Bureaucrats in Business: State Trading in Foodgrains in Karnataka and Kerala

Abstract. In the light of the World Bank's critical analysis of state owned enterprises, this paper discusses the functioning of two such organisations: the Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Corporation and the Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation. Both are state trading corporations dealing primarily in foodgrains, but operating in different ways. The paper shows that both corporations face difficulties and operational dilemmas but that there are also positive things to tell about them, in the sense that activities are undertaken by politicians, management or operation-level staff to improve performance. In this way, the paper challenges the behaviourial assumptions underlying the World Bank's analysis, namely that people mainly pursue their own self-interests. The point of the paper is not that this 'rational actor' perspective is wrong, but that all behaviour, whether informed by self-interest or by wider social commitments, is not natural but needs to be contextualised. Proposals to reform the public sector should also start from such contextualised understanding

Real Governance: Change and Continuity in India’s Authority and Power Structures

1.Introduction Governance has reached India. The country that for a long time was governed by the idea of planned economic development and the necessity of a powerful and omni-present government has been reinvented, as Corbridge and Harriss (2000) described the process. These authors have used this term to indicate that the previous model, which has never been fully implemented but functioned nevertheless as a powerful idea, has been replaced (partially) by a new model: market-led development, with a much smaller role for the state in development processes, and a much larger role for other actors. In other words, a shift from government to governance

Food and power in Bihar and Jharkhand. The Political Economy of the Functioning of the Public Distribution System

Abstract Public distribution of foodgrains in India is a national policy, which exists in all States. In some States, however, the public distribution system (PDS) works much better than in other States. The undivided State of Bihar (now the new Bihar and Jharkhand) is one of the States in which the policy works poorly. It is important to understand why this is the case. Generally, policy changes and recommendations do not take the specificities of particular States into account. Yet, for the PDS performance to improve in Bihar and Jharkhand, it is absolutely necessary to understand why it works as it works, what the main bottlenecks are and where there are possibilities for improvement, if any. This paper makes such attempt: it describes the PDS in Bihar and Jharkhand, not only in terms of how it fails and what it does not accomplish, but also in terms of what it is and what it does. The activities and interests of the various actors involved in the PDS are described, and it is shown that many people do benefit from the present set-up, but that there are also people within almost all categories of stakeholders who are dissatisfied with the large-scale misappropriation of foodgrains. The PDS experience is then put in the context of the wider political economy of Bihar. The paper ends with some general observations regarding the process of food policy making and implementation. Furthermore, it discusses constraints and opportunities for reform of the PDS in Bihar and Jharkhand. It is argued that there is scope for change, but change requires strategic political manoeuvring and initially a low-key approach in order not to awaken and antagonise the strong vested interests

Food policy and politics. The political economy of the Public Distribution System in India

Abstract This paper discusses the history and political economy of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in India. This food distribution programme, which dates from 1939, is meant to increase food security both at the national and the household level. Since its emergence, it has passed through several phases, the latest one starting in 1991 when India introduced a Structural Adjustment Programme. From a social constructivist perspective, this paper aims to understand a) the most important features of this system in the various phases of its history, b) the social processes that led to the emergence and subsequent development of distribution policy and c) the variou

Patterns of Social Sector Expenditures: Pre- and Post-reform period

Introduction: Throughout the history of Independent India, the Indian government has claimed that it works towards social development and the eradication of poverty. On the eve of Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, addressing the Constituent Assembly, declared that Independence meant the redemption of a pledge. But he also stated that this achievement “is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the great triumphs and achievements that await us (...) the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity”. A lot has been achieved in the past half century. The incidence of poverty has declined from over 50 per cent in the 1950s to less than 30 per cent in the late 1990s.3 The literacy rate has increased from less than 20 per cent in 1951 to 65 per cent in 2001. According to recent Human Development Reports published by the UNDP, India moved from the category of ‘low’ human development to that of ‘medium’ human development and its rank in 2003 was 127 (of 175 countries). Nevertheless, the performance of India in the social sector is far from satisfactory, and could have been much better (Dreze and Sen, 1995)

Primary Education in India: Empowerment of the Marginalized or the Reproduction of Social Inequalities?

Although major progress has been made with regard to school education in India in the last two decades, access to quality education is still highly uneven. It can, hence, not be assumed a priori that school education is capability enhancing. It certainly is for some children, but for many others it remains a disempowering and dispiriting experience. Is education in India, hence, mainly a system that reproduces already existing social inequalities? It is this question that has been at the centre of our work during the last few years. In two Indian States, Andhra Pradesh in the south and West Bengal in east India, we have done extensive fieldwork to find out how social inequalities are reproduced in Indian schools, but also how that is contested in different ways. We explored this theme at various levels, ranging from the educational system as a whole and the policy level, to the classroom and the textbooks. This paper cannot do justice to all these processes, mechanisms and counter currents that exist at various levels, but it will summarize some of the arguments

Solutions to Teacher Absenteeism in Rural Government Primary Schools in India: A Comparison of Management Approaches

Abstract: Teacher absenteeism in government primary schools in rural India is a huge and well-documented phenomenon. Using Christopher Hood’s cultural-theory framework of doing public management, this paper analyses this problem from four different perspectives, i.e. the hierarchist, egalitarian, individualist and fatalist management approach. The paper proceeds with a discussion of three innovative strategies currently proposed or pursued in India to deal with teacher absenteeism. These are 1) the creation of local-level institutions that could hold teachers accountable, 2) the creation of a voucher system to allow parents to choose the school (government or private) for their children, and 3) the recruitment of volunteers on contract basis to do a teaching job. These three strategies, the paper argues, can be interpreted as responses that fit, respectively, within an egalitarian, an individualist and a fatalist approach. The paper concludes that none of the four perspectives can be expected to provide ‘quick fix’ solutions, especially because they ‘act on’ teachers rather than ‘act with’ them. Teachers, it is argued, should get a larger role themselves in the formulation and implementation of a strategy to address teacher absenteeism

Primary Education in Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata: Governance by Resignation, Privatisation by Default

1. Introduction As described in the earlier chapters, one of the entry points in our study of urban governance was the supply and demand of services. Education is one important service that we studied in three of the four cities (Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata). Our focus was on primary education. Many changes have taken place in the area of education in the past fifteen to twenty years. First, universal primary education is increasingly viewed as a major important policy objective, both in order to enhance individual capabilities and as a way to stimulate economic growth. This is reflected in the adoption in 2002 of the 86th Constitutional Amendment, making free and compulsory education a fundamental right. The Planning Commission regards education as ‘the most critical element in empowering people with skills and knowledge and giving them access to productive employment in the future’ (GoI, 2006: 45). Second, the demand for education has significantly increased. As the Probe report (1999) observed, many parents, also from sections of the population that were hitherto excluded from education, would like to send their children to school. Literacy rates have gone up significantly, which is why the 1990s is labeled as the literacy decade. Third, there has been a rapid increase in private providers. Especially in urban India, but also in rural India, many children go to private, often English-medium schools. Fourth, civil society actors have become more prominent in the field of education. There are a number of very large and influential and a lot of small NGOs that work with or complement the government, or that monitor progress in a critical manner. Fifth, in order to improve the quality of education and in conjunction with the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, there have been efforts to decentralize school management