Democratic Decentralisation at the Crossroads in India
Narayan Ramachandran was in conversation with T R Raghunandan, former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, on Democratic Decentralisation at the Crossroads in India.
On January 22, Narayan Ramachandran was in conversation with T R Raghunandan, former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, on “Democratic Decentralisation at the Crossroads in India.” The session focused on how, in an era of Aadhaar, digital public infrastructure, and technology-driven welfare delivery, technology is reshaping state–citizen relations and altering the meaning of decentralisation.Raghunandan’s talk and the subsequent discussion also explored whether functions such as public distribution and welfare can be meaningfully reconnected to local institutions, and what new roles Panchayats and urban local bodies might play in a technologically mediated state.