Case Study: MyGov enabling participative decision making – Budget 2015
Noted social activist Michael Moore was at his pithiest best while summing up the essence of democracy: “Democracy is not a spectator sport, it’s a participatory event. If we don’t participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy.”
While commentators have, over the centuries, debated the multiple benefits of democracy over other forms of governance, it is its participatory nature that has almost unanimously been recognised as the most outstanding feature. Democracy, in its normative form, while electing a leader through a transparent process, expects that leadership to make decision making a participative process where citizens have an important pro-active voice in policy making. But what is it about participative leadership that makes it so attractive?
First, involvement in decision-making improves the understanding of the issues involved by those who must carry out the decisions. This means the actual effect of the policy is factored in at the stage of policy making itself thereby insulating it from remaining a mere academic exercise. Second, people are more committed to the actions flowing from the policy where they have been involved in the relevant decision-making. The citizens, who will actually be affected by the policy, have become a stake holder in the policy so framed rather than it being handed top down, and thus have more stakes in making the policy work. Third, people are less competitive and more collaborative when they are working on joint goals. Fourth, when people make decisions together, the social commitment to one another is greater and thus increases their commitment to the decision.
Mahatma Gandhi, one of the greatest personalities of twentieth century, was among the first to understand the power of such participative decision making process to mobilize public opinion and this is what contributed to his enormous achievement of converting the freedom movement into a mass movement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inspired by the great Mahatma, has often spoken of learning from this great heritage and deploying it in modern context of converting the development and governance paradigm into a mass movement.
It is with this ambition that MyGov was launched by the Prime Minister on 26th July 2014 as a citizen online engagement platform. The avowed aim of the platform was to achieve the following purposes: A) Pro-active citizen participation in policy making; B) Citizen participation in governance tasks; and C) Volunteer participation to achieve synergy in the ideas and discussions in online world with action on the ground.
One of the conscious decisions taken during the conception stage of MyGov platform was to have no activity on MyGov without a buy-in by a relevant department or ministry of the government of India. This was done to ensure that all discussions and tasks on MyGov would have a defined closure point and therefore the valuable time that citizens spend on MyGov would be tied up with a clearly defined proposed action of the government. This way, MyGov would become a useful platform for citizens, retaining the flavour of a free flowing online general discussion forum, while avoiding the trap of only remaining a discussion forum.
This conceptual clarity at the level of the head of government, with a clearly defined mandate to ministries and departments to factor-in the citizen suggestions in discussions and tasks they have initiated on MyGov, in the eventual policy, program or schemes they frame, has resulted in much success for MyGov since its launch. The names of the very popular Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana and the now ubiquitous logo for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan were generated by contributors on MyGov. The Prime Minister himself has used the MyGov platform to regularly source citizens’ ideas and aspirations for his very popular, monthly “Mann ki Baat” dialogue with citizens.
The confidence generated by these early successes encouraged both ministries and the citizens to engage in crowd sourcing for even broader participation. The Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Finance, thus initiated discussions seeking ideas from citizens for consideration for the Railway Budget and the General Budget respectively. In what was clearly a first, crowd sourced ideas from citizens, generated on MyGov, became actual government proposals in the respective budgets for the year 2015-16. The implications of a direct platform for citizens, where they could articulate their aspirations and needs to the government, without any intermediary or middlemen, can be seen in some of the far reaching ideas that became actual budget proposals.
For the Railway Budget, suggestions that have been incorporated in the actual proposals include proposals to fit bio-toilets and vacuum toilets in rail coaches to improve cleanliness; providing concessional e-tickets to differently-abled passengers; provision to order food online at the time of booking of tickets through IRCTC; integrating popular private food chains with the pantry network of railways; installation of digital display networks on platforms to provide real time information to citizens and the involvement of ISRO for providing audio-visual warnings to passengers at unmanned level crossings by using geo-spatial technology. A more detailed description of MyGov user suggestions reflected as actual proposals can be read here.
In the General Budget for 2015-16, some of the innovative proposals that have been incorporated include the proposal to enable monetization of gold and launching of sovereign gold bonds; proposal to abolish wealth tax and simplify tax structures; special tax incentive for promotion of Yoga; proposal to make sharing of PAN number mandatory for cash transactions above a specified value; 100% tax benefit for contributions to Swachh Bharat fund; utilization of vast postal network for improving access to banking in remotest corners of India and the proposal to introduce a law to penalize non disclosure of foreign bank accounts and to tackle benami property holdings in India. A more detailed description of MyGov user suggestions reflected as actual proposals can be read here.
These suggestions were thought of by the citizens themselves. They are aspirational in nature in some cases and practical in others. A gold monetization scheme can have transformational affect on the economy. Integrating of popular food chains with rail pantry network and simultaneously enabling the citizens to order food online would, while appearing as simple suggestions, enormously change the passenger experience for those who are travelling by rail network.
The implications of such participative decision making process are enormous. Development as a paradigm of general national discourse is a rather abstruse concept. However, if the broad long term governance framework can be converted into an easily identifiable specific time bound programs, with which the citizen can identify themselves in the immediate term, then it is easier to weave it into the national fabric. The General budget each year is an important policy document of the government, detailing the framework by which the government intends to manage the economy in the medium to long term. However, what is in it for me in the next budget is the most pertinent question by citizens in the build up to each year’s budget. The art of socially and emotionally investing the people in the governance paradigm is to somehow interlink these two strains. With MyGov platform acting a bridge, the citizen now has not to wait till the end of budget process to find out what is in it for them but can pro-actively help in deciding what do they want from the budget. One simple exercise of participative decision making and the budget becomes not a government’s document alone but a document of the people. The emotional commitment gets built-in and the abstruse development paradigm is on its way to becoming a participative mass movement. The platform that is enabling this is the MyGov platform, translating the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi into a reality.
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About 90% businessman do not pay or minimum pay tax because of complicated & too much types of taxes .If government wants more income They should take big steps like No any taxes like income tax ,vat ,ocroi etc.They should take some steps like(A) One time sales tax=selling cost of manufacturer + 5%to25% tax=lending cost of wholesaler e.g 5% on home usage material like t.v , fridge, fan etc ,auto, electrical, electronic parts 15%to25% on bike ,car ,bungalow, tobacco products etc. & more next
Dear PM,
In democracy, people connect is the most important tool to drive change. Mahatma gandhi is a claasic ecample of the mass movement or jan andolan. Man ki baat is a good begining…suggest you to eplore alternate channels ( address to the nation- every quarter, press conference with your key ministers and visiting rural areas esp farmers who have faced hardships ) would be an added advantage.You represent the hope of 125 million Indians…you have started well. Pl stay connected
India is a country where it is necessary for our government to save money. Most of the govt organization can save the countries economy. E.g. each fighter a/c of IAF is consuming thousands of litre of atf daily and hundred of a/c are flying daily which estimates crore amounts, if this flying is cut down to half and converted to simulated flying then a trillion dollar amount can be save. On the same a high account of serviceaility and healthy atmosphere and environment can be maintained.
Dear PM Ji
Road construction work in many parts, good farm earth is lifted from near bye fields for filling works. This top soil is a precious natural resource. Land filling objective can easily be achieved by using readily available other waste materials but is generally not preferred by the agencies engaged in construction, just because of comparatively higher transportation costs involved. Enforcement (at least in major projects) would go a long way in preserving top soil for our future gener
dear pradhan mantri ji.
i samir panigrahi i want to give a opinion that the congress government was giving to people of india the first aid when problems are comes they only gives the compensation and was takes the credit and this type of service was going on continuously till now so people of india is looking for compensation but BJP government is trying to give permanent solution of the problem to avoid the cause of problem this message should put in the LOk SABHA.
Sir’i am a PSU employee working as planning ENGG.I went to suggest-1-To avoid national expenditure public transport to be made more viable.Roadways buses now stopped due to lack of infrastructure.Public are willing to pay so PPP model to be adopted and public transport to be increased.this will reduce fuel cost.
2-for reducing LPG consumption Bio Gas to be installed in all villages this will increase our local unemployment.
DEAR PM THIS BELOW WHAT MR CHETAN SAID IS WORTH SEEING TO WIN OVER TH ISSUE OF LAND AQUISITION BECAUSE THE ORGANISED FARMING SHALL FETCH THE MAXIMUM PRODUCT AND THE SMALLER FARMERS HAVE TO BE IN THE BAKING OF INDIA ON THE FRONT OF FOOD SECURITY THERFORE ONE MAY GO FOR PRODUCTION AND OTHERS FIND THE BAKING AND DISTRIBUTING ON THE SIDE OF MARKET THUS THIS SHALL MAKE THEM THEPRODUCER AS WELL THE PROVIDER ON THE FOOD FRONT .YOUR MAKE IN INDIA WILL REALIZE ITS REACH JAI HIND.
Dear PM , I READ MR CHETAN BHAGAT ON ARTICLE TOI DT. 18 APR 20 15 IT IS BAKE IN INDIA INSTEAD OF MAKE IN INDIA IT IS RELATED TO THE FORMERS OF OUR COUNTRY STARVING FOR THE MAXIMUM PERCENTAGE OF THEM FOR THE NATIONAL POLICY FROM FRONT . AS STATED THAT THE FACTION OF FARMING INDIA IS DEPEND ON THE MERCY OF ELECTED GOVT. WHERE AS SYED THEAT CORPORATE FARMING IN SENSE OF BAKING THR BREAD FOR CITIZEN WITH PRIDE NOT SOAKED WITH THEIR BLOOD KINDLY GO ON RECORD IF POSSIBLE ON THE ADVISE GIVEN.JAI HIND
Dear PM , I READ MR CHETAN BHAGAT ON ARTICLE TOI DT. 18 APR 20 15 IT IS BAKE IN INDIA INSTEAD OF MAKE IN INDIA IT IS RELATED TO THE FORMERS OF OUR COUNTRY STARVING FOR THE MAXIMUM PERCENTAGE OF THEM FOR THE NATIONAL POLICY FROM FRONT . AS STATED THAT THE FACTION OF FARMING INDIA IS DEPEND ON THE MERCY OF ELECTED GOVT. WHERE AS SYED THEAT CORPORATE FARMING IN SENSE OF BAKING THR BREAD FOR CITIZEN WITH PRIDE NOT SOAKED WITH THEIR BLOOD KINDLY GO ON RECORD IF POSSIBLE ON THE ADVISE GIVEN.JAI HIND
Sir…i am small village from karnataka the most of te government schmes given to the poorest of poor in rural areas are not reaching to the common man. BIG SCAM is going in MANREGA all govt money is sharing between the sanctioning authority and few people in village panchayat.they are making bogus bills and there is no audit for the work done by the panchayat. Sir please take utilization of technology get money tranferd to directly from govt to comman man. Really a it saves crores of money.