Good governance is when state, society and markets deliver together

The Viksit Bharat dream can only come with collaboration among the state, society and markets.

5 min readSep 11, 2026 06:23 AM IST First published on: Sep 11, 2026 at 06:23 AM IST

Over a hundred chief executive officers of zila parishads whom I interacted with over the past two months said the same thing as what research was pointing out — decentralised community action and collaborative governance deliver better, especially for problems that have too many variables making quality outcomes difficult. I had spoken to the top 10 municipal commissioners in the Swachhata Sarvekshan rankings in 2024 about the reasons behind their success, and all attributed it to community participation and collaborative governance.

I am part of the jury set up by The Indian Express to select district magistrates for the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Governance Awards. This is the third time I am looking at shortlisted proposals prepared by the knowledge partner, and every success story talks of decentralised community action and collaborative governance. The success of the National Rural Livelihood Mission and its hundred million women as members of 10 million self-help groups is also attributable to large-scale collaborative governance and decentralised management down to the cluster level, below blocks.

The Viksit Bharat dream can only come with collaboration among the state, society and markets. Analysis brings out six factors that can transform the quality of outcomes at scale and make India a truly inclusive society. These are: Decentralised community action, collaborative governance, women’s agency, technology as enabler, accountability and public trust, and professionals and community resource persons.

India has done well on many parameters of growth and development. While there has been a sharp decline in extreme poverty over the past two decades, many households remain vulnerable to slipping back into poverty. Productivity gains and wages of dignity have been elusive in many employment opportunities, leading to a slower rate of improvement in social indicators. Digital public infrastructure, women’s bank accounts, direct benefit transfers and access to retail credit have all created new opportunities for growth and development. Despite these gains, the persistent “wicked problems” require a new approach.

There is evidence that wherever an intervention enjoys public trust, has professionals, focuses on public information and community connect, and assigns a consensual decision-making role to citizens, the results are better. The Green and White revolutions, the Rural Livelihoods Mission, the Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen’s work, the total literacy campaigns, collaborative initiatives in watershed development and livelihoods diversification all point to the positive consequences of collaboration with professionals and citizen-centric accountability. Local governments and women’s collectives in rural areas working together makes a difference to multidimensional poverty and human development indicators. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Goa and Sikkim have reported gains attributable to such an approach.

The compulsions of democratic electoral processes, a bureaucracy not geared for the qualitative outcomes in these sectors, inadequate and dysfunctional systems of institutions and management processes, and weak accountability with little community validation of data, all lead to a situation where centralisation becomes a norm. There is a strong case for a new approach to impactful governance.

The heavy lifting of community mobilisation and social capital has been achieved in most parts of rural India; what is needed is higher-order education and skills that improve productivity and scale. Having invested in the expansion of the school, health and nutrition systems, with some significant gains in social participation, it is time to subject them to citizen-centric impactful governance. Local government institutions, with the countervailing presence of women’s collectives and their social capital, create an opportunity for accountable governance. Untied and adequate funds with professionals below the block level with local governments, and with an army of community resource persons, leads to more accountable governance and public trust.

Urban governance challenges need institutional reforms. We need direct elections at the basti level, below the large ward level, to create legitimate accountable governance authority close to the community. Those with responsibility must also have the resources. Community organisations like women’ s or youth collectives need to work with the elected basti-level leaders to provide accountable governance at the doorstep with funds, functions and functionaries.

ASHA workers play an instrumental role in making primary healthcare facilities more accountable. Improvement in their capabilities has made many become more like community health workers. There is a lesson here. Accountable public systems need well-trained, locally resident frontline workers. When there are community resource persons, the professionals recruited from the market also become more accountable and get scale to implement new approaches.

Given the interconnectedness of many of these wicked problem sectors, it is best to accept the Eleventh and Twelfth Schedule responsibilities of local governments. Such an adoption will generate community convergent action from below. The Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) to rank local governments is a very good initiative that can be made even better by community validation of all outcomes. The financing of local governance to address the deficits of PAI must be commensurate with the size and shape of the deficit.

The pursuit of Viksit Bharat needs collaborative governance where the state, society and markets all work together to develop impactful governance that secures quality outcomes. It is time sarkari (government) became asarkari (impactful).

The writer, a retired civil servant, is a student of social development. Views are personal