1st Edition
Ethics for Governance Reinventing Public Services
This book provides a comprehensive overview of India’s public services and bureaucratic systems, and explores why widespread corruption and inefficient delivery have slowed development. It:
- discusses the underlying reasons for the prevailing inefficiency in public services;
- examines the complex linkages between ethics-based public service, India’s cultural and spiritual heritage, and its current economic development model; and
- outlines ways to create an ethics code and an environment that is conducive to better administration and good governance.
Lucid, accessible, and meticulously researched, this will prove essential to scholars and students of public administration, governance studies and political science, particularly bureaucrats, policy-makers and civil service aspirants.
Preface. Acknowledgements. Part I: Introduction 1. The Rise of Modern State 2. Ingredients of Good Governance Part II: Values and Character-Making 3. Fundamental Values for Humanity 4. Character-Building for National Reconstruction 5. Restoring Values: Inculcating Indian Ethos Part III: Indian Administration through the Ages 6. Ancient Indian Polity 7. The Mahabharata: Fundamentals of Governance 8. Kautilya: The Art of Governance 9. The Medieval Administration 10. The British Administration Part IV: Contemporary India 11. The Indian Polity after Independence 12. The Current Economic Setting 13. Constructing a New Economic Model 14. The Gandhian Alternative to Economic Development Part V: Public Administration: Problems and Solution 15. Public Services: Why They Don’t Function? 16. Senior Civil Services: Reinventing Them 17. International Experience in Reform: New Public Management 18. Reforming Public Management: An Agenda Part VI: An Ethical Framework 19. The Ethics of Public Service 20. An Ethics Code: International Perspective 21. An Ethics Code for Public Servants in India Part VII: The Challenges 22. Combating Corruption: The Ethical Dimension 23. Leadership and Individual Excellence 24. Epilogue: India Realising its Destiny. Bibliography. About the Author. Index.
Biography
B. P. Mathur is former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General, Audit Board, India; Additional Secretary, Government of India, and Director, National Institute of Financial Management, Faridabad. He is currently engaged as a social activist.
‘A multi-layered, fascinating and exciting study, the book explains how ethics makes governance not only effective but also gives it a credibility and acceptance lacking today.’ — T. N. Chaturvedi, former Governor, Karnataka, and former Comptroller and Auditor General, India
‘In a virtual tour de force, Mathur anticipates the difficulties in the public services and answers them with simplicity, relevance and conviction.’ — Yoginder K. Alagh, Chancellor, Central University of Gujarat
‘The book gives the essence of public service ethics through precepts and examples.’ — Prabhat Kumar, former Cabinet Secretary, Government of India
