SYNOPSIS [4th April,2022] Day 64: IASbaba’s TLP (Phase 1): UPSC Mains Answer Writing (General Studies)

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SYNOPSIS [4th April,2022] Day 64: IASbaba’s TLP (Phase 1): UPSC Mains Answer Writing (General Studies)

1. Inclusion and equity are the most important yardsticks for measuring the impact of good governance. Do you agree? Explain with the help of suitable examples. 

Approach

Candidates need to write about the good governance and how inclusion and equity is important for measuring good governance explaining it with examples initiative related to equity and inclusiveness. 

Introduction 

Good governance can be referred as an effective and efficient process of decision making and the process by which decisions are implemented keeping the amelioration of citizens as the topmost priority. Equity and Inclusiveness are important aspect in good governance. 

Body 

Inclusion and equity as yardstick to measure impact of good governance initiative:

• To increase the equity and inclusiveness focused interventions in the field of health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water management, financial inclusion and skill development is carried out. 
• The government takes care of interests of all its citizens and special care is given for most vulnerable groups such as minorities, SC/STs, women, etc. So that they don’t feel side-lined from the mainstream.
• For example Aspirational Districts Programme to transform the lives of people in the under-developed areas of the county in a time bound manner.
• People get opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being. For Example affirmative policies for women Maternity benefit law, children poshan abhiyan and backward classes. 
• The government implemented different welfare policies like PDS, NRHM, MGNREGA, Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana, etc. Which are very influential for good governance. 
• A society’s well being depends on ensuring that all its members feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of society. For example Aadhar ensuring targeted delivery, eliminating ghost beneficiaries. 
• Inclusiveness requires that interests, aspirations and opinions of all individuals and groups living in a society must be taken into consideration while formulating certain policies and programmes meant for the society. 
• Some of the features of the present politics in India are use of caste and religion to influence the population. These aspects work against the principle of equity and can be used as a tool to incite violence against a particular section of society. 

Conclusion

As a practice of good governance, it has been always incorporated in India to – ‘wiping every tear from every eyes’ to the latest objective of ‘Sabka sath sabka vikas’. Through innovative partnerships with an international organization, civil societies, and private companies, equity and inclusiveness can be attained. 

2. Why is transparency important for democratic governance? What are its benefits? Illustrate with the help of suitable examples.

Approach 

Students are expected to write about the transparency and it’s importance for democratic governance. Highlight it’s benefit with suitable examples. 

Introduction 

Transparency is the condition of openness of system where no aspect whether related to information, principles, actions, rules etc is hidden from the stakeholders in terms of accessibility.

Body

Importance of transparency for democratic governance:

• Democracy, accountability and participation: Absence of, or inaccessibility to, information often creates a sense of disempowerment, mistrust and frustration.
• For example RTI Act achieved its prime objective of bringing about a qualitative change in the democratic governance. 
• Increased efficiency and effectiveness: Greater transparency can also bring benefits to government themselves, directly or indirectly. Therefore, transparency is also considered to be a key component of public policy and efficiency.
• For example Helps in Social welfare reduces poverty, inequality gap and promote egalitarian society. Eg- Disha App and my gov. 
• Against corruption: Free and guaranteed access to information enables citizens, the media and law enforcement agencies to use official records as a means to uncover cases of corruption and maladministration. Lack of Transparency creates opaqueness in decision making which lack objectivity, eg – Bofors scam in defense.

Benefits:

• Inclusion of various sectors: voice of marginalized sections of the society, gender inclusion and financial inclusion can be considered.
• Openness benefits citizens: Open governments are built on robust and inclusive engagement between citizens and governments. Fluid two-way communication between citizens and governments allows governments to better understand citizens’ true needs and to respond to those needs.
• For example transparency works against favoritism, crony Capitalism and nepotism.

Conclusion

Transparency centrally defines the processes, mediums and commitment a government chooses as the basis of how it shares information with its citizens. It is necessary to guarantee good governance. Information is valuable to the electorate for democratic processes to function successfully.

3. What are the key risks associated with the implementation of e-governance projects? Present a brief analysis with the help of a case study.

Approach-

Candidates need to explain the key risks associated with the implementation of e-governance projects? Also present a brief analysis with the help of a case study.

Introduction:

The “e” in e-governance stands for “electronic.” The term refers to the use of ICTs to convert and support a governance system’s techniques and structures. The emergence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has provided means for faster and better communication, retrieval of data and utilization of information to its users. e-Governance is basically the application of ICT to provide government services to the citizens through internet. In developing countries like India, where literacy level is very low and even most of the people are living below poverty line, people are not even aware about the benefits of e-Governance activities and people do not use Information and Communication technologies to a much extent, there exist a number of problems to implement e-Governance activities.

Explain the key risks associated with the implementation of e-governance projects? 

• There are a large number of obstacles in implementation of e-Governance in India. Understanding the risks associated with e-governance is essential since it is one of the most critical components of project management in the digital world. 
• Risk concerning e-governance is mainly associated with arising issues with IT, which is, unfortunately, a common occurrence. We can say that IT illiteracy is a major obstacle in implementation of e-Governance in India. So, first of all Indian people must be made aware about the usage of Information Technology.
• The diversity of people in context of language is a huge challenge for implementing e-Governance projects as e-Governance applications are written in English language.
• Even if the users of Internet are growing but still there is a major part of Indian population which is not able to access e-Governance activities for variety of reasons.
• Another set of risks can be labelled as hazards when overseeing a project virtually. These hazards can be mistrust, cliques, uninformed managers, and the allure of other exciting but unrelated work. 
• Per capita income of India is low as compare to the other countries. Therefore, people cannot afford on-line services provided by the government which is a challenge for implementation of e-governance.
• The implementation of public administration functions via e-Government requires that the user must be confident and comfortable while using the technology.
• A critical risk in implementing e-Governance is the privacy and security of an individual’s personal data that he/she provides to obtain government services.
• Nonetheless, the resolution of risks and issues still depends on precise mitigation strategies executed quickly and efficiently.

A brief analysis with the help of a case study

E-governance aims to improve governance processes and outcomes through new technology tools, such as AI, Blockchain, dashboards, and collaborative business intelligence (BI). They are used to monitor developmental projects. We can do a brief analysis of risks associated with the implementation of e-governance projects with risk associated with these tools as explained below:

• Despite the benefits of AI in e-governance, there are some risks related to it. For example, a lack of knowledge in operating the adopted ICTs can make managing projects difficult. If data has been incorrectly entered, it may undermine the quality of the decisions made by a project management team.
• AI affects project management in specific ways. In big data and business analytics, gathering data using simple approaches could be time-consuming and incapable of capturing accurate data. Consequently, such risks may undermine the efficiency of implementing e-governance in project management.
• Blockchain is another tool used to record all transactions and digital events in the internet world. Risks to take into consideration to e-governance technology are a lack of scalability and continuity, which affects the project reliant on Blockchain. 
• Other risks involve cryptographic essential management functions, and likewise algorithms, as improper management of cryptographic key-pairs could result in unauthorized access to an organization’s information management system.

Conclusion

As the usage of Information Technology is growing very fast, Indian government is making many efforts to provide services to its citizens through e-Governance. Although Indian government is spending a lot of money on e-Governance projects but still these projects are not successful in all parts of India. Unawareness in people, local language of the people of a particular area, privacy for the personal data of the people etc. are main challenges which are responsible for the unsuccessful implementation of eGovernance in India. Government must take some actions to make the people aware about the e-Governance activities so that people may take full advantage of these activities and eGovernance projects can be implemented successfully. The participation of people can play a vital role in implementation of e-Governance in India.

TLP Synopsis Day 64 PDF