National Council of Applied Economic Research
An important concern regarding the devolution of funds to Panchayati Raj Institutions by the Centre and State is whether they have sufficient administrative and technical capacity, as it has been found lacking in many cases. As an outcome of this, the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) scheme was launched in 2018 by the Government of India, across all states / UTs, to strengthen the capacities of the Panchayats to meet local development challenges in various areas linked with attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, such as poverty, gender inequality, water supply and sanitation, and so on. Some of the specific components under the scheme include training of Panchayat officials, building of adequate training infrastructure, asset creation, more inclusive and participatory planning, awards for good performance and use of technology. This study seeks to evaluate the RGSA scheme in terms of implementation of the different initiatives and their efficacy in promoting practices of good governance in Panchayats, through a primary survey across 12 states, which are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Assam, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The stakeholders targeted for the survey include officials of Panchayats, members of Panchayat committees, members of Self-Help groups, line department officials, faculties of training institutes and officials of state and district unit of RGSA. The study would provide insights on the impact of the scheme and bring out the best practices and challenges with a view to provide recommendations to improve the scheme going forward.
Rajesh Kumar Jaiswal, Fellow at NCAER. He has been the Principal Investigator for an evaluation study of MGNREGA by the Planning Commission. His expertise is survey-based research in the social sector with strong skills in qualitative research methods.
Saurabh Bandyopadhyay is a Senior Fellow at NCAER. He has undertaken a wide variety of studies, including; Railways Passenger and Freight, Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals, Cement, etc. in the Infrastructure Sector; Agriculture Outlook, Convergence of Agricultural Intervention in Maharashtra, National Cooperative Development Council, National Dairy Development Board, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Fishery, Animal... Read More
Poonam Dhawan is working as a Research Team Assistant at NCAER.
