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Q. Indian policy making apparatus suffers from poor policy formulation and its ineffective implementation. What are the possible reasons for such a scenario? Suggest a framework of measures that can be taken to address this issue.

Approach:

• Briefly highlight the issues
• Bring out the reasons for poor policy formulation and ineffective implementation.
• Make a framework of measures to address this issue.

Answer:

Indian policy-making suffers from a double whammy – while many policies are ill-conceived and poorly framed, many good policies are poorly implemented. Following reasons can be attributed to this:

• Fragmentation in design and execution: There is extreme fragmentation in the policy-making and implementation structure. For example, the transport sector is dealt with by five departments/Ministries in the government of India whereas in the US and UK it is a part of one department. Such fragmentation fails to recognize that actions taken in one sector have serious implications on another.
• Inadequate federal consensus: Friction between central and state government relations has affected the policy implementation processes adversely. Moreover, one size fits all approach of the center is not suitable for all states.
• Lack of non-governmental inputs and informed debates: Despite provisions of lateral entry in the public sector, there is still a lack of systematic means for obtaining expert inputs in policy formulation.
• Lack of systematic analysis and integration prior to policy making: Policy decisions are often made without adequate precautions, trade-offs and consequences. There is a school of thought which suggests that the excessive involvement of poorly informed generalists is the main cause of poor policy-making and implementation.
• Lack of evidence-based research: Most of the time, policy formulation is carried out by few senior bureaucrats and politicians who lose touch with the prevailing ground realities. There is no prior field study or survey done to take macro as well as micro view of ground realities.
• Politically motivated policies: At times, electoral considerations dominate the aims and objectives of a policy. Frequent loan waiver by different states in India is one such example.
• Workload pressure on implementing agencies: The policy formulators tend to be idealistic while setting the targets, and forget the workload of the respective implementing agencies, thereby creating an implementation gap.

To address these issues, following measures can be taken:

• Improving integration and the flow of knowledge from outside the government:

There is a need to create structures, which ensure the availability to policy-makers of non-Governmental inputs and subject matter expertise. To this end, each Ministry or Department should have a “Policy Advisory Group” consisting of top civil servants, industry representatives and academic experts. This would offer integrated policy suggestions.

• Reduction in fragmentation:

This can be achieved by appointing fewer Secretaries, each of them would handle more than one department in the same sector. This will result in more coordination and integration in policy making as well as implementation.

• Separating policy-making from implementation and decentralizing implementation authority:

The implementation responsibilities should be entrusted to Boards and Agencies, headed by a Director-General, in the rank of Joint Secretary or Additional Secretary. While her/his primary responsibility would be implementation, she/he would also provide essential inputs for policy making. Thus, she/he will act as a bridge between policy formulation and implementation.

• Needs and Demand Assessment surveys:

India should move away from the top-down approach, where the policies are made at the top without assessing the needs and demand of the beneficiaries. Feedback mechanisms need to be created to take concerns of beneficiaries into consideration.

These steps would ensure integration in policy formulation and implementation towards better governance in India.