New mechanisms for public accountability: the Indian experience

This paper summarizes some of the recent initiatives to enhance public accountability in India. These are divided into two categories: initiatives from the government and those that emanated primarily from civil society. Notable among the government's initiatives were the creation of citizen charters in important public services, legislation to facilitate the public's right to information, and experiments in e-governance in sectors and departments serving business and citizens in general. Civil society sought increased transparency and accountability through public hearings and campaigns, and demand greater access to information on public expenditure. It also generated and used public feedback on services through devices such as "report cards", and launched campaigns to increase transparency in the political (election) process. These experiments signal a clear shift of focus from the traditional "vertical" accountability mechanisms to mechanisms of a "horizontal" nature. The paper makes an assessment of these initiatives and notes the lessons to be learnt from them.