Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective

Trifurcation of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in May 2012 posed a big challenge in terms of distribution of assets and liabilities in limited time considering the notification was issued only in December 2011. One of the biggest tasks was to prepare the budget of three newly formed corporations, namely, North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporation, and its presentation and adoption on the very first day of their formation. This was essential to authorize the three newly formed corporations to start functioning, from day one, as distinct legal entities and to incur expenditure for development, socio-economic welfare and day to day administration. While trifurcating the budget, the importance of each head of revenue and expenditure and its significance in monitoring and control of associated physical activities was especially considered.

We showcase in a step-by-step approach the installation and innovative development of budgetary system in the trifurcated MCD so as to highlight the use of this management tool as a prerequisite to good governance. From social perspective, budget plays a significant role in urban local bodies to enable them to meet their socio-political obligations. Good estimations are extremely important in order to be able to strike appropriate balance among multiple obligations. Trifurcation of budget was undertaken not only by adopting objective criteria based on availability of data but also keeping in mind the social and developmental obligations of the newly formed Corporations.

The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation in South Asian cities. Reduced carrying capacities of these metropolitan areas are pushing business and people out of their urban core, relocating them in the immediate suburbs and peripheries. Such relocation of industry and commerce or migrant residents are changing the very look and feel of the surrounding villages resulting into emergence of a zone of transition or peri-urban as it is popularly known, wherein urban and rural development processes meet, mix and inter-react (Narain, 2010). However, challenge lies in managing these transitory spaces sustainably as they are institutionally rural but look and feel urban. One of the critical gaps that policy makers often argue of is not having any specialized institutional arrangements and absence of any specific indicators for identification and delineation of peri-urban interface. Following article attempts to address this gap by determining the thresholds that meaningfully distinguish between the urban, peri-urban and rural areas across India. The idea is to go beyond the conventional spatial analysis to a process-based economic modelling, wherein the social dynamism and flux can be clearly brought out to classify 40 sub-districts/taluks of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority’s area.

Think tanks have been considered the educated voice on behalf of citizens in practices of government. They are key agencies for discussion on contemporary issues of national and international policy making. Think tanks as powerful agents in the policy making process, sometimes are considered institutions of lobbying. This article is an outcome of focused group (FG) discussions conducted at four locations in India to comprehend the presence and position of think tanks, their research authority and their role and influence in the public policy making process as a stakeholder. The FG discussions with 80 experts captured national perspective on think tanks. The findings of the study suggest that institutional think tanks in India are relatively new phenomena in comparison to the west. In this backdrop, the article analyzes issues of definition and ideology, credibility in research, governance, funding and interaction on policy.

Traditionally, a policy-making exercise is regarded to be a mechanical process comprising well-defined steps and it is presumed that if those are taken care of, a sound policy is put in place. These key steps normally include—(a) problem identification, (b) selection of the policy options from the given basket of choices, (c) implementation by the available public agency, (d) monitoring and feedback and (e) review and rectification. Of late, policy makers have started focusing on the stakeholders, the deadlines and the media management too. However, in this ‘linear rational’ view of policy making, ‘the element’ which though involved from beginning to the end yet normally given a miss is the ‘human factor’. Interestingly, this ‘human factor’ or ‘the agency’ does not happen to be a mere ‘complex grouping of cells’ or ‘an automated robot’. According to psychologists, this ‘mammalian agency’ might carry an endless emotional, intellectual and psychological baggage which according to my research insight is capable of impacting the entire policy process often in unintended and unforeseen ways. This, in Indian context, has significant dimensions since it is a pluralistic society and every individual carries a plethora of social identities, namely, caste, sub-caste, class, ethnicity, creed, language, religion, gender, rural–urban and constitutional status, etc. These multiple identities often supersede or come in clash with the national identity and in turn might come in the way of ‘public interest’. This article, therefore, takes a look at how in real world, this psychological baggage or attitudes of human agency might interfere with the policy process at implementation level, distorting the entire policy outcome. The methodology adopted is that of an ethnographic case based analysis located in an Indian public organization. Taking a cue from existing literature and prominent policy frameworks and adopting select qualitative research tools, an inferential analysis is done to inform the research question—‘How bureaucratic attitudes can mess up with policy implementation to defeat the very purpose of an otherwise well-intended policy?’

Gender mainstreaming as a holistic strategy proposes to introduce the gender sensitivity and equality perspective to all policies at all levels and at all stages by changing the norms and practices that stand at the roots of gender inequality. Although Beijing platform prioritized gender mainstreaming to achieve gender equality and efforts by the women’s movements to mainstream a gender perspective in public policy brought a change. However, implementation of gender mainstreaming strategy remains a challenging process because of different social and economic circumstances, policy cultures, different gender equality approaches of the state and countries. The article intends to discuss the process of development of gender issue resulted in shifting of policy particularly in India and the problematic process of implementation and putting into practice of the gender mainstreaming strategy. The key to placing gender values firmly at all levels and in all sectors, a change in philosophy requires conceptualization of gender within the culturally defined roles, constraints and potentialities. The article suggests that gender mainstreaming is underdeveloped as a concept and identifies a need to elaborate further on the areas of women’s need, rights and the relationship between gender mainstreaming, policy and societal change.

Diversity dilutes lopsidedness that is inherent in a homogenous environment, and hence allows achievement of equilibrium. However, if heterogeneous groups comprising a diverse environment are incompatible with each other and unable to harness strengths and overcome weaknesses, it may lead to greater disequilibrium. The present research focuses on the diversity created in the organizations as a result of caste-based reservation system (affirmative action). The aim was to analyze the perception of the employees, belonging to both the general and the reserved category groups towards the diversity climate of their organizations. Three hundred participants, incorporating 123 general category men (GCM), 90 general category women (GCW), 66 reserved category males (RCM) and 21 reserved category women (RCW) participated in the study. They were all working in public/government sector organizations and were having firsthand experience of quota system at their workplace. A mixed methodology was adopted: Perceived diversity climate questionnaire (Surendra Kumar Sia, 2008); semi-structured open-ended question based on their views towards the overall quota system; and interview comprising of semi-structured situational questions was also taken with the 30 per cent of the sample. The analysis revealed that the perception of both reserved and general category employees towards the diversity climate of the organizations is poor. Based on the comparison between the four groups under study, the worst perception towards the diversity climate is being held by GCW and the best perception is held by RCW. The present research work also provides implications for improving the situation in terms of managing diversity created by the quota system.

Amidst complex social-ecological dynamics of localities and future uncertainties posed by global environmental challenges like climate change, there is a need of practicing the principles of learning and flexibility in public policy process. In this study we illustrate the importance of adaptive governance paradigm as an approach for bringing coherence between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in India. We comment on the type and extent of integration between climate policy and disaster management in the evolving policy landscape of India and cite certain paradoxes in actual practice. We look towards Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) as a diagnostic tool for informing policy in place of the dominant donor–recipient models of knowledge generation and dissemination. In our diagnosis of urban and rural flooding in India, we found lack of transparency, coordination, local sensitivity and inclusivity in governance leading to a trust deficit among citizens and government institutions, compliance issues, struggle for change in power structures and access to more information while there is willingness for meaningful learning among different stakeholders given the opportunities for social learning. We suggest that pedagogy for ongoing capacity building programmes in India for climate policy and disaster management should incorporate such tools to enable an environment of social learning in consultations and facilitate cognitive abilities to comprehend knowledge from diverse sources. It is only through governance mechanisms for shared understanding which can usher the much desired fit between science, policy and practice.

The article reflects on the urbanization process and the social interactions that have played a role in diminishing access to common property resources (CPRs) for the vulnerable residents of the peri-urban Gurgaon. It emphasizes on the factors responsible for changing access and usage. Coupled with uncertain rainfall, these factors have reduced the dependence on and changed the usage of the CPRs in the two peri-urban villages—Budheda and Sadhrana. The article shares the field evidence of how social and political institutions shape access to resources affecting the livelihoods of the vulnerable groups, especially agriculture and animal husbandry. Lastly, it provides evidence of changing gender relations around the tasks of natural resource collection and use with increasing urbanization. These nuances raises the questions on the policy gaps based on the community perceptions and evidences in the field.

Community Radios are a relatively recent phenomenon in India. However, they are an impactful platform and hold a vast potential to reach out to India’s widely dispersed, varied and secluded communities, who have specific local needs and aspirations. Moreover, by providing a voice to the poor and marginalized they are a powerful tool for empowering the dis-empowered. This article provides a historical background of the growth of Community Radios in India, and describes how they are facilitating the promotion of social justice and inclusion, making the remote and marginalized communities aware about the government schemes and their entitlements, improving delivery of public services and sharing and preserving indigenous knowledge and best practices.

Amongst public policies for poverty reduction there has been a renewed thrust on enhancing rural livelihoods in recent times. This article situates current mission based livelihood programmes in India within the larger context of livelihoods discourse in the last two decades in development studies. This article revisits the literature on livelihoods and the Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA). A critical review of SLA suggests a welcome focus in public policies on perspectives and institutions of the poor. However, operationalizing, implementing and evaluating SLAs present several challenges. A review of implementation of livelihood schemes in India is presented with suggestions for a dialogue between SLA frameworks and implementation studies literature in public policies. India presents an interesting opportunity for academics to shift the discourse from poverty and employment as key themes to an engagement on livelihoods as a frame that hitherto has largely remained a practitioner led discourse.

The article explores what could be a post-colonial perspective to the education delivery. If we believe that majority of the problems faced in Bharat have their roots in the colonial residue left in the society post-Independence, we should explore what can be done today. For this exploration was made whether gurukul system of indigenous education can provide the solution to few problems faced by us today? The first person embodied enquiry was made and participant observations were made to understand the pedagogy of gurukul. Hence, the experience of the researchers of the gurukul system of education is presented. Policy relevance is majorly focused on inputs for shaping up education policy with respect to elementary education.

The National Food Security Act (NFSA) of India aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two-thirds of India’s 1.25 billion population. The introduction of this Act in 2013, marks a major paradigm shift from a welfare based to a rights based approach to address food insecurity. This article attempts to understand the effect of NFSA on food security outcomes in India. It attempts to analyze the origin of right to food discourse and factors behind perpetual failure in food security outcomes by applying food security measurement framework. The article then focuses on the persistent failure in redressing childhood undernutrition. The article elaborates the impact of NFSA on food security outcome indicators for India. The article concludes that the policy needs to look beyond subsidized food grain assistance for ensuring the nutritional security of people of India.