Performance in the government – no oxymoron

Here is the biggest potential game changer in the way the Indian government functions or rather dysfunctions. As I have often said on this blog, India’s governance suffers at least as much from the inaction of its honest people as from the action of its dishonest people. Much of this has to do with inaction not capable of being reprimanded as inaction can never result in people pointing fingers at your integrity (if you don’t build a road, no one will say you did something wrong). There is typically no dis-incentive for sleeping on the job.

While this position will never be history, if the government had specific goals and its ministries had to achieve specific targets which are measurable and measured, this apathy and lack of ownership is likely to reduce from the top down. The Prime Minister of India has set out on a very ambitious agenda to monitor and evaluate the performance of the various governmental ministries and departments. IIM, Ahmedabad is the knowledge partner in this important initiative.

Here is an interesting PowerPoint Presentation of the “Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System“.