Indian Journal of Public Administration

K. B. Saxena (Ed.), Private Sector Participation in Public Services: Health. Noida: Aakar Books, 2022, 293 pp., ₹995. ISBN 978-93-50002-761-5 (Hardbound).

Article 356 of the Indian Constitution has often been subjected to the partisan use by the successive Central governments since 1950. However, the shift from a single-party majority government to a multi-party coalition governments in national politics since early 1990s has largely influenced the scope and intent of invoking this Article. The coalition government’s survival with the backing of regional parties has indeed been a major factor in diminishing the incentives for the arbitrary and frequent invocation of Article 356. In this backdrop, the present article explains how the political change brought about by the coalition governments since 1990s has created the conditions for restraining Central transgressions on state governance, and also discusses the prospects of rationally employing this Article in the changing political conditions of the country. The argument of this paper is that—although the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party to national political dominance since the 2014 general elections has raised apprehension about the move towards centralised federalism, it is not likely to upset the current pattern of restrained use of this Article.

A large majority of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) have been in existence for more than six decades and might soon complete a century of existence. They may soon qualify to be called as companies ‘Built to Last’. Notwithstanding the clamouring for ‘privatisation’ and the frequent interference by the government in matters solely concerning the management, the large majority of CPSEs continue to show profits year after year. This is best exemplified by the long list of CPSEs contributing towards society’s overall development under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Act. This article considers the top seventy-seven CPSEs, ranging from the smallest to the largest, which have been supporting CSR activities in the country for the past several years.

This study analyses the social impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending undertaken by the major Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in India. An attempt has been made to measure the social impact of CSR spending on selected PSUs by taking suitable proxies. A comparative study of the social impact of the selected PSUs with respect to CSR spending has been made by four-quadrant approach, taking high and low CSR spending and high and low social impact after normalising the data. Multiple regression analysis is used to measure the social impacts of different CSR activities. CSR activities have been ranked in terms of their social impact.

The degree of infection and consequent deaths have differed vastly, but Covid-19 pandemic has spared no country. The focus of this article is not to analyse India’s success in responding to this global pandemic but rather to draw lessons from this experience for effective public management in other fields of development. There seems to be an emerging consensus that civil liberties and public management matters. In a public health emergency, the primary responsibility of the government is to balance the foundation which paves way for equity, public welfare, individual and group rights, and a smooth functioning of democratic processes. Specific to the global crisis, the article focuses on how crucial it is to have a broad and free dialogue about civil liberties. Several countries are imposing some or the other form of problematic restrictions on civil liberties of an individual during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to changing societal scenarios in a negative manner. Therefore, the article highlights the expertise of new public management and deployment of enhanced role of society stakeholders defence of civil liberties, especially in the area of social justice and misinformation.

The world today is battling to being free from the shackles of Covid-19. The unexpected health emergency has left many nations halted and continues to pose a major challenge with newer strains of the coronavirus disease. The international community is coming forward for cooperative strategies in managing the epidemic, sharing innovations and vaccine development. In India, the government had been quick and responsive in controlling the spread of deadly Covid-19 since the first case was detected in late January 2020. The governments took many initiatives at all levels—Union, state and local. There is enough evidence to prove that the states have done fairly well by institutionalising responses to manage the spread of the virus. Rajasthan, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh are examples of the states that have devised and articulated policies to get hold of the crisis.

This article deals with the institutional arrangements adopted by the Government of Rajasthan and its widely appreciated Bhilwara and Ramganj models. The article also discusses the enactment of various legislations intended at seizing the spread of the virus.