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CUTS Initiative: Online Communicative Platform of State Practices

Tanushree BhatnagarCONSUMER UNITY & TRUST SOCIETY

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Outline of the Presentation• India’s Economic Growth and Indian States• Indian State: Boiling Pots for Experiments• Need for an information platform• Work done already• Need to broaden the scope• So what exactly do we have in mind?• Objectives• Methodology Proposed• Challenges and Recommendations

Outcomes• Outcomes

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India’s Economic Growth and Indian States

India: Once a shining economy right now going through a rough patch

Stress on “Faster, Sustainable and more Inclusive growth” and “creating inter-state synergies” - Twelfth five year plan

Federal structure makes States an integral contributor to the India’s growth story

Some states are able to achieve better public policy outcomes manifested through better economic growth and governance and while others continue to languish at substantially lower levels

Inter-state synergies: one of the ways to achieve inclusive growth and break barriers to dissemination of ideas/successful endeavors

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Indian States: Boiling Pots for Experiments India is a country with many successful not-so-

successful experiments in states , unique to the states, that do not achieve scale

Most of the times, such experiments in one state do not reach the other

Strong need for information sharing and dissemination to enable States to engage with and learn from each other on issues of common interest

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Need for anInformation platform

The strengthening of the innovation ecosystem requires a platform for information sharing and dissemination

This will enable ‘easy access’ to various practices in the states a ‘wider information repository’ on innovation and a platform for collaboration

Use of Information and Communication Technology desirable

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Work Done AlreadyThe issue of documenting such practices across

States in India has been sporadically undertaken:

Studies by Planning Commission in association with UNDP

National Resource Cell for Decentralised District Planning (NRCDDP), by Planning Commission under the Government of

India-UN Joint Programme on Convergence (GoI-UNJPC)

e-forum for all water utilities by the Delhi Jal Board to discuss, debate and ideate on best practices on water management

and technology related issues

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Need to broaden the scope

The stated attempts however only mention about successful practices and there is a strong need to highlight the not-so-successful practices also, so that successful practices are replicated and the other practices avoided

Additionally, the practices highlighted also need to be analysed further using internal inputs and third-party feedbacks

There is no platform where states can engage with and learn from each other

Similar practices in different States might result in varying outcomes and with the locus of political accountability shifting to States, States must tailor the ideas to their own needs and demands.

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DefinitionsGood/Successful Practices Not-so-Successful Practices

Those practices which are adopted by one State in relation to and to resolve any issue/problem that has arisen in the State.

Such practices should be able to effectively deal with the problem to be solved,

should be replicable by other States and

should have a sustainable impact on the stakeholders,  

Those practices which have been adopted and are in use/were in use in a particular State that have not had a positive or has had an adverse impact within the State, and those practices that should be highlighted so that other States are inspired to do better and avoid following the same path.

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ILLUSTRATION

S.No. 1980-81 to 1990-91 1991-92 to 1998-99

1. Rajasthan Gujarat

2. Haryana Maharashtra

3. Maharashtra West Bengal

4. Andhra Pradesh Tamil Nadu

5. Tamil Nadu Madhya Pradesh

Source: Planning Commission of India

Top 5 states in terms of rate of growth of Gross State Domestic Product

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Taking lessons from the other states

Successful practice: Surat,

Gujarat: A Success story in Urban

Affairs

Not-so-successful practice:

Rajasthan: under utilisation of funds under MGNREGA

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So what exactly do we have in mind?

One-stop destination for single window access to successful as well as not-so-successful practices, indexed under specific heads such as agriculture, education, etc.

Allowing for online discussions, webinars, expert comments for efficient dissemination of information.

Using ICT desirable given the wider outreach and ease of access of an online compendium- coherent, user friendly, sustainable and interactive Using standardised metadata, controlled vocabularies and qualified sources is also desirable

Capturing of approaches adopted by other countries and the work already done in India in similar situations will enable cross fertilization and provide global scalability and replicability

A dynamic and dispassionate compendium of successful practices, that are replicable and not-so-successful practices which should be avoided but if necessary to implement would provide the pitfalls from previous experience(s) followed/adopted by

States in India.

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Objectives

Developmental Objective:Wide Information Repository on innovation,

collaboration actions, synergies and leveraging on initiatives across states to highlight success and not-so-successful practices which can help other states to

imbibe and improve their own policies and practices

Directional Objective:Enable states to take

lessons from the practices highlighted

Programme Objective:Improved access to

Quality, verifiable and reliable information

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Methodology ProposedMapping of

examples by independent and apolitical

state partners:

(i) Field research(ii) Choosing

apolitical instances based

on a given checklist

Action Research at CUTS:(i) Desk(ii) Field

Analyses of collected

informationGREESS Model

Outreach Programmes:

(i) dissemination(ii) advocacy

(iii) networkingOverall Goals:

(i)Increased accountability(ii)Knowledge enhancement

(iii)Inclusive and economic growth

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State Practices Practices reating to governance which directly

impacts or is directly related to areas for which states government are responsible.

These successful as well as not so successful practices should be selected based on their innovativeness, appropriateness, sustainability, reliability and political and social impact.

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Cont… The target audience may include: policymakers, legislators, media

persons, academicians, researchers, inter-governmental organisations, governments of other countries, etc.

The successs of final outcome will be monitored with the help of success indicators: Feedback and participation in the discussion on forum Reference in action research conducted by other agencies Inspiration taken by other states

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Challenges Lack of political will on part of states to take examples from the successful or not so successful practices in other states

Dissemination of the information

Discontinuity of state partners/ state representatives

Not availability of complete or verified information

Sustainability of the portal

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RecommendationsNeed for large scale advocacy to disseminate information as well as to infuse political will within the states to give the platform a chance to prove its worth

Need to update the concerned ministers/policy makers and the government departments

Need for a strong network in each state and an effective mechanism for ensuring and maintaining institutional memory

effective and sustainable strategy for continuous IT support

Create demand amongst states and academicians. Make it paid portal later on

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Expected Outcomes enhanced public availability of successful and not-

so-successful practices -collected through action research

increased incidents of adopting the successful practices by the states

increased civic review of successful and not-so-successful practices

increased interest among state governments for Performance Score Cards.

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Overall Outcomes The process will lead to overall improvement in the policies and practices, improved service delivery within the country and improved development results

The following are positive consequences if the above-stated results are achieved:

There will be knowledge enhancement of policy makers and the project beneficiaries and the States in India, through dissemination.

Increased Accountability Inclusive social, political and institutional growth in the selected

areas. Actions will be streamlined so as to achieve improvements over time,

and thus add to the economic growth of the States and the country.

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Road AheadPolicy and practice change will be based on the assumption that social and political environment in states will be conducive for advocacy of such changes.

Acknowledge the fact that the expected and overall outcomes will be achieved over a long period of time through a slow yet steady process

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THANK YOUCONSUMER UNITY & TRUST SOCIETY

D-217, BhaskarMarg, Bani Park Jaipur 302 016, India Ph: 91.141.228 2821; Fx: 91.141.228 2485

Web: www.cuts-international.org