Governments worldwide should do a periodic assessment of processes under various regulations, legislations and even of the institutions as part of the process reforms to improve economic and policy efficiency, Sanjeev Sanyal, member of the Economic Advisory Council to the PM said.
“There is a need to systematically analyse the process reforms as a distinct class, thereby making them a routine subject of both policy and academic discourse,” Sanyal said in a working paper co-authored with Akanksha Arora, joint director, EAC-PM.
“Process reforms are an important policy tool for improving economic performance. Greater attention on process reforms will lead to the constant use of small, targeted, iterative changes that improve economic and policy efficiency,” he said.
The working paper, done jointly with the Institute for Competitiveness and Stanford University, defines process reforms as the nuts-and-bolts reforms, often microeconomic in nature, with a specific focus on an individual sector or issue.
“Their core objective is to simplify and streamline operational processes and enhance the efficiency of a particular activity,” it said, adding that although such reforms involve small changes, they still have the potential to make a significant impact.
Listing out six ways to undertake process reforms, the working paper said one key feature in this type of reform is the importance of clearly mapping out the existing process and then identifying the problem points.
As per the paper, the first type of process reforms requires administrative streamlining of existing processes as has been done with the direct benefit transfers to beneficiaries accounts with use of technology.
The second type of process reforms requires changes in regulations under the existing law, as illustrated in the case of telecom regulations for the IT- BPO sector while the third type requires amendments to the legislation as has been done in the case of decriminalisation of various offences under the legal meteorology law.
The fourth type requires adding capacity at some level of the government, the fifth type of process reforms involve removal of a state mandated activity and the sixth type of process reform involves merging, closing or restructuring government bodies as has been done with various autonomous organisations in India in the past few years, it said.
According to the paper, Indian economy has shown strong economic growth and macroeconomic resilience in past few years on the back of structural reforms such as introduction of goods and services tax (GST), an inflation-targeting framework, and the implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
“Another very important contributor has been the systematic application of process reforms in order to improve ease of doing business, delivery of public services and removal of outdated regulations,” it added.
