Governance Focus Right, but Where is the Proof of Direction

The Planning Commission of India has recently presented to the country the Approach Paper to the Twelfth Five Year Plan starting 1 April 2012. With 16 chapters, it is the lengthiest Approach Paper any Indian Plan has ever had. The few things the document mentions about the North East have little new to celebrate except that the pressure of the need to connect with South East Asian economies is now salient. Governance?: In the light of the unfolding politico-socio empirics of Manipur in particular and the larger Indian context, what is most revealing for me is the chapter on governance. This chapter fails to hide the double dealings of the present government on this issue. Interestingly, the chapter starts very promisingly thus: “With rapid expansion of the economy, rising per capita incomes, and growing awareness and assertion of rights by an increasingly educated population, both the need for good governance and the demand for good governance have increased. See full Article.