After joining the Government of India, I find it very difficult to indulge in my favourite pastime of indulging in criticism of government policies. I envy the guys and girls outside the system who can go on saying that our government is inefficient because now I know that a good part of the government wants to set things right but things go wrong since the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and vice-versa.
The additional complication comes from the number of variables involved in every calculation the executive has to make. Efficiency vs equity question appears to be easy to solve. But from our experience we see that in real life that promoting equity at the cost of efficiency leads to the negation of the former in the long run. Also, the policies which are good for the country are not the ones which actually garner votes.
Then there is always the problem of scarcity of information - without really reliable data, you can't make reliable policies. Accountability can be ensured to a great extent if there are proper information systems which provide the required information to everyone - including the taxpayer. Transparency automatically curbs much of inefficiency and corruption.
Governments can be really efficient if the public is demanding. Given the level of apathy our public has towards government and the general impression that dealings with different government agencies are activities to be avoided, real reform of the structure does not seem to be very near.
