Revisiting Innovations in Governance

Abstract

Innovations, reforms and reinvention drives are overlapping strategies which arrive during organisational crisis when public sector capacity falls short of addressing a catastrophe. They come as a natural consequence of survival design or a tenacious need to outdo an opponent in a competition. However, some may even come through errors of the past. Innovations shrink both time and budget while becoming an agent for the three ‘Rs’ of recognition, replication and research. Much research, such as studies on administrative innovations at Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances’ (DARPG) best administrative practices research on innovation has been undertaken since the coming of globalisation which brought through a combination of computers and information technology, on one hand, and re-conceptualisation of inter-agency collaboration and network research, on the other. Innovations do not bypass traditional public sector values of equity, fairness and probity to achieve enhanced efficiency as these become elements of sustainability and continuity in them. Government has a role to play in public sector innovations in facilitating freedom to innovate, in generating an environment of scientific curiosity, democratic freedom and decentralised governance. A spirit of entrepreneurship is currently being treated as a gateway to innovations and the mushrooming of startups as unleashing of innovations which may transform the manner in which public administration works in India. However, failed startups set at rest the innovation theory. Innovations need certain essentials for their success and continuity.