The open source approach,we know,has won the argument. A system that is open to scrutiny and feedback is bound to be more robust,and it is heartening that the UPA has gestured towards more transparent,participatory governance. The presidents address to Parliament was a grab bag of promises but what deserves special mention is the stress on unclogging public delivery. For starters,official disclosure has been made the default option instead of having to wheedle public information from whimsical and difficult authorities,the government promises to tell all anyway. An ambitious public data project aims to place all non-strategic information in the public domain,open to question. (Barack Obamas transparency initiatives are a clear model,with datasets from several government feeds.) The right to information will be further ramped up. There is also a clear thrust on accountability,along with access. NREGA,the UPAs pride and joy,will have its own separate audit,and a district-level ombudsman. The president also promised five annual reports to the people in education,health,employment,environment and infrastructure,Bharat Nirman quarterly reports,and a delivery monitoring unit in the prime ministers office to monitor their functioning. But of course,data by itself means nothing. Simply putting shoals of empty information online does not directly impact the running of these programmes. So an independent evaluator will assess flagship programmes,as will the interested public and policy shops. Opening these projects to competing interpretations itself would be a creditable step. Another suggested reform with intriguing and promising possibilities is the model Public Services Law,which would empower states to commit public servants (in health,education,etc) to their duties. In concept,this could tilt the very fundamentals for instance,from government teachers or health workers being bureaucratic appendages and working at half-steam,they might now be held to their actions. These are all eminently sensible and exhaustive proposals,but hitching yourself to the public information cause can come back to bite you hard,if they are not followed upon. The UPA government has now publicly committed itself to more efficient,user-centric administration. And once these open government mechanisms are implemented in India,we shall expect iterations and improvements.
