This volume analyses the impact of globalisation on governance, and specifically on public-sector reforms. Starting from the premise that adhocism and sectoralism are the main reasons why past attempts at administrative reforms in India have not succeeded, this book maintains that some of the basic tenets of mainstream approaches to administrative reform require urgent and critical re-examination. The ten essays in this book dwell on three distinct areas—urban governance, energy and environmental governance, and service delivery systems—which have been subjected to a blizzard of reforms in recent years. The contributors investigate the role of public and private partners as agents of change and showcase successful experiments that have transformed the lives of local rural communities.

In analysing the phenomenon of health sector reforms, this book proposes a new conceptual framework of analysis and ethnography as a methodological tool which could be used effectively in various country contexts compared to what the existing theoretical frameworks do. Thus, apart from generating new knowledge in health sector, this study has significance for policy makers across the world. When the states themselves accept the fact that increasing private participation in health care in the form of health sector reforms is happening because of deliberate state policy, they will be better positioned to take decisions which ensure effective private sector regulation and universal access to quality health care within a democratic or participatory framework of governance. Increasing privatisation of health care has also led toward citizens losing their democratic spaces with regard to decisions on universal access to quality health care. This has wider implications, not only for improved health status in general, but also about how we live in a modern society with our values of liberty, equality and justice intact. The book would be a useful guide for policy-makers, researchers, students and layman across the world.

Abstract: May 1999 - Which factors prevent the rural poor and other socially excluded groups from having access to land in Orissa, India? The authors report on the first empirical study of its kind to examine - from the perspective of transaction costs--factors that constrain access to land for the rural poor and other socially excluded groups in India. They find that: Land reform has reduced large landholdings since the 1950s. Medium size farms have gained most. Formidable obstacles still prevent the poor from gaining access to land; The complexity of land revenue administration in Orissa is partly the legacy of distinctly different systems, which produced more or less complete and accurate land records. These not-so-distant historical records can be important in resolving contemporary land disputes; Orissa tried legally to abolish land-leasing. Concealed tenancy persisted, with tenants having little protection under the law; Women's access to and control over land, and their bargaining power with their husbands about land, may be enhanced through joint land titling, a principle yet to be realized in Orissa; Land administration is viewed as a burden on the state rather than a service, and land records and registration systems are not coordinated. Doing so will improve rights for the poor and reduce transaction costs--but only if the system is transparent and the powerful do not retain the leverage over settlement officers that has allowed land grabs. Land in Orissa may be purchased, inherited, rented (leased), or--in the case of public land and the commons--encroached upon. Each type of transaction--and the State's response, through land law and administration--has implications for poor people's access to land. The authors find that: Land markets are thin and transaction costs are high, limiting the amount of agricultural land that changes hands; The fragmentation of landholdings into tiny, scattered plots is a brake on agricultural productivity, but efforts to consolidate land may discriminate against the rural poor. Reducing transaction costs in land markets will help; Protecting the rural poor's rights of access to common land requires raising public awareness and access to information; Liberalizing land-lease markets for the rural poor will help, but only if the poor are ensured access to institutional credit. This paper--a product of the Rural Development Sector Unit, South Asia Region--is part of a larger effort in the region to promote access to land and to foster more demand-driven and socially inclusive institutions in rural development. Robin Mearns may be contacted at [email protected].

The book makes serious theoretical contribution to the field of political economy in indigenous development, public policy, sociology and development studies. It further establishes the relationship between Hinduisation of indigenous communities and rise of Hindu fundamentalism with a mining led industrial capital while evaluating the impact on the new economic reforms on tribals and their social, cultural, and religious identities in Orissa.

In this informative new book, Ravi Kalia continues his examination of the planning of Indian cities begun with his earlier study of Chandigarh. Here, Kalia makes systematic inquiries into the political circumstances that brought about modern Bhubaneswar, the capital of the state of Orissa, to reveal the historical and social circumstances that shaped the city. In this account, Kalia brilliantly shows the interplay of indigenous religious forces, regional loyalty, and Western secular ideas in the context of twentieth-century international architecture and planning movements. This book will prove invaluable to historians, architects, planners, sociologists, and scholars interested in India, as well as those interested in urban planning in developing countries.

Public sector reform has moved on apace since the first of the Commonwealth Public Service Country Profile Series was launched in 1995 when the principles of New Public Management (NPM) were in an early stage of adoption. Since then, the various civil services described in the series have undergone radical change in scope, organization and approach rendering a revision timely. Now up dated and completely revised, these re-issued Country Profiles continue to be an accessible and valuable source of reference which attempt to both describe and analyze the often tumultuous and controversial public sector reforms which have taken place in contributing countries since 1995. Practicing bureaucrats, diplomats, political and academic audiences will find these new books invaluable in benchmarking best practice in public sector reform across Commonwealth member countries.