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Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design (Oxford India Collection
The essays in this volume present an analytical appraisal of public institutions in India. The purpose here is not just to give a history of these institutions but to ask what explains their performance and what might be learnt from their experience. It assesses the manner in which they assist, thwart, manipulate, and subvert each other. The aim is to provide a complex account of the modalities through which state power is exercised and policy enacted.
This study contributes to debates on institutional change and reform that are currently underway in India by bringing more analytical rigour and enlarging the parameters of the debate. These debates are particularly important given that Indian economy and society have changed profoundly in the last decade and a half. Much of the discussion is on how state institutions like the civil service, the courts, the police, parliament, and regulatory institutions will need to be reconfigured to better adapt to changing circumstances.
This study contributes to debates on institutional change and reform that are currently underway in India by bringing more analytical rigour and enlarging the parameters of the debate. These debates are particularly important given that Indian economy and society have changed profoundly in the last decade and a half. Much of the discussion is on how state institutions like the civil service, the courts, the police, parliament, and regulatory institutions will need to be reconfigured to better adapt to changing circumstances.
- GenresIndiaNonfiction
504 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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About the author
Devesh Kapur
22 books16 followersDevesh Kapur is the Starr Foundation South Asia Studies Professor and Asia Programs Director at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C.
From 2006-18, he was the Director of CASI, Professor of Political Science at Penn, and held the Madan Lal Sobti Chair for the Study of Contemporary India. Prior to arriving at Penn, Professor Kapur was Associate Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, and before that the Frederick Danziger Associate Professor of Government at Harvard. His research focuses on human capital, national and international public institutions, and the ways in which local-global linkages, especially international migration and international institutions, affect political and economic change in developing countries, especially India.
His book, Diaspora, Democracy and Development: The Impact of International Migration from India on India, published by Princeton University Press in August 2010, earned him the 2012 ENMISA (Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Section of International Studies Association) Distinguished Book Award. Defying the Odds: The Rise of Dalit Entrepreneurs (co-authored with D. Shyam Babu and Chandra Bhan Prasad), was published in July 2014 by Random House India. The Other One Percent: Indians in America (co-authored with Sanjoy Chakravorty and Nirvikar Singh), published in October 2016 by Oxford University Press, received widespread acclaim. His latest edited works are Navigating the Labyrinth: Perspectives on India’s Higher Education (with Pratap Bhanu Mehta), published in January 2017 by Orient BlackSwan, and Rethinking Public Institutions in India (with Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Milan Vaishnav), forthcoming in May 2017 by Oxford University Press.
Professor Kapur is the recipient of the Joseph R. Levenson Teaching Prize awarded to the best junior faculty, Harvard College, in 2005. He is a monthly contributor to the Business Standard. Professor Kapur holds a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University; an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota; and a Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton.
From 2006-18, he was the Director of CASI, Professor of Political Science at Penn, and held the Madan Lal Sobti Chair for the Study of Contemporary India. Prior to arriving at Penn, Professor Kapur was Associate Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, and before that the Frederick Danziger Associate Professor of Government at Harvard. His research focuses on human capital, national and international public institutions, and the ways in which local-global linkages, especially international migration and international institutions, affect political and economic change in developing countries, especially India.
His book, Diaspora, Democracy and Development: The Impact of International Migration from India on India, published by Princeton University Press in August 2010, earned him the 2012 ENMISA (Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Section of International Studies Association) Distinguished Book Award. Defying the Odds: The Rise of Dalit Entrepreneurs (co-authored with D. Shyam Babu and Chandra Bhan Prasad), was published in July 2014 by Random House India. The Other One Percent: Indians in America (co-authored with Sanjoy Chakravorty and Nirvikar Singh), published in October 2016 by Oxford University Press, received widespread acclaim. His latest edited works are Navigating the Labyrinth: Perspectives on India’s Higher Education (with Pratap Bhanu Mehta), published in January 2017 by Orient BlackSwan, and Rethinking Public Institutions in India (with Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Milan Vaishnav), forthcoming in May 2017 by Oxford University Press.
Professor Kapur is the recipient of the Joseph R. Levenson Teaching Prize awarded to the best junior faculty, Harvard College, in 2005. He is a monthly contributor to the Business Standard. Professor Kapur holds a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University; an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota; and a Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 3, 2017
helpful in studying public Institutions in India and their flaws
May 27, 2019
Good book ever I read
May 9, 2020
Though a bit old, still very relevant and fascinating insight provided. Loved the book
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June 4, 2020good book and very helpful
May 5, 2018
But for being a little dated, the book is a great read!
I've reviewed the book here: https://wetellatale.wordpress.com/201...
I've reviewed the book here: https://wetellatale.wordpress.com/201...
February 7, 2017
Language could've been better. Also, doesn't include the recommendations of the large number of committees that have been constituted by the govt from time to time, for example, in the chapter on civil services. That would've given a comprehensive picture of reforms.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews