Two Hundred and Fifty-Thousand Democracies

A recent World Bank working paper, titled “Two Hundred and Fifty-Thousand Democracies,” explores the impact of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment on India’s democracy.

Key Highlights:

• Empowerment of Ward Members: The paper suggests financial empowerment of Ward Members within village councils, noting their current lack of financial resources and functional authority to improve Panchayat functionality.
• Building Local Tax Capacity: It recommends enhancing local tax capacity by filling bill collector vacancies, digitizing property records, and giving Panchayats more autonomy in levying taxes and cesses.
• Improving Administrative Data Quality: Enhancing data quality can be achieved through effective visualizations, maps, and interactive dashboards, which help in a comprehensive understanding and analysis of data.
• Scoring Gram Panchayat Performance: The paper advocates for the development of an independent and credible system to score Gram Panchayat performance and to incentivize the performance of elected officials.

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