Why Governments Continue To Fail

A balanced execution agenda is the key to translating mission and policy into operational terms at all levels.

- M. Muneer

A recent column co-autored by the NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog Vice Chairman hailed his boss, the Prime Minister, for high performance by being the most fiscally disciplined and signalled that as a high moment of the current government’s performance. It is akin to saying: I am a high performer because I maintain my blood pressure, glucose level and heartbeat within normal limits. Or, it is like crowning an enterprise for exemplary performance just for keeping its expenditures within its budget. But what about its strategy, revenue, growth, profitability, market share and so on?

Of course, fiscal discipline is necessary and vital just as normal blood pressure and glucose levels are essential for an individual. But just being healthy will not deliver high performance. In fact, it is a wrong metric to judge performance. The failure of governments to execute their respective missions starts with the inability to project what success and performance should be. The government’s think tank should have made baby steps towards a strategic change agenda based on what success would look like in five years.

The fiscal discipline is just one of the many bubbles in a complex execution agenda. It alone will not deliver what the government has promised us. Now that the Modi government has completed its fourth year, it is only appropriate to take a look at why governments continue to fail.

Post-Independent India has not seen a single elected government (at the Centre, states, cities or pan-chayats) delivering in full what was promised during the polls. This is a dismal record, much worse than the business world where at least one in 10 companies will deliver what it has promised to its shareholders.