State has been defined as a body /institution of government/ political organization of a society having rules and laws; officials and titles, with well-defined physical/ geographical boundaries as area of jurisdiction; having sovereignty and run from a political, practical standpoint. Looking at the historic growth and development, state is known to have an overarching presence in a given geographical area of jurisdiction, impacting every aspect of human living. Accordingly, role, and relevance of state has assumed importance in optimizing human living, providing basic essentials of life, empowering people and communities, generating employment, taking care of their healthcare, promoting social, economic and physical development , removing poverty, bridging gap between rich and poor besides ensuring basic amenities of life to the poorest of the poor of its citizens. States are accordingly mandated to promote inclusivity, sustainability, universal good of all its inhabitants and create an environ of safety, security and prosperity. For promoting the universal good and create optimum conditions, states have adopted the mechanism of making policies and program for achieving the objectives defined above. With increasing human numbers and increasing diversity of human activities led by urbanization, industrialization, globalization and technologies, the nature and complexity of public policies have undergone total change in intent and contents. These policies framed by state have assumed importance and have emerged as the major drivers and promoters of pattern of economic growth and major tool for management and governance. Knowing the impact of public policies on growth, development and welfare of the communities/area, framing rational, objective and people focused public policies have assumed added importance. Considering the role, importance and strength of public policy, it has been increasingly misused, abused and manipulated by the ruling elite, as one of the most potent tools, to serve the interests of selected organisations and group of people. In majority of cases public policies are led by subjectivity rather than objectivity and for promoting the personal agenda rather than promoting public good. In democratic structures, the potential of public policy has been invariably leveraged to promote vote-bank policies to remain in power. Public policies have also been used to misuse and abused state power and resources for the development of particular area and communities ignoring/marginalizing other communities/area. Policies have been used/misused to promote poverty and widening the gap between rich and poor. Public policies framed with personal agenda/motive has led to creating conflicts and violence. Majority of conflicts and crisis faced by large number of countries have genesis in the manipulated public policies made operational by the rulers and ruling agencies/elites. Accordingly, knowing the role, r

1. What should Go into Making of a Successful
Public Policy
*Jit Kumar Gupta
State has been defined as a body /institution of government/ political organization of a
society having rules and laws; officials and titles, with well-defined physical/
geographical boundaries as area of jurisdiction; having sovereignty and run from a
political, practical standpoint. Looking at the historic growth and development, state is
known to have an overarching presence in a given geographical area of jurisdiction,
impacting every aspect of human living. Accordingly, role, and relevance of state has
assumed importance in optimizing human living, providing basic essentials of life,
empowering people and communities, generating employment, taking care of their
healthcare, promoting social, economic and physical development , removing poverty,
bridging gap between rich and poor besides ensuring basic amenities of life to the
poorest of the poor of its citizens. States are accordingly mandated to promote
inclusivity, sustainability, universal good of all its inhabitants and create an environ of
safety, security and prosperity. For promoting the universal good and create optimum
conditions, states have adopted the mechanism of making policies and program for
achieving the objectives defined above.
With increasing human numbers and increasing diversity of human activities led by
urbanization, industrialization, globalization and technologies, the nature and
complexity of public policies have undergone total change in intent and contents. These
policies framed by state have assumed importance and have emerged as the major
drivers and promoters of pattern of economic growth and major tool for management
and governance. Knowing the impact of public policies on growth, development and
welfare of the communities/area, framing rational, objective and people focused public
policies have assumed added importance. Considering the role, importance and
strength of public policy, it has been increasingly misused, abused and manipulated by
the ruling elite, as one of the most potent tools, to serve the interests of selected
organisations and group of people. In majority of cases public policies are led by
subjectivity rather than objectivity and for promoting the personal agenda rather than
promoting public good. In democratic structures, the potential of public policy has been
invariably leveraged to promote vote-bank policies to remain in power.

2. Public policies have also been used to misuse and abused state power and resources
for the development of particular area and communities ignoring/marginalizing other
communities/area. Policies have been used/misused to promote poverty and widening
the gap between rich and poor. Public policies framed with personal agenda/motive has
led to creating conflicts and violence. Majority of conflicts and crisis faced by large
number of countries have genesis in the manipulated public policies made operational
by the rulers and ruling agencies/elites. Accordingly, knowing the role, relevance,
impact, importance and influence, public policies need to be framed with care and
caution so that these policies help in achieving the defined objectives of universal good.
Considering the need and importance of framing rational public policies, it will be
important to look at the context/gamut of making public policies; define does and don’ts
while framing the policies and suggest options to create capacity in the state to prepare
manpower which can help in making framework of public policy more rational, objective
, effective, efficient and people focused
Context
 Framing/forming policies form integral part of growth, development and
governance of any nation, state and community.
 Policy formulation invariably remains the foray of beaurucrats and the
professionals,
 Every state, region and city have a policy framework (intended/unintended),
dedicated to so called promoting universal good, prosperity, equity and quality of
life for both existing and future population, which is going to live in the given
geographical area.
 Policy making is traditionally depicted as a process that includes and involves;
first identifying the issue and placing it on the agenda; followed by defining the
problem; analyzing policy goals, evolving and examining alternative solutions
and finally writing the most appropriate one into policy. Policies are then
implemented by the executive agencies. Interest groups may challenge the
actions through the judicial system operating in the given society. Sometimes,
the policy is evaluated and revised or scrapped. At each stage, the theory goes,
policymakers use evidence, data, and reason to guide their actions. The reality of
policymaking, of course, remains much more complex.
 Policies are known for their positivity and negativities, creating favorable and
irrational pattern of growth.
 Majority of the policies suffer from the malaise of subjectivity rather than
objectivity.

3.  Majority of ills prevailing in any society and communities, can be largely
attributed to the intent, content, scope, formulation and implementation of
policies in the said geographical space.
 All public policies have a hidden agenda which remains invisible to majority of the
people, communities and stakeholders.
 Policies are the outcome of what has been enunciated by the party exercising
command, authority and power in the defined geographical area; weather that
power is vested through democratic or autocratic systems of governance.
 Policies are largely the outcome of the vision and approach
adopted/stated/declared/defined by the group governing/ruling, legally/illegally,
any geographical entity.
 Policies are also the outcome of copying/duplicating success stories created in
different geographies/ areas of growth and development.
 In the political system, it is invariably the ruling party , which remains, primarily
and essentially, involved in formulation and implementation of policies.
 In a democratic system of governance, policy formulation falls within the domain
of party elected/voted to power through the process of election conducted
periodically, as defined by law of the nation. In other systems , it is the
entity/people who exercise power and authority, by virtue of the system, through
which they are put in place for governing the state/nation.
 In majority of cases, basic agenda , aim and objective of any policy framed by the
governance structure, is to ensure that ruling entity remains perpetually in power.
Accordingly, all policies put in place focus on empowering people in power and
to make ordinary citizens feel happy and supportive of the policies put in place.
 Policies also involve lot of cost to the nation/people when they are oriented
towards promoting vote-bank politics. Such policies invariably lead nations to
high degree of bankruptcy/indebtedness.
 Policies do not always involve promoting public good, they can also be
counterproductive and anti-thesis to rational growth and development e.g.
periodic regularization of slums in urban areas etc.
 Majority of nations and communities suffer from the malaise of irrational policies
formulation at the state and the local level, which are embedded with distortions.
 Many communities , nations and states also suffer from policy paralysis, due to
absence/slow formulation of policies by the ruling group.
 Policies are known for its strength, role and importance in transforming
communities and have placed numerous nations on fast trajectory of economic
and social growth and development. Dubai/Singapore remain the classical
example of transformation nations and communities, through wonderful policy
framework put in operation to attract investment by creating state of art
infrastructure, providing incentives and ensuring safety and security to the
trading companies/communities.

4.  Public policies are also known to promote poverty and exclusion of majority of
people from main stream of growth and development.
 Policy formulation invariably remains prerogative of the elite /ruling class, which
command power and authority.
 In majority of cases, the role and responsibility of formulation of policies is
vested with executive/ bureaucracy engaged in doing day- to- day work ,duly
assisted by people working in the line departments.
 Each nation/state has its own system of policy formulation and implementation,
which is rarely reviewed/analyzed/redefined to make it more effective ,
efficient ,rational and logical.
 Public policies also remain biased, promoting financial and social interests of
particular group/groups for making available financial and other advantages to a
select group.
 Public Policies have also been found to be rooted in/based on a barter system
for promoting mutual interests- in majority of cases between the ruling group
and the elites of the society- Real estate.
 Public policies remain different and distinct based on the political philosophy and
types of challenge to be addressed . Generally, bureaucracy/bureaucrats hold
the key to create public policy in response to an issue/ problem.
 All public policies involve and showcase, what the government would do to
address the problem. Public policy can take the form of a new law, city
ordinance, or government regulation.
 Public policy is always evolving, devolving, never static and never fixed/finite.
 Public policies framed not only have local but also global implications, impacting
nations across the globe.
 Public policies also hold the potential of dividing communities and societies within
the given geographical areas, instead of bringing them on the common platform.
 Policymaking remains a constant struggle over the criteria for classification; the
boundaries of categories, and the definition of ideals that guide the way people
behave.
 Each stage of policy making, involve and include competing views about what
the problem is, if and why it matters, how it works, and what should be done to
overcome such a problem.
Do’es in Rational Public Policy Making
Considering the role, relevance, importance and potential of public policies on human
living and society, all public policies should be framed with positivity, objectivity,
promoting universal good, ensuring equitable distribution of state resources , removing
poverty, providing basic amenities of life and empowering human beings besides
creating institutions which can innovate and promote public good and make the
communities happy and healthy. Public policies framed must include and involve;

5.  Defining clearly and objectively intent, contents, scope and specify goals and
objectives to be achieved; communities to be addressed; process/time-frame for
implementation and expected outcome.
 Public policies must ensure that policies framed remain people centric and not
authority centric.
 Policies should invariably focus on empowering people and communities
making value addition and ensuring equitable distribution of available resources
to all the citizens residing in the geographical area, based on equity and social
justice.
 Policies should, primarily and essentially , aim at making optimum use of
available resources for promoting public good.
 Removing poverty and empowering poor should remain the central theme/focus
of the public policies framed.
 Policies framed at the local, regional and state levels must remain in line and
should invariably avoid dualities and contradictions.
 Any policy, which focusses merely on economic and financial gain ignoring local
culture and social structure, will always hurt majority and society.
 All policies framed should leverage the strength of existing parastatal agencies to
promote public good and good of disadvantaged group or community.
 Policies should aim at reducing the existing gaps and bridging them by
empowering lower strata of society.
 All important aspects of human living and making them qualitative must be
brought under policy framework.
 Policy framework should invariably focus on preserving the vital, valuable and
scarce resources, essentially needed for preserving, conserving, protecting
environment and promoting ecology, identity, culture and economy of any place
,area, community and state
 Policies formulated must address both short-term and long-term objectives of
the society, facing challenges.
 Policies framed must focus on not only curative but also looking at preventive
strategies to overcome perpetual problems faced by society and communities.
 Policy formulation should be made integral part of governance structure and all
elected representatives and state officials must be trained in the art and science
of rational policy formulation.
 NGOs , CBOs and civil society should be made integral part of policy
formulation, implementation, review and redefinition
 All good policies should remain people centric and not individual centric. Policies
framed must promote public good and not good of selected individuals/groups.
 Good policies invariably lead to good governance.
 Good policies should be based on the principles of openness, universal
participation, accountability, effectiveness, coherence and subsidiarity.

6.  Good policy formulation includes and involve good implementation. Any policy
which fails at the altar of implementation must be discarded and avoided.
 For assuring the successful implementation of public policies, a more efficient
and effective allocation of public resources and increasing citizen’s direct
participation, involvement, engagement and empowerment, must be embedded
in the policy.
 A well-formulated policy needs to have clear articulation of goals, and targets to
be achieved besides defining mechanism for implementation.
 Impact of policies is easier when the expected outcomes are clearly defined,
understood and appreciated by all the stakeholders.
 All policies be supported by allocation of adequate resources, trained manpower
and dedicated institutions for effective implementation. Funding mechanism
should have budgetary provisions for implementing individual policy areas.
 Periodic monitoring of results, fine-tuning of policy and delivery modalities are
essential and critical for success of any policy.
 Public Policies should invariably be driven/led by/ based on accurate/reliable
data, facts and figures, related to the area of policy, which should be invariably
sourced from reliable institutions.
 Policy formulation should be preceded by wide ranging consultation with all
stakeholders and communities to be impacted.
 Policies made after wider consultation and understanding the local needs and
culture, have better chances to succeed and acceptance.
 Study and learning remain vital and critical. Policies earlier made on the same
subject must be made integral part of fresh policy to avoid earlier pitfalls.
 While elected officials remain important in shaping policy, but policy outcomes
must have genesis/outcome of considerable debate, compromise, input
received from multiple institutions, both governmental/parastatal agencies /
interest groups and the public.
 Public policies based on universal positivity and inclusion have better chances to
succeed as against policies promoting and propagating negativities and
exclusion.
Don’ts in Public Policy Making
Public policies made/framed based on the principle of subjectivity and exclusion, have
been found to have done more damage than good to the communities/state. These
policies have proved to be a failure and rejection by the communities/society, to whom
such policies targeted/addressed. Accordingly, while framing public policies , it will be
critical to identify/state/define elements which must be excluded from the policy
making, to avoid pitfalls in public policies. These pitfalls need to be identified based on
the critical studies made of earlier policies, bringing out the causes/reasons of success
and failure of the policies implemented. The scorecard of avoiding elements need to be
updated and made integral part of teaching-learning of a successful policy formulation.

7. In addition, all public policies made, must be reviewed , whether all negativities have
been removed before making the policy operational. Some of the negativities which
need exclusion from public policy have been identified and detailed below;
 Policies which waste/destroy State resources, and believe in providing
doles/freebies, to gain people confidence and goodwill to gain power; should
invariably be avoided.
 Public Policies based on more of subjectivity and less of objectivity, invariably
leads to disruptions and distortions.
 Too many/excess of public policies remain bad and prove counter-productive
 Policies must be fine-tuned to remain objective in description. Ambiguities in
policy formulation and possibilities of misinterpretation/manipulation need to be
avoided.
 Policies leading to creating conflict between various communities and groups
must be avoided.
 Policies which are not followed and opposed by majority of population should
invariably be modified/avoided.
 All policies based on negativities remain counter-productive and should be
avoided.
 Policies borrowed and copied from different social, economic and physical
structures, without considering the local context and culture , have more chances
of failure than success.
 Any policy which widens the social, physical and economic gap shall invariably
remain counter-productive and needs to be avoided.
 Prevailing contradictions in policies formulated by various agencies and
institutions should invariably be avoided.
 Public policies have to be framed with long term perspective. Short -term/quick-
fix policies, in majority of cases, lead to creating adverse environment in space
and society.
Role of Data in Policy formulation
Failures/inadequacies/inefficiencies prevailing in majority of public policies can be
largely attributed to the fact, that such policies were not supported by any authentic data
and detailed studies made. In order to avoid such pitfalls, all public policies must be
framed and based on prevailing ground realities and perception of the
people/stakeholders to whom policy is being addressed. Any public policy, formulated
without prior consultation and without taking into account ground realities, will
invariably fail in achieving its defined objective. For making any policy rational and
objective, it will be critical that it must be supported by sourcing authentic qualitative
and quantitative data on the subject of policy .Accordingly, creation of a data bank with
regard to physical, social, economic and environmental aspects of the area and local
communities will remain pre-requisite/ crucial for framing rational policies. Authentic
and accurate data holds distinct advantages in the policy formulations for the reasons;

8.  Authentic and quality data always remains the foundation/fulcrum of the
formulation of rational public policy
 Data opens up realm of large possibilities for policy-makers, not only helping in
better understanding and identifying areas of intervention, but also allowing for
an accurate assessment of the effectiveness and impact of interventions
undertaken.
 Lack of data severely hinders and delays the understanding , formulation and
performance of the public policy in the critical areas such as health, education
and sanitation,
 Absence of data invariably leads to delay in the assessment and evaluation of
the policy in the given area.
 Ensuring the availability of high quality, granular, low cost, and real-time data
remains a key requirement, for good/rational/efefctive policy formulation and its
implementation. It also helps in promoting data driven good governance.
 For administrative data to stay relevant in policy making it needs updating,
monitoring and strengthening on continued basis.
 Harnessing the potential of administrative data invariably helps in formulating
and designing better/robust policies, for transforming millions of lives across
the world.
While data remains valuable/important ; quality and nature of data to be referred to
remains critical, while framing policies. Data referred to for framing policies has to be,
both qualitative besides coming from a reliable source. Referring any unreliable data
will lead to forming policies which will invariably lead to adverse consequences and
failure of the policy at ground level. It will be in the fitness of circumstances, if all the
state governments setup a centralized data center at the state level duly supported by
District level data centers, to map the entire state including its geographical area and
population and create a data bank. These data centers must be manned by
professional of outstanding merit, who can source data from different sources; analyze
it carefully and periodically; inform the state governments about the emerging
issues/problems for taking appropriate decisions regarding formulation of the public
policies. Existing manpower and resources available in the state Statistical wings
/Planning Board can be effectively leveraged in creating data banks at state and district
levels.
Role of Technology in Public Policy formulation;
Technology has emerged an important and critical tool in the domain of policy
formulation and policy implementation, which is now being used extensively, both locally
and globally. Technology holds enormous capacity, capability and potential in sourcing
relevant information; identifying good practices used globally on similar topics;

9. identifying elements used in making of the successful policy; mapping extent of
success and failure of the different policies besides learning lessons from the said
policies. All these can be achieved in the most cost-effective and time- efficient manner
through the use of appropriate information technology. Potential of IT technology still
remains marginalized and muted in policy making. State must leverage the expertise
available with the department of IT, to evolve tools/software for
scanning/analyzing/evaluating the data and make it available for policy formulation.
However, technology has to be used with care and caution. Public policies have to be
framed considering the local contexts, culture, practices, prevailing social, economic
and physical conditions; patterns of literacy; political environment and attitudes,
preferences and aversions of the local communities, population etc.
Role of Academic Institutions
Policy formation has largely remained the forte of the state bureaucracy with minimum
input from the academic institutions. This practice has led to formation of policies which
remain myopic in vision/ time-scale. Accordingly, such policies have yielded limited
dividends . In order to ensure that public policies focus on long term growth and
development of the communities and nations , it will be critical to involve reputed
institutions in making public policies. State governments must identify such institutions
of excellence, who have requisite capacity, capability and manpower resource to look
into the entire gamut of growth and development of the state in a holistic manner and
suggest policy options to promote its development. Constant interaction with such
institutions can help in rationalizing the policy making capacity of the state government.
All states have established institutions of public administration for training its human
resources in the art and science of good governance. Strength of such institutions, with
appropriate modifications/strengthening/restructuring, needs to be leveraged in the
domain of public policy. Involving academic institutions in the public policy formulation,
can help in making policies more focused, qualitative, productive, effective and efficient.
Element of Accountability
Public policies, despite its critical role in determining /rationalizing the growth and
development of any community and state ,have never been subjected to
accountability of the people responsible for formulating such policies. Lack of
accountability has led making large number of public policies, which appear to be
patently wrong in its intent, contents and scope, causing enormous financial loss
besides promoting social and cultural disparities in the region. Lack of accountability
has led to embedding a culture of subjectivity in formulating such policies. Many wrongs
have been done and perpetuated in the name of policies framed by the state. Many
states/areas/communities remain impoverished due to wrong/biased policies
formulated for such areas and communities. Large state financial and other resources
have been misused/abused in the garb of promoting public interest through irrational

10. policies. Such practices need to be curbed and addressed on priority in order to make
the domain of policy making more transparent, professional, objective and people
centric. For achieving the objective , element of responsibility, on the part of ruling
political leadership and bureaucrats involved, needs to be embedded and made
integral part of policy formulation. This should include that all the officials including the
political system involved in forming public policies which are patently wrong and leads to
causing financial and other structural/cultural losses , must be held accountable and
appropriately dealt with a law put in place. Role of courts in such cases assume
importance in making public policies more objective, transparent and rational by
including accountability as part of policy making and implementation.
Conclusion;
In the current scenario of rapid urbanization, industrialization, globalization,
liberalization and opening up of economies, role, involvement and responsibilities of the
states have increased manifold, impacting all aspects of human living, growth and
development. In this changed scenario, art and science of formulating rational public
policy has emerged as an area of considerable importance and specialization for
modulating the growth and development of the people and the state. Accordingly, it
becomes important that pattern/practice of formulating public policy, is made objective,
more professional, productive, effective, efficient and people centric. This would call for
creating appropriate capacity within the government and creating institutions which can
assist the state in formulating rational and objective policies.
At present, policy making has been the exclusive domain of the bureaucratic system
working in the state, limited to All India Services(IAS/IPS/IRS/IFS) and State
Administrative Services(PCS). This limitation needs to be replaced by having larger
manpower trained in the art and science of policy making, available to the state. For
having more manpower, States should include policy making integral part of manpower
training in the training curricula, so that all the senior level functionaries, working in the
state services, are appropriately trained in the art of making of the public policy. In
addition, all institutions involved in training manpower are also mandated to create
capacities in formulating the public policies. Learning policy making should not remain
confined to public services only , its scope and ambit must be widened by including
public policies integral part of professional teaching and learning for empowering
professionals in the policy formulation. Elected representatives in general and Ministers
in particular must also be trained in the complexities and intricacies of framing rational
public policies in order to enable them to play their role in framing rational policies.
Looking at the above brief, policy formulation remains a distinct and professional field
and accordingly must be developed professionally, rationally and logically. Success,

11. growth, development and governance of any state and nation depends upon its
capacity, capability, ability, efficacy and efficiency in preparing , formulating and
successfully implementing quality policy framework which remains critical or making
India as the global leader besides removing poverty, promoting larger public interest
and achieving universal good.
Author;
Ar Jit Kumar Gupta
#344/40-a, Chandigarh-160036
Former, Director, College of Architecture IET Bhaddal (Pb)
mail-jit.kumar1944@gmail.com