Structure:

• What is good governance- 30 words
• Features of good governance- 60 words
• Measures to promote good governance- 60 words

Content:

Good is a term used with great flexibility; Depending on the context, good governance has been said at various times to encompass: full respect of effective participation, human rights, the rule of law, multi-actor partnerships, and accountable processes, political pluralism, transparent and institutions, an efficient and effective public sector, legitimacy, access to knowledge, information and education, political empowerment of people, equity, sustainability, and attitudes and values that foster responsibility, solidarity and tolerance.

Origin and emergence of the concept of good governance

• “Good governance” was initially expressed in a 1989 World Bank
• In 1992, the Bank published a report entitled, Governance and Development, which explored the concept further and its
• In 1997, the Bank redefined the concept “good governance” as a necessary precondition for

Good governance is to promote and sustain holistic and integrated human development. The central focus is to see how the government enables, simplifies and authorises its people, regardless of differences of caste, creed, class, and political ideology and social origin to think, and take certain decisions which will be in their best interest, and which will enable them to lead a clean, decent, happy, and autonomous existence.

• The concept of good governance is not new. Kautilya in his treatise Arthashastra elaborated the traits of the king of a well governed State thus: “in the happiness of his subjects lies his happiness, in their welfare his welfare, whatever pleases himself, he does not consider as good, but whatever pleases his subjects he considers as good”.
• Mahatma Gandhi had propounded the concept of ‘Su-raj’.

Good governance aims at providing an environment in which all citizens irrespective of class, caste and gender can develop to their full potential. In addition, good governance also aims at providing public services effectively, and equitably to the citizens.

The 4 pillars on which the edifice of good governance rests, in essence are:

1. Ethos (of service to the citizen),
2. Ethics (honesty, integrity and transparency),
3. Equity (treating all citizens alike with empathy for the weaker sections), and
4. Efficiency (speedy and effective delivery of service without harassment and using ICT increasingly).

Citizens are thus at the core of good governance. Therefore, good governance and citizen centric administration are inextricably linked.

Features of Good governance:

• As a democratic country, a central feature of good governance is the constitutionally protected right to elect government at various levels in a fair manner, with effective participation by all sections of the population. This is a basic requirement for the legitimacy of the government and its responsibility to the
• The government at all levels must be accountable and Closely related to accountability is the need to eliminate corruption, which is widely seen as a major deficiency in governance. Transparency is also critical, both to ensure accountability, and also to enable genuine participation
• The government must be effective and efficient in delivering social and economic public services, which are its primary This requires constant monitoring and attention to the design of our programmes. In our situation, where the responsibility for delivery of key services such as primary education and health is at the local level, this calls for special attention to ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of local governments.
• Governments at lower levels can only function efficiently if they are empowered to do This is particularly relevant for the PRIs, which currently suffer from inadequate devolution of funds as well as functionaries to carry out the functions constitutionally assigned to them.
• An overarching requirement is that the rule of law must be firmly established. This is relevant not only for relations between the government and individuals enabling individuals to demand their rights but also for relations between individuals or A modern economic society depends upon increasingly complex interactions among private entities and these interactions can be efficiently performed only if legal rights are clear and legal remedies for enforcing these rights are swift.
• Finally, the entire system must function in a manner which is seen to be fair and This is a perceptional issue but it is real nonetheless. Disadvantaged groups, especially the SCs, STs, minorities and others, must feel they have an equal stake and should perceive an adequate flow of benefits to ensure the legitimacy of the State.

Characteristics of governance: The main features of good governance as described below:

Fig: Elements of governance:

1. Participation: Researchers have stated that Participation is a major factor both by males and females for good Participation could be either direct or through legitimate intermediate institutions or representatives. It can be established that representative democracy does not necessarily mean that the concerns of the most susceptibility in society would be taken into consideration in decision making. Participation needs to be informed and organized.
2. Rule of law: Good governance requires impartial legal structures that are prescribed It also requires full defence of human rights, particularly those of minorities. Impartial enforcement of laws requires an independent judiciary and an impartial and incorruptible police force. Basically, the rule of law is termed as the institutional process of setting, interpreting and implementing laws and other regulations. It means that decisions taken by government must be founded in law and that private firms and individuals are protected from arbitrary decisions. Reliability entails governance that is free from distortionary incentives through corruption, favouritism, patronage or capture by narrow private interest groups; guarantees property and personal rights; and achieves some sort of social stability. This offers a degree of reliability and predictability that is vital for firms and individuals to take good decisions.
3. Responsiveness: Governance needs that institutions and processes try to serve all stake holders within reasonable
4. Consensus oriented: Good governance necessitates intervention of various interest groups in the culture to reach a broad agreement in a society for the benefit of the whole community and the way it can be accomplished. It also requires broad and long-term perspective for needs of sustainable human development and how to achieve goals of such
5. Equity and inclusiveness: The welfare of a society depends on ensuring that all its members feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel that they have been excluded from the mainstream of the society. This requires all groups, but particularly the most vulnerable, have opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing.

Steps to Improve Good Governance

1. Citizen Centricity
2. Social Audit
3. Participation (suggestions and feedback)
4. Women’s participation
5. Decentralization (political, fiscal, administrative)
6. Effective delegation of duties (Principle of subsidiarity)
7. Inclusivity or accessibility to the differently abled
8. Grievance Redressal
   • CVC, National Commission for SC, NCST, Lokpal, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Consumer Courts
9. Use of technology
10. Simplifying processes
    • g. simplifying attestation processes, single window clearance)
    • g. Jaankari Project of Bihar govt. to make RTI queries through phone call
11. Periodic Monitoring and Evaluation
12. Robust enforcement institutions and mechanisms

Measures for good governance taken by India

Since the bad governance is the root cause of all evils, within our societies, hence there is a need for good governance. Most of the features linked with good governance enunciated by World Bank are found in the reform process initiated in India for good governance. These include

• Decentralization of power among different layers of Government
• Holding periodic elections
• Improving the conduct of elections through electoral reforms
• Passing the Right to Information Act, 2005 to bring in accountability and transparency in administration,
• Launching programmes like Citizen’s
• The Lokpal Bill to curb corruption in administration and to investigate allegations against public