I don't pretend to have the answers but surely there is need for innovative, out-of-the-box thinking. Government machinery, district magistrates, panchayats etc have done sterling work but we cannot deny that they can also be hugely inefficient and corrupt. The mid-day meal and the employment guarantee schemes are qualified successes. They work well in some states, they do badly in others. So, the schemes in themselves are not failures (as some critics maintain), the villain is implementation.
The Chinese record in implementation, we are told, is much better than India's. However, we have neither the tools nor the paraphernalia of a totalitarian state. We need to find our answers within our system. For the extra allocation in Budget '07 to be spent effectively, India has to discover new instruments of execution besides exploiting existing ones. Perhaps money can be given to well-regarded NGOs who have expertise in specific areas. Perhaps there can be a public-private partnership in some projects. The public decides on the projects, private contractors execute them within a timeframe and without cost overflows.
At the risk of adding one more ministry to the already overstaffed government structure, would it be such a bad idea to have a ministry for overseeing implementation? This ministry would have the responsibility of presenting a report card to the nation on national projects and schemes, focusing especially on delays and other obstacles preventing scheduled implementation. It is worth a try.
