Good Governance: Never on India's Radar

'India is clearly divided into two worlds-the much touted "shining India" signifying the glossy, superficial, highly westernized sections of society with their extravagant lifestyles, and the "left-behind India" or Bharat, which consists of the poor, deprived, malnourished, under-fed, neglected and marginalized sections of society, residing largely in rural areas and in slums and hutments in urban areas. There is an ever widening gap between these two Indias.' In this concise yet wide-ranging book, Madhav Godbole delves into what he considers the root of India's socio-political problems: the lack of good governance, which, he asserts, has never been a focus of governments in our country. Godbole traces the rise and fall of politics and policy in independent India from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru's prime ministership to present day through a careful exploration of several issues-from defining the concept of good governance as understood universally, to identifying the highly problematic areas of governance that need urgent action and emphasizing how changes in polices can make a marked difference to governance in our country.