Measure for measure

Sometimes being Daft makes sense. Coca-Cola executive, Douglas Daft, made a definitive statement about measurements that has a significance beyond company balance sheets. As he put it, 8216;8216;What gets measured, gets done.8217;8217; Quite. It is for this reason above all that we must welcome the National Human Development Report, the Planning Commission8217;s ambitious new project of measuring India8217;s state of well-being and deprivation. It is to be hoped that now that the measurements are in, the nation will finally get the governance it deserves.

Before we go to whether this is a feasible proposition, let us tarry awhile and smell the roses. The fact is that this just-released Report captures a great deal of movement which makes for a cautious optimism about India8217;s future growth. It is nice to know, for instance, that at least a dozen more states are getting to where Kerala is in terms of human development indices. It is also reassuring to learn that India8217;s Human Development Index HDI, based on the three classical parameters of economic well-being, education and health, had been travelling north fairly consistently from the 1980s onwards. It improved by nearly 2.6 per cent annually between 1983 to 1993-8217;94, and by over 3 per cent annually between 1993-94 and 2000-01. This may not quite follow India8217;s progress graph as plotted by the United Nations Development Programme8217;s annual rankings in terms of human development, but there too India had registered consistent improvement through the decade of the nineties right up to last year. There is also evidence in the recent national Report of rural-urban disparities declining, as also poverty levels in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and J038;K.

But, as observed earlier, if India is to benefit from these reassuring signals, and move ahead there is a lot of hard work to be done and not just in terms of the development paradigm but with respect to the governance paradigm. While it is easy to come to this conclusion when considering the recent history of a state like Bihar, which continues to inhabit the lowest rung of the ladder, it is in a state like Kerala where the truth of this proposition is best demonstrated. Kerala, despite its admirable longevity figures, high literacy and health availability levels, is being constantly dragged down by poor overall economic development, reflected in its high unemployment rates, among other parameters. Which brings us to the crux of the problem: there is nothing quite like poor governance to undermine the gains made in other spheres, including that of economic reform. Spending money is quite clearly inadequate, the difference will only come about if it is spent efficiently and good governance is crucial for this. Poor governance, in contrast, fosters bureaucratic procedure, hampers efficiency and engenders corruption. So how can poor governance be checked? The new Report suggests that the best antidote to unbridled power is the devolution of power and points to the experience of smaller states doing better in terms of overall development. Ultimately, there is nothing it seems quite as transformative as ordinary citizens making up their own minds.