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Palgrave Macmillan

Integrating the Third Tier in the Indian Federal System

Two Decades of Rural Local Governance

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

  • Discusses how the third-tier government has been treated in the inter-governmental fiscal transfer framework as provided in the Indian Constitution.
  • Addresses the issue of integrating the third-tier government generally, covering both panchayats and municipalities in the Indian federal system.
  • Describes the structure and design of the Panchayati Raj and highlights some of the design deficits.
  • Suggests steps towards integrating the third-tier government in the Indian federal system.

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book discusses the evolution of the third tier of the Indian federal system, with a focus on rural local governance (commonly known as Panchayati Raj) against the backdrop of important theoretical and empirical literature on the relevance and effectiveness of service delivery in the decentralized system. It evaluates the quintessence of the functioning of the Panchayati Raj in the past two decades of its existence.

This pioneering book also discusses the treatment of the third-tier government in the inter-governmental fiscal transfer framework and the delineation of the unique institution of local self-government in the Northeastern Indian States.

In the light of the loosely evolved fiscal relations between three levels of government, it has been observed that local self-governments in the bottom tier have not been truly empowered yet. The book argues in favor of integrating the third-tier government into the Indian federal system and suggests how this could be achieved. 

Reviews

“A very significant contribution of this book lies in its analysis of the positioning of the local self-government institutions in the inter-government fiscal transfer framework, particularly in context of those constitutional provisions, which fall short of fiscal federalism. It provides a detailed analysis of the observations and recommendations of the NFC since the enactment of the 73rd and 74th amendment acts … .” (Ashok Pankaj, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 53 (34), August, 2018)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dwarka, New Delhi, India

    Atul Sarma

  • DEFT Advisory and Research Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India

    Debabani Chakravarty

About the authors

Atul Sarma is currently Chairman Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development, Guwahati and also Visiting Professor at Institute of Human Development, New Delhi. He was the Head and Professor of Economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi and also the Vice Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University. He was also an ICSSR National Fellow. Prof. Sarma was a Member of the Thirteenth Finance Commission, Government of India. He authored several books and a large number of research papers in reputed national and international journals in the areas of Public finance and policy and Development economics.

 

Debabani Chakravarty is a Ph.D in Economics from Gauhati University and currently works as a senior researcher in DEFT Advisory and Research Pvt. Limited. Previously, she had been with the Women's Studies Research Centre, Gauhati University and the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. Apart from public economics, her areas of research interests  include gender, environment and issues of urban transport.



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