World War II and the Cold War, several multilateral organisations/institutions adopted different statements explaining their perspective. 

For example, the World Bank defined good governance as selecting and monitoring governments, managing national assets, and implementing policies and regulations. Similarly, The State of Governance in Bangladesh explained that good governance is the process that defines how responsible institutions meant for development are carrying on their jobs. 

So, precisely, good governance can be considered the process of stating and analysing the progress of public bodies, private organisations, and individuals under a concerned government at both the state and central levels. 

Good Governance Index and Rating in India

It is crucial to measure the quality of governance and understand the progress, limitations, constraints, and discrepancies at both the central and state level of the Indian government. To rate the governance index in India, the Department of Administrative Reforms, Public Grievances & Pensions, DARPP, introduced a framework. It comprises three factors that are:

1. Dimensions: there are five broad dimensions of good governance, i.e., legal and judicial, economics, administrative, political, and social.
2. Components: groups of interrelated matters under each dimension like the Indian economic dimension, the components considered are Fiscal Governance, Support to the Primary Sector, and Business Environment. 
3. Indicators: specific aspects that define the state of governance and form the backbone of government index and rating. 

123 total indicators are considered out of which 75 are primary and 48 are secondary. Some examples of how the state of good governance is judged in the country have been shown below. 

1. Dimension– Politics || Component- Profile and Conduct of Political Representatives, Political Parties, & Political Executives || Key indicators- Criminalization of politics, women empowerment, perception of corruption among legislators, Accessibility of elected representatives, political stability, and more.
2. Dimension– Economics || Component- Support to the Primary Sector || Key indicators- rural indebtedness, quality of extension and marketing services, quality of agricultural inputs, quality of credit facility.

Indian government sectors and the distribution of key indicators

51 key indicators have been identified in correlation with the Indian government sectors, which are as follows: 

1. Human resource development: 6
2. Public infrastructure and utilities: 8
3. Judiciary and public security: 5
4. Public health: 6
5. Economic governance: 5
6. Welfare and development: 8
7. Agriculture and allied sectors: 6
8. Environment: 2
9. Commerce and industries: 3
10. Citizen centric governance: 2

A few examples of Good Governance Initiatives in India

Right to Information

In the wake of providing Indian citizens with the freedom of securing information and reports about public authorities, government bodies, public figures, and more, the Parliament replaced the Freedom of Information Act, 2002, with the Right to Information, 2005. A campaign was organised and processed with the help of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan for dealing with the corruption, and it played a vital role in the adoption of RTI in the Indian Constitution Article 19(1). 

According to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, 47.66 lakhs RTI files were reported between the years 2005 and 2015. These files were addressed to different ministries and government bodies working under the central government. The primary goals of RTI in the implementation of good governance are: 

1. Reduction of corruption through police reforms
2. Transparency amongst public authorities
3. Enhanced sense of accountability at different government levels

E-governance

One of the major initiatives of the Indian government to improve the state of governance is e-governance. To transform the policies and approaches of governance and make public services accessible to all citizens, four different models for e-governance have been introduced to date. These are: 

1. G2C model: Government to citizens 
2. G2G model: Government to Government 
3. G2B model: Government to business (private sector)
4. G2E model: Government to an employee 

Over the years, different Indian states have launched many reforms and policies to set the right tracks for e-governance. For example, Telangana initiated the Dharani Project, under which land record management was made accessible for the citizens. Similarly, Punjab initiated SSIS or the Social Security Information System and SUBS or Suwidha Backend Services to improve governance quality. 

Conclusion 

With state-wide acknowledgement of what is good governance and the quality measurement indices, it will be possible to recognize a plethora of constraints in governance at different levels like administration, law, judiciary, politics, economics, and more. The lack of government data needs to be addressed at the earliest to deal with those discrepancies perfectly. There is a considerable difference between government and governance, and the only way to excel in the latter is to separate these entities from each other. With further development in good governance, several crises can be met, like lack of sanitized water in rural areas, improper management of software in police departments, criminalization of marital rape, etc.