Criticism of Indian Federalism Though the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution have done their best to imbibe a federal character into our polity, there are a number of criticisms against it. Not a truly rigid constitution: The amendment process to the constitution of India follows a blend of rigidity and flexibility. Some of its provisions can be easily amended by the parliament a...

Features of Indian Federalism There are certain unique features in Indian federalism. They are as follows: Supreme and single constitution: Constitution is the most supreme law of the land in India. It contains several components that together act as a rule of thumb in framing policies of the government. It guarantees a set of fundamental rights to the citizens. Similarly it demarcates th...

Federalism Introduction                 Federalism is a harmonious system of government, in which the powers are distributed between a union government at the national level and several provincial governments at the sub-national level. It requires a minimum of two levels of government to create a federal state: (a) Th...

Right to Information Information is required by every citizen to participate in the life and governance of a nation. Executive at all levels tries to hide information in order to increase its control over people and at times exercise powers arbitrarily. Therefore, it is important to demystify rules and procedures and keep the relevant information related to governance in the public domain. R...

Accountability Accountability can be broadly defined as the obligation of those holding power to take responsibility for their behaviour and actions. This obligation might stem out of a legal requirement or out of a moral-ethical need to account for one's behaviour. It is a relational concept as it concerns the relationship between those that perform an action or deliver a service, and thos...

Transparency The term 'trarsparency' refers to the 'increased flow of timely and reliable information, which is accessible to all the relevant stakeholders'. In other words, transparency is the dissemination of regular and accurate information. It is about making decisions and actions visible and about sharing and disclosing the necessary information to the stakeholder involved....

Constitutional Developments under British Crown (1858-1947) Government of India Act, 1858 This significant Act was enacted in the wake of the Revolt of 1857-also known as the First War of Independence or the 'sepoy mutiny'.   The act known as the Act for the Good Government of India, abolished the East India Company, and transferred the powers of Government, territories an...

Narasimham Committee Banking sector reforms in India were conducted on the basis of Narasimham Committee reports I and II (1991 and 1998 respectively). The recommendations of Narasimham committee 1991 are No more nationalization; create a level playing field between the public sector, private sector and foreign sector banks select few banks like SBI for global operations reduce Statut...

Banking Sector Schemes Lead Bank Scheme  The Lead Bank Scheme was introduced by the Reserve Bank of India in December 1969. In this scheme, under area approach, every bank discharges their social responsibilities. Each bank concentrates on certain districts where it acts as a lead bank. The Scheme aims at coordinating the activities of banks and other developmental agencies to avoid du...

Important dimensions of Governance Many theorists defined the notion of governance of current years. It is explained by group of academicians that "Public sector governance refers to the way that the state acquires and exercises the authority to provide and manage public goods and services, including both public capacities and public accountabilities (Levy, 2007). UNDP Strategy Note on Go...