The UNDP in India has launched what is called Solution Exchange (SE) — a knowledge sharing initiative — to help the nation achieve the development objectives of India’s Five Year Plans and the Millennium Development Goals of the UN to which India is a signatory.

In the words of the UNDP: “SE is building communities of practice of development practitioners, connecting people with similar concerns and interests through e-mail groups and face to face interactions, with the common objective of problem-solving”.

There is an interesting portal developed by the UNDP called SE for Decentralisation. Community members, who are concerned with strengthening decentralised governance through local bodies — mandated by 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments — can take help from the site.

Many interesting views of those involved with the local bodies are shared online and one gets a plethora of views and issues round the clock. All this is undoubtedly useful. But what is not available on the portal is the whole politics of subjugation of how these local bodies are weakened day in and day out by higher level politicians like MLAs and MPs in the hierarchy of governance.

One has to know how the local bodies are struggling to implement the 29 functions delegated to them by the state, how the village panchayats are delegated functions by the state from the right hand and taken away by the left hand and how functionaries are ill-equipped to manage the functions without knowledge and resources.

Good governance at all levels in India — from the village to the state to the nation — is all about good leadership at all these levels and not just about financial delegation and power shedding or knowledge sharing.

There is an obsession about knowledge banks and portals that by sharing knowledge-based solutions and removing resource constraints, we can solve the problems of mis-governance at all levels. The best talent is available in local bodies but what they lack is knowledge about the tactics of the leaders who are supposed to inspire and motivate rather than harass them and disempower them from time to time.

Awareness programmes have to focus on promoting good local leaders. They must be imparted  skills to negotiate with higher level politicians and get the benefits for people in their blocks. Equally vital is to teach them to negotiate with bureaucrats, who often keep them on tenterhooks.

Several other questions need answers. Can we find solutions, which are just and human, for the complex reservation system  of a multitude of caste groups at the village panchayat level  that our higher level bureaucrats and politicians have evolved over the decades so as to make local governance ineffective and useless?

Can we find solutions through the digital revolution to make our Gram Sabhas the pivot for bringing about Gram Swaraj in the country? Our computer brains have not yet reached these village panchayats. As a result, the villager is running from pillar to post to find “solutions” for his daily woes like paying his land revenue, his shop licence fee, getting his caste certificate, his income certificate and so on?

Finally, can we find solutions for the panchayat leaders in India on how a county head in Switzerland is managing his county affairs because a village panchayat in India is bigger than a Swiss county or how the mayor of Bangalore or Mumbai can learn how the mayors of London or New York are managing their cities, which are smaller than London or New York in size and population?