Democracy is “of the People, by the People, for the People”. In Federal structure with enhanced focus on cooperative federalism, it is time to look at system in the spirit of Democracy beyond continued and growing prevailing Politicism. In Indian democracy, most of the subjects which matter to people of a State, are State subject or concurrent subject. There are State subjects, which are equally important & critical to every State, while some of the subjects are specific to State’s socio-economic-geo-political & other similar factors. For all these State subjects, Central Government is Policy making and Funding with larger perspective.

It is all about enhancing the State’s all-round balanced ability, capability, capacity with enhanced focus on innovation and explore the unexplored to maximise the resource exploitation for better. Such an effort would help growing various sectors 360-degree, enhanced ecosystem engagements for better, collaborative efforts shall better exploitation of natural resources, and achieve new yields. All this shall directly push the Nation’s Growth North consistently and predictably.

A quick look at some of the fundamentals of Indian Democratic System. Some of the State subjects are of similar importance like Education, Healthcare, Police, Finance, Urban, Labor & Employment, Power, Women & Child Welfare, … while State specifics could be Agriculture-select, Tourism, Mines, Tribal Affairs, Investments, …

GST has been one good example of new generation cooperative federalism. Possibly first time in India since Independence, Parliament of India gave away one of its major Power Center to an entity like GST Council with required Legislative and all approvals behind. Frankly Indirect Tax in annual Union Budget, used to be one of the major items for people to look forward and point of discussions, is done with pretty much. GST Council meets periodically and decide on periodic basis without having to wait ‘once in a year’ event. Even if Central Government may continue to have its weigh around, it is still a right step in right direction. Another unique characteristic about GSTN (a body to operationalize GST in new regime), it is 100% digital from day one.

‘One Nation – One Ration Card’ is another model of reforms in same & right direction to support people objectively, as people move around alone and/or with families for more than one reasons.

Looking at continued technology-led disruptive transformational transformation happening all over as never before with all together a new paradigm shift, and GST as case-in-hand, it may be worth considering similar options for some of the common State subjects like Education, Healthcare, Labor, Police, Intelligence, … This has unique significance as people migrate across States for more than one reasons in their lifetime, and these subjects do matter for many reasons.

By proposing such a model for subjects like Education and Labor, State’s sovereignty is never negotiated. Even in GST, subjects like Fuel and Alcohol have been conserved within 100% State domain.

Objective is to propose Revolutionary Future-Proof and Forward-Looking Governance model with implementation in Revolutionary or Evolutionary mode. In today’s unknown, competitive, disruptive, fast changing, … with changing expectations & aspirations of stakeholders as never before – no State Government will be able to cope with the challenge comprehensively & completely. Also, why should each State Government make investments in similar direction. This has been causing ever-growing gap across States on developments and progress. Why should each State innovate or experiment on same subject-matter and/or make investments! Why NOT enhanced collaboration and work towards 1+1 = 11.

Each sector may require tweaking in overall model from conceptualisation through execution with continued reform, with role-play by States and Center.

This shall yield very different outcome for India as a Nation, with focus on all-round collaboration, joint-investments, One Nation perspective, appropriate implementation & rollout of National programs meant for “of the People, by the People, for the People”.

Hopefully, such a working model shall provide better focused policy, implementation, compliance, execution, …

Industry-Academia-Associations-… and other stakeholders shall become more integral to everything.

This is like a trigger for further discussions and deliberations. Industry being a major stakeholder, investor, and consumer of these sectors needs to be brought in the center of Country’s development.

Anurag Ahlawat
Sr. Vice President – Smart City & System Integration
Niveshan Technologies India Private Limited

https://community.nasscom.in/communities/policy-advocacy/evolving-role-of-states-in-new-india.html