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Business News/ Economy / Use of data, transparency can transform governance: Kant
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Use of data, transparency can transform governance: Kant

The progress of states will have a big impact on national growth too, Kant said

India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant at the Mint India Public Policy Summit in New Delhi on Friday. (Mint)Premium
India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant at the Mint India Public Policy Summit in New Delhi on Friday. (Mint)

NEW DELHI : Effective use of data as a policy tool, transparency in administration and collaboration among state agencies can transform governance and improve the lives of people tremendously, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said at the Mint India Public Policy Summit in the capital on Friday.

Kant cited the experience of developing the 115 identified most backward districts termed as ‘aspirational districts’, and said that the collection of data on 49 indicators, ranking them on their basis and making the information public, worked effectively in transforming these districts. Kant was deeply involved in India’s aspirational districts programme, and the ranking of states on various parameters in his earlier role as the chief executive of federal policy think tank NITI Aayog.

The think tank does extensive data collection to rank states as part of its efforts to act as a catalyst in developing these regions. Now, the Centre has started a similar programme for the most backward 500 blocks in the country.

Data as a public policy tool can transform lives, said Kant, explaining that convergence of government schemes, collaboration with states and infusing competition by constant ranking of districts on the basis of actual performance using real-time data have worked in the case of the aspirational districts programme.

“Constant competition challenging district officers, putting data out in the public domain and putting ranking in public domain transformed these districts in a very short span of time. This is one of the most important programmes because it uses data for good governance," said Kant.

The progress of states will have a big impact on national growth too. Kant said that when NITI Aayog made the ‘ease of doing business ranking’ for the states, Gujarat came first in the first year, in the next year, Andhra Pradesh came on top beating Gujarat and in the third year, Telangana beat both Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

But the good thing, he said, was that Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh made tremendous progress.

“If mineral-rich states can transform themselves, we will see that the Eastern part of India growing and competition will force them to becoming champions…If 10 states of India grow at high rates—if Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, all of them grow at 10% plus--India will grow at a high rate and will become a $5 trillion economy much faster and will become a developed economy, a high-income economy, by 2047."

Measures like having a good public policy about data, government taking a retreat and letting the private sector create wealth, consistent and clear public policy, and the government keeping interface with the public through digital rather than physical means form elements of good governance, according to Kant.

Kant also emphasized that rules and regulations have to be simple enough for everyone to understand. Forms should not be more than a page and all rules and regulations should be not more than two pages and no law should be more than three pages. Voluminous laws get questioned in courts, Kant said.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gireesh Chandra Prasad
Gireesh has over 22 years of experience in business journalism covering diverse aspects of the economy, including finance, taxation, energy, aviation, corporate and bankruptcy laws, accounting and auditing.
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Published: 30 May 2023, 11:10 PM IST
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