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This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing literature concerning the domains of accreditation and quality assurance in various sectors. Accreditation and quality assurance play vital roles in ensuring the credibility, transparency, and effectiveness of educational institutions, healthcare facilities, industries, and other domains. This paper synthesizes the findings of numerous studies, focusing on the conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and outcomes associated with accreditation and quality assurance processes. The review encompasses a wide range of perspectives, including historical context, best practices, challenges, and advancements in accreditation and quality assurance. Through a systematic analysis of these scholarly works, this paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of accreditation and quality assurance across diverse sectors and shed light on potential future research directions.

Education acts as an important catalyst for socioeconomic and democratic evolution in society and is a critical tool for building an equitable system. In our paper, we have historicized one of the most important educational policies, viz. Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SAMSA) in India that carries large expectations to minimize the educational divide. We have studied the policy through the lens of Political Economy and have further critiqued it through the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. We find in our paper that the budget allocated to SAMSA was revised in 2022, from its preceding years with a 28 per cent slash. We critically reflect on the principles mentioned in the policy and find that although there has been an attempt to mitigate the hazards of banking education the 'Public-Private Partnership' initiative reinforces struggles for equitable education, and further, the privatization sets the government free from any accountability. Moreover, a constitutional right like the Right to Education (RTE) is not sufficient enough to meet the goals of universalisation of education. Besides, we analyse the principles such as 'Education for All', 'Equity', 'Equal Opportunity', 'Access', 'Gender Concern', 'Centrality of teacher', 'Moral Compulsion', and 'Convergent and integrated system of education management', and argue that although some of the facets of societal structural inequalities are addressed, however, there exists hardly a proper roadmap that could be monitoring the process of creating an inclusive educational paradigm.

Mapping India's vast, complex, and unruly education system through the systematic generation of accurate and current data, and encouraging accountability by persuading a diverse array of actors to engage with such data, is an ambitious, if not heroic, project. Yet this is what India's Education Information Management System (EMIS), the Unified District Information System of Education (U-DISE), has set out to do. This digital platform must persuade actors in India's 1.5 million schools to regularly upload trustworthy data to populate the database. A range of actors must be cajoled into becoming data-informed, to plan and strategize, and to enforce accountability. This paper traces how U-DISE attempts to impose its desires on a range of distributed actors, and how these actors respond to its overtures. Using concepts from Science and Technology Studies (STS), and based on interviews with the designers of U-DISE, central and state government officials, school-level data coordinators and NGOs and activists, as well as policy documents and government websites, we argue in this paper that, to realise their ambitions, digital platforms not only aim to "be" 'user friendly', but also engage in efforts to "make the user friendly."

Objective: Schools are important settings for health promotion. In schools, children and adolescents can be reached regardless of their social background, which represents a unique opportunity for promoting health. Several studies have demonstrated the importance of school leadership in initiating and sustaining health promotion; however, efforts to systematically review the influence of school leadership on school health promotion are still lacking. Hence, this paper analyses empirical studies published in scientific journals on school leadership and health promotion in schools. Design: Systematic literature review. Method: Informed by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines, a review was conducted using two main databases: Web of Science and Scopus, which retrieved 51 eligible articles. Results: The review of these articles resulted in the identification of seven main themes -- school leaders' health; attitudes, knowledge and behaviour; accountability; support from school leaders; shared leadership approaches; capacity building and parent engagement. Conclusion: This systematic literature review expands the literature by highlighting the school leadership factors that promote school health promotion in Oceania, Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia continents. Future systematic literature reviews could explore studies and different aspects of health promotion by teachers, especially in the Asian context.

India and China are two fast growing economies of the world and need large skill based manpower to sustain the economic growth. The existing formal higher educational system in these countries will not be able to meet the demand of the economy. The paper will try (i) to compare the development of economy and distance education in India and China with reference to policy perspectives; (ii) to examine the course design, development and delivery of distance education programmes in national open universities of India and China i.e. Indira Gandhi National Open University of India (IGNOU) and Open University of China (OUC); (iii) to analyze the trend of enrollment in IGNOU and OUC; and (iv) to compare the recognition /accreditation and quality control process of distance learning in both these countries. The paper highlights the policy strategies of two countries towards quality control mechanism as par with conventional system.

There is a growing concern about student incivility in classrooms among academicians and institutional leaders. This study humbly tried to identify various enablers for reducing student incivility in classrooms through an exploratory investigation. This study uses empirical qualitative methods of investigation in a higher educational institution based at Delhi, NCR, India. The authors have conducted open-ended, unstructured interviews with 8 faculty members of various departments of the institution. This study able to develop three major themes and twelve sub themes as enablers to reduce student incivility in the classroom. The thematic map shall help the faculties and policy makers to integrate various mechanisms to control student incivility in classrooms. Incivil behaviour of the students creates disruption in the process of learning and teaching at the academic institutes. The behaviour of the particular students can be ranged from various dimensions i.e. from rudeness to lack of interest in class participation and learning process. There are various challenges used to be faced by teaching professionals in higher education with respect to student incivility (Bjorklund and Rehling, 2009; Clark, 2008). The misconduct inclined with disrespect hurts the true spirit of the learning classroom (Swinney, Elder and Seaton, 2010). The primary purpose of this paper to identify various enablers/mechanisms which can reduce student incivility in classrooms at higher education context, which will be itself a significant contribution for the practical implications that will be very much useful for the faculties and administrators of higher education institutes.

Teachers' work in India is impacted by the ongoing restructuring of school education that incorporates simultaneous attempts at reform and regulation. Child-friendly assessment policy instituted by the local bureaucracy leads to intensification of teachers' administrative roles, drawing their attention away from critical pedagogic ones. Limitations in policy interpretation are found to be in response to the official discourse of efficiency that manifests in performative measures of accountability inconsistent with the intended reforms. In this ethnographic case study in an urban middle school for poor, teachers' attempts to comply with instruments of accountability while adapting to changing pedagogic relations with their students and achieve coherence in their identities are examined. The paper draws attention to the contrasts between models of good teaching held by teachers, vis-à-vis the official discourse. It argues for a reworking of the existing model of accountability towards incorporating a cultural-political conception of pedagogy.

The Government of India made a series of policy changes regarding elementary school education in the country in the period 2002--2012. In 2009 the Government made free (and compulsory) education a fundamental right of every child in India between the ages of six and fourteen. The Government also set out the infrastructure provisions that schools were mandated to implement. In doing so, it adopted a rights-based approach to elementary school education. This paper reports on a study of the effectiveness of this approach. It is argued that merely declaring a public service as a citizens' right does not entail either optimal access or optimal implementation. Rather, the paper argues that claiming of rights and implementation requires an enabling environment and it is concluded that societal power bias and social accountability are important factors in creating such an environment. The examples of Kerala and Bihar, respectively the best and worst performing states in India with regard to implementation of the right to education, were used to examine these states' different levels of performance regarding the mandates defined by the Right to Education legislation enacted in 2009.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the multi-layer effect of transformational leadership (TL) on employee-related outcomes, i.e. relational identification (RI) and satisfaction with leader (SWL). Further, role of leader member exchange (LMX) and the association period in between TL and RI as well as SWL shall also be examined. So, the present paper attempts to evaluate the moderated-mediated effect of TL on RI and SWL. Design/methodology/approach: The model has been tested in the higher education sector. Information regarding TL, LMX, SWL and RI has been procured from teachers. The data have been duly validated with the help of confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability has been assessed through Cronbach's a and composite reliability. Structural equation modelling has been used for testing the hypotheses. Moderation has been checked through multi-group analysis. Findings: The results indicate that association period moderates the TL and LMX relationship. LMX mediates the TL and RI and SWL relationship. Finally, moderated- mediated impact of TL on RI and SWL have been found. Managerial, practical, social, economic implications and scope for future research have also been discussed. Research limitations/implications: This study represents a cross-sectional investigations as responses were gathered from respondents at a particular point of time. Moreover, the study is confined to government degree colleges operating in Jammu district only. In future longitudinal study can be conducted. Comparative study between private and public colleges can be undertaken in future. Practical implications: Leaders should focus on creating positive environment, where personal work goals of the subordinates are linked with organisational goals, with the help of role-person integration. Leaders should make their decisions more transparent by exhibiting consistency in their logic and reasoning. Remaining impartial in decision making will help leaders to instil trust and respect in the minds of subordinates. Trust among the followers can be increased through commitments and achievement of goals. Leaders should create more enthusiasm and optimism amongst the employees. Social implications: Leaders in education institutes should create social and emotional learning environment in the colleges. This can be done by arranging informal meetings, some kinds of fares, painting competitions and festive celebrations at collaborative level. This strategic action will help to provide an opportunity to all employees' to come forward in an informal friendly environment, which will help to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression; and improve the quality of relationship and ultimately enhance satisfaction among followers' with respect to their leaders. The followers work for the achievement of departmental as well as the organisational goals in collaboration with their leaders. Originality/value: The paper has evaluated the moderation of association period between TL and LMX relationship in higher education sector which has not been explored earlier in leadership studies. Many studies have evaluated the direct impact but moderated-mediated impact of TL on RI and SWL has not been evaluated earlier, which will contribute equally to academic as well as business world.

This paper describes a good governance architecture framework that would bring significant improvements in the overall working of open and distance learning institutions in a well-structured and systematic way. The good governance framework is articulated with seven basic principles which are performance, transparency, accountability, participation, leadership, consensus orientation and fairness. These principles are structured with the good governance practices which relate to performing well for the assigned goals and objectives, promoting values for the organisation, making well-informed and transparent decisions, focusing on the organisation's purpose and outcomes, capacity building and managing risks effectively. These principles and suggested practices in the framework would become tools for developing an improvement strategy so as to help in the smooth operation and efficient management of the institution concerned. The developed system would bring about significant improvement in the teaching-learning activity as well as in the quality of distance education. It would also enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and overall performance of the institutional management which is crucial to the continuous development of the institution concerned. Thus, the proposed good governance framework when implemented in an open and distance education institution would improve the quality of distance education and also increase its accessibility in a well-organised and structured way.

Copyright of European Journal of Development Research is the property of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Rural & Community Development is the property of Brandon University, Rural Development Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective of the present paper is to measure the level of customers' perception of accountability of healthcare diagnostic service providers and to identify the factors that influence the perception of accountability of healthcare diagnostic service customers.Methods: A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 393 customers of various diagnostic centers in the city of Guwahati from the state of Assam in India. The reliability of the data was tested using Cronbach's Alpha. Statistical tests were used for the mean, percentage, standard deviation, etc. Factor analysis was performed to find out the factors affecting customers' perception of accountability.Results: It was found that the overall level of perception of the customers with respect to the accountability of diagnostic centers in Guwahati is of high level. The study reveals four variables that affect how customers perceive the accountability of diagnostic service providers. These are Competency, Responsiveness, Compliance with protocol, and Problem-solving approach.Discussion: Significant contributions have been made by the present study in terms of the development of a scale to measure customers' perception of accountability of diagnostic centre, and the development of a theoretical model to explain this accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' work in India is impacted by the ongoing restructuring of school education that incorporates simultaneous attempts at reform and regulation. Child-friendly assessment policy instituted by the local bureaucracy leads to intensification of teachers' administrative roles, drawing their attention away from critical pedagogic ones. Limitations in policy interpretation are found to be in response to the official discourse of efficiency that manifests in performative measures of accountability inconsistent with the intended reforms. In this ethnographic case study in an urban middle school for poor, teachers' attempts to comply with instruments of accountability while adapting to changing pedagogic relations with their students and achieve coherence in their identities are examined. The paper draws attention to the contrasts between models of good teaching held by teachers, vis-à-vis the official discourse. It argues for a reworking of the existing model of accountability towards incorporating a cultural-political conception of pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of Manipur in the northeastern region of India, along with a fragmented state-society relationship also suffers from the twin problems of limited public infrastructure and poor state capability to deliver public services. Power services in Manipur suffered from the dual problem of weak power generation and limited state capability to ensure citizens' access to power services. Following the policy recommendations of the Government of India and the Electricity Act of 2003, to improve the delivery of power services the government of Manipur unbundled the electricity department into two entities Manipur State Power Corporation Limited (MSPCL) and Manipur State Power Distribution Corporatization Limited (MSPDCL) in 2014. Corporatization separated the functions of allocation and distribution of power services and transformed the power sector from a bureaucratic organization into an arms-length, contract-based managerial unit, to function as a corporate entity. Corporatization along with the use of pre-paid meters, user-friendly services like easy ways of recharging the pre-paid meters, and call center services have profoundly improved the state's capability to deliver power services. This paper is based on a survey amongst 200 households through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires in 2019-2020 in the urban areas of the two valley districts of Imphal West and Bishnupur in India. The survey focused on the capability of the state institutions to deliver power services, citizens' responses to the reforms in the delivery of power services, and the sustainability of these reforms in building state capability. The response from the survey revealed that corporatization has improved citizens' access to power services, however, the lack of additional accountability checks and performance-based management would, in the long run, affect MSPDCL's delivery of power services, and Manipur's corporatization model. The research, however, was undertaken in the pre-Covid period, hence citizens' access to services in the post-Covid world needs to be re-examined in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to describe the evolving regulatory structures of the civilian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in India and Japan, not yet fully developed to regulate the deployment of the UAV. India and Japan are at the forefront to overhaul the respective regulatory framework to address issues of accountability, responsibility and risks associated with the deployment of UAV technologies. Design/methodology/approach: In-depth interviews are conducted both in Japan and India to gather primary data based on the snowball sampling method. The paper addresses questions such as what is the current scenario of civilian UAV deployment in India and Japan. What are the regulation structures for Civil UAV deployment and operation and how they differ in India and Japan? What are the key regulatory challenges for Civil UAV deployment in India? How regulation structure enables or inhibits the users and operators of Civil UAVs in India? What are mutual learnings concerning UAV regulations? Findings: Findings reveal that the Indian regulations address issues of responsibility by imparting values of privacy, safety, autonomy and security; Japanese regulation prefers values of trust, responsibility, safety and ownership with more freedom to experiment. Originality/value: The study on civilian UAV regulatory framework is a new and innovative work embedded by the dimensions of responsibility and accountability from a responsible innovation perspective. The work is a new contribution to innovation literature looked at from regulatory structures. Field visits to both Japan and India enrich the study to a new elevation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this case study is to investigate the role of a governmental social audit (SA) practice in enabling emancipation, and changing patterns in the balance of power, position and understandings between dominant micro actors and disenfranchised rural citizens. Design/methodology/approach: Enlisting Bourdieu's practice theory concepts of field, habitus, capitals and symbolic violence, the case study is informed by semi-structured interviews at central, state, district, block and village levels as well field observations and secondary data. This study is a part of a larger critical accounting research project conducted in India over four months, covering eight annual implementation cycles. Findings: The study demonstrates that despite entrenched hegemonic micro forces and public sector corruption, SA's accounting and accountability practices have altered the rules of the game in this field. This emancipatory perspective has redefined deep-seated, generational patterns of power relations and domination, impacting the distribution of capitals and habitus in the daily life of rural citizens. Research limitations/implications: This study provides an alternative perspective to understanding governmental SA formats in developing nation contexts at the micro level. In line with Celerier and Botey's (2015) focus on inclusionary and democratic participation, this study challenges the dominant perspective of accounting as strengthening power asymmetries and focuses on its potential as an emancipatory agent. Originality/value: The paper provides a site of effective implementation of a participative accountability practice in developing nation contexts that offer suggestions to states, countries and policy-makers. This paper also adds to critical accounting literature in the field of SA and social services at a micro level. Drawing upon Bourdieu in this underexplored field, it shines a light on relational elements of change through accounting and accountability practices for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative assessment of South Africa and India's service delivery improvement strategies, challenges, successes and lessons learnt in advancing their service delivery reform programmes. The cardinal argument in the paper is that the public administrative systems adopted and inherited in the post-democratic epochs in India and South Africa were incapable of meeting the service delivery needs of their respective citizens. They epitomised the traditional and hierarchical public administrative systems that were the object of reforms in the 1990s. The reform initiatives also coincided with global reforms on public administration systems taking place under the aegis of the new public management framework. A key feature of new public management is its application of private-sector ideas to the public sector, such as individual accountability. The paper further undertakes a comparative review of service delivery improvement frameworks of South Africa (Batho Pele) and India (Sevottam) in relation to their objectives and implementation modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the shifting nature of governance reforms, both at global and national levels, in the increasingly commercialised game of cricket. The authors explore the inter-relationship and linkages between governance and commercialism, and in the process, question the contemporary reliance placed on governance as a generic counter-commercialist force and accountability aid. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis is based on a comprehensive analysis of cricketing archives, newspapers and online media. The authors specifically utilise a range of review reports, governance and accounting information from annual reports and websites of the International Cricket Council (ICC) as well as different national cricket governing bodies (NCBs). Findings: The paper vividly demonstrates the importance of recognising the specific significance of different cultural traditions and modes of organising – and not presuming a particular form of impact. The findings highlight that the adoption of a dominant market logic by cricket administrators has resulted in a shift in the balance of power in favour of non-western nations. India has emerged as the clear leader and driving force shaping the way cricket is globally governed. The consequences have been profound but not in terms of delivering, enhanced standards of transparency and accountability. Drawing on institutional theory, the paper argues that the scale of the Board of Cricket Control of India's financial and operational control over the ICC has not only led to an increasingly commercialised game but engendered divergent and highly questionable standards of governance at the level of NCBs. Originality/value: Unlike other global games, cricket has an imperialistic root, and has gone through the process of globalisation in relatively recent times. Also, the commercialisation of cricket has resulted in the global economic and power base shifting from the West to the East, giving us the opportunity to study the dynamics between commercialisation and governance in a quite different globalisation context that allows an assessment to be made of the culturally contingent nature of governance as a substantive organising force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper departs from the analytic lens of citizen versus the state and brings to attention intra-bureaucratic interactions in the wake of Aadhaar by focusing on the ongoing implementation of an Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS). Based on ethnographic research in a North Indian state, I show how AEBAS' goals of performance evaluation and management were partially, and unintentionally, circumvented by staff members, in part owing to the socio-technical design of the system. I argue that an unintended consequence of projects using digital media technologies to quantify and manage performance is their tendency to produce a performance of management, and that scholars and activists must pay attention to such disjunctures inherent in projects of command and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the politics and governance issues underpinning small-scale informal service providers, to extract insights into how water provisioning for the poor works in the periphery of large cities. Drawing on exploratory field research in a large informal settlement at the urban fringe of New Delhi, we show that while informal network water providers ill a gap left by public delivery systems, residents are often captive consumers caught in a low service level trap. Moreover, dominant interests have little incentive to change this situation. The research indicates however, that a shift to better quality services can be realised and that the seeds of change lie in the evolving relationships between key stake- holders. Three distinct shifts in the balance of relationships are examined, framed by larger changes in the socio-economic and political environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Recent decades have seen growing emphasis on enhancing public participation and accountability in governance processes. Yet the valence of these discussions has focused almost entirely on the character of citizen engagement itself, with little attention to the ways in which citizens’ agency is constituted in relation to changing forms of public authority. In this paper, I advance a theoretical account of political representation, a concept that is central to analysis of democracy, but which has seen only limited attention in the scholarship on democratic decentralization. I draw on two contrasting models—selection and sanction—to elaborate an understanding of representation that recognizes both mechanisms that enable citizens to hold their leaders to account as well as the character of leaders’ own intrinsic motivations. Through a qualitative account of three decades’ political change from a locality in the Indian Himalayas, I document a gradual process of institutional and social change that has enabled a new generation of more diverse elected leaders to ascend to positions of elected authority, including many from historically marginalized sections of society. By examining the experiences of three such individuals in detail, I demonstrate the importance of understanding who leaders are and what they do—their skills and aspirations, their identity and affiliations, and the kinds of representative relationships that they embody. Placing the selection and sanction models in dialog reveals new and productive avenues to explore the interplay between external incentive structures and leaders’ intrinsic motivations in shaping broader process of political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the extent to which India's leading 30 companies disclose information about the solid and liquid wastes they produce. Guided by a 35‐item waste disclosure index, companies' 2012–2018 annual reports, sustainability reports and business responsibility reports were content analysed. Although a significant increase in reporting occurred, especially following the Indian government's national waste management campaign in 2014, this increase proceeds from a very low starting point. Over 85 percent of the companies provide limited disclosures. The study's waste disclosure index should prove valuable to researchers and policymakers wishing to measure firms' waste disclosures at and across points in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Mission Karmayogi is a bold initiative by the Government of India to democratize the training process and puts everyone on the same playing field. This mission emphasizes the 'servant' part in the acclaimed civil services. It attempts to address the issues in the existing system, such as complexity and red-tapism, through a capacity-building initiative working at an individual, institutional, and procedural level. The training of employees is a crucial part of their work tenure, but it is only limited to certain topmost services. The 89% of bureaucrats who are in direct touch with the public receive fragmented and sub-par training. Through a bottom-up approach and digitized way of working and training, it attempts to end the 'work-silo' culture of the bureaucracy. Mission Karmayogi aims to cover 46 lakhs employees of the central government within its purview. Design/Methodology/Approach: The government plans to spend INR 510.86 crore over five years, from FY 2021-22 to FY 2024-25. This amount will be partly funded by multilateral assistance of USD 50 million from the World Bank. External accountability and transparency must be crucial for more excellent responsiveness. Improved information systems can ensure this, responsibility for inputs, better audit, publishing all the budget summarised and track records related to this mission by each department suo motto, and a more robust performance evaluation system. Findings: Mission Karmayogi is India's first robust mission to reform civil services and empower them to deliver services effectively and efficiently. It must deal with many issues and tensions. This mission can sail through all these shortcomings if the program is powered with an extended vision and fueled by constant motivation. Research implications: Mission Karmayogi has potential to reform India's civil services and empower them to deliver services effectively and efficiently, if it is implemented efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Official figures claim that almost 3000 people were killed, and many more injured or displaced, in four days of rioting aimed at the Sikh population of Delhi in late October and early November 1984 following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. This article analyses the efforts made to address the human rights violations that occurred. It argues that as a divided democracy, India has struggled to do justice to the victims, despite multiple commissions of inquiry, compensation schemes and a prime ministerial apology. It argues that this has occurred not simply because of challenges commonly faced by democracies dealing with similar incidents, but also because of the particular problems faced in a context in which we see continuity of rule by a political elite allegedly implicated in the abuse and in which there is acute concern for the survival of a fragile divided polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accountability is a core democratic value. It envisages that citizens hold the powerful to account for omissions and commissions. Influenced by the global agenda for good governance, the Right to Information (RTI) Act in India was designed to build accountability through transparency. RTI is primarily a result of democratic politics. It emerged from intense grassroots activism - articulating poor and ordinary citizens’ discontent over corruption and other abuses of power. This study is based on six empirical cases of RTI usage in India’s West Bengal province. I argue that even though it is primarily designed to elicit accountability, RTI has emerged as a “seed right” because of its enabling, foundational and evolving dimensions push forward the process of democratisation. When operating individually, our respondents experienced negligible empowerment, but when the relatively powerless citizens organised collectively and were able to work through political institutions such as political parties and CSOs/NGOs, they could convincingly bargain with the powerholders, and elicit some cooperation, if not accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can human rights funders ensure accountability from the organizations they fund while respecting the autonomy and agency of grantees? How can funder requirements for reporting support genuine processes of critical assessment without overburdening grant recipients? In this policy and practice note, the authors examine these and other dilemmas drawing on experiences and examples from funding human rights organizations in India, Liberia, and Central Africa. Exploring issues of agency, transparency, and power, one comprehensive message emanating from grant-making in these largely disparate areas of the world is the imperative need for funders to establish long-term and transparent relationships with grantees. Lessons learned from over a decade of funding local and national human rights organizations suggest that from this solid foundation built on mutual trust and respect can grow over time more open communication, accountability, and critical assessment. This policy and practice note analyses tools used to navigate funder-grantee relations and tests hypotheses and assumptions in situations where grantees are facing various internal and external challenges. It also provides some recommendations and further thinking for other funders when similarly confronted by power imbalances in the funder-grantee relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tracing activity in 15 Indian state assemblies from 1967 to 2007, we find that overall legislative activity declined but there was also considerable variation across states. States with large electoral constituencies and politically fragmented assemblies showed the worst performance, which suggests a link between political fragmentation and institutional performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to understand the inclusion of citizens and other actors, the structure of incentives and accountability and service delivery outcomes in relation to participatory forms of urban governance in Indian cities. Under a decentralized set-up, the political nature and the poor attendance of people in participative forums seriously serve to undermine the constitutionally envisaged aim of ‘deepening democracy’. New forms of participatory arrangements have been dominated by the middle classes and/or powerful local leaders, resulting in the disempowerment of poorer members of the communities concerned. Patronage politics were engraved in these new forms, where the targeted delivery of services yielded high dividends for the patrons. All these factors necessitate the effective engagement of the excluded and disadvantageous section of people with the policies, politics and processes of participatory governance in Indian cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While concepts such as ‘partnership’ are central to the terminology of private–public mix (PPM), little attention has been paid to how social relations are negotiated among the diverse actors responsible for implementing these inter-sectoral arrangements. India's Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) has used intermediary agents to facilitate the involvement of private providers in the expansion of Directly Observed Therapy, Short-Course (DOTS). We examine the roles of tuberculosis health visitors (TB HVs) in mediating working relationships among private providers, programme staff and patients that underpin a PPM-DOTS launched by the RNTCP in western Maharashtra. In addition to observations and informal interactions with the programme and participating health providers, researchers conducted in-depth interviews with senior programme officers and eight TB HVs. Framed by a political discourse of clinical governance, working relationships within the PPM are structured by the pluralistic context, social and professional hierarchies and paternalism of health care in India. TB HVs are at the nexus of these relationships, yet remain undervalued partly because accountability is measured through technical rather than social outcomes of the ‘partnership’. Close attention to the dynamics of power relations in working practices within the health system can improve accountability and sustainability of partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accountability is increasingly being demanded of public services and is a core aspect of most recent frameworks of health system strengthening. Community-based accountability is an increasingly used strategy, and was a core aspect of India's flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM; 2005-2014). Research on policy implementation has called for policy analysts to go beyond the superficial articulation of a particular policy intervention to study the underlying meaning this has for policy-makers and other actors of the implementation process and to the way in which problems sought to be addressed by the policy have been identified and 'problematised'.Methods: This research, focused on state level officials and health NGO leaders, explores the meanings attached to the concept of accountability among a number of key actors during the implementation of the NRHM in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The overall research was guided by an interpretive approach to policy analysis and the problematisation lens. Through in-depth interviews we draw on the interviewees' perspectives on accountability.Results: The research identifies three distinct perspectives on accountability among the key actors involved in the implementation of the NRHM. One perspective views accountability as the achievement of pre-set targets, the other as efficiency in achieving these targets, and the final one as a transformative process that equalises power differentials between communities and the public health system. We also present the ways in which these differences in perspectives are associated with different programme designs.Conclusions: This research underlines the importance of going beyond the statements of policy to exploring the underlying beliefs and perspectives in order to more comprehensively understand the dynamics of policy implementation; it further points to the impacts of these perspectives on the design of initiatives in response to the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Efforts to work with civil society to strengthen community participation and action for health are particularly important in Gujarat, India, given that the state has resources and capacity, but faces challenges in ensuring that services reach those most in need. To contribute to the knowledge base on accountability and maternal health, this study examines the equity effects of community action for maternal health led by Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) on facility deliveries. It then examines the underlying implementation processes with implications for strengthening accountability of maternity care across three districts of Gujarat, India. Community action for maternal health entailed NGOs a) working with community collectives to raise awareness about maternal health entitlements, b) supporting community monitoring of outreach government services, and c) facilitating dialogue with government providers and authorities with report cards based on community monitoring of maternal health. Methods: The study combined qualitative data (project documents and 56 stakeholder interviews thematically analyzed) with quantitative data (2395 women's self-reported receipt of information on entitlements and use of services over 3 years of implementation monitored prospectively through household visits). Multivariable logistic regression examined delivery care seeking and equity. Results: In the marginalised districts, women reported substantial increases in receipt of information of entitlements and utilization of antenatal and delivery care. In the marginalized and wealthier districts, a switch from private facilities to public ones was observed for the most vulnerable. Supportive implementation factors included a) alignment among NGO organizational missions, b) participatory development of project tools, c) repeated capacity building and d) government interest in improving utilization and recognition of NGO contributions. Initial challenges included a) confidence and turnover of volunteers, b) complexity of the monitoring tool and c) scepticism from both communities and providers. Conclusion: With capacity and trust building, NGOs supporting community based collectives to monitor health services and engage with health providers and local authorities, over time overcame implementation challenges to strengthen public sector services. These accountability efforts resulted in improvements in utilisation of public sector services and a shift away from private care seeking, particularly for the marginalised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are several studies from different geographical settings and levels on maternal health, but none analyzes how accountability problems may contribute to the maternal health outcomes. This study aimed to analyze how accountability problems in public health system lead to maternal deaths and inequities in India. Methods: A conceptual framework was developed bringing together accountability process (in terms of standard setting, performance assessment, accountability (or answerability, and enforceability) —an ongoing cyclical feedback process at different levels of health system) and determinants of maternal health to analyze the influence of the process on the determinant leading to maternal health outcomes. A scoping review of qualitative and mixed-methods studies from public health sector in India was conducted. A narrative and interpretive synthesis approach was applied to analyze data. Results: An overarching influence of health system-related factors over non-health system-related factors leading to maternal deaths and inequities was observed. A potential link among such factors was identified with gaps in accountability functions at all levels of health system pertaining to policy gaps or conflicting/discriminatory policies and political commitment. A large number of gaps were also observed concerning performance or implementation of existing standards. Inherent to these issues was potentially a lack of proper monitoring and accountability functions. A critical role of power was observed influencing the accountability functions. Conclusion: The narrative and interpretive synthesis approach allowed to integrate and reframe the relevant comparable information from the limited empirical studies to identify the hot spots of systemic flaws from an accountability perspective. The framework highlighted problems in health system beyond health service delivery to wider areas such as policy or politics justifying their relevance and importance in such analysis. A crucial message from the study pertains to a need to move away from the traditional concept of viewing accountability as a blame-game approach and a concern of limited frontline health workers towards a constructive and systemic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]