Intergovernmental Profile: India

The government of India is a federal parliamentary constitutional republic with three levels of government: the Union (federal or central) government, state governments and Union Territories, and local governments. At the state level, the country is divided into 28 states and 8 Union Territories. States are further administratively subdivided into districts and sub-districts. In parallel to the deconcentrated administrative structures below the state level, the structure of local governance institutions differs between rural and urban areas as well as from state to state, as local governments are a state power. While urban residents are generally served by elected Urban Local Bodies (e.g., municipal corporation, municipal councils or town boards), rural residents are typically served by Panchayats Raj Institutions, which generally operate at three tiers of the public sector: District, Block, and Village.

Compared to other federal countries around the world, the multilevel governance system in India is characterized by extensive hierarchical power relationships. For instance, according to the Constitution, the executive power of the State is formally vested in a Governor who is appointed by the (Union) President. Nonetheless, state governments meet all characteristics of devolved governments in practice, and should be considered devolved institutions in their own right, with extensive powers. Below the state level, district administrations are non-devolved organizations that are part of their respective state governments; the most senior state government officer at the district level is the District Collector or District Magistrate. Despite constitutional reforms pursued 30 years ago, local governance bodies in India generally lack sufficient autonomy and authoritative decision-making power to be considered de facto truly devolved local governments. According to the LoGICA methodology, urban as well as rural local governance institutions in India should be considered hybrid subnational governance institutions that combine features of devolution and deconcentration. In particular, local governance institutions in India typically lack powers to manage their own human resources and face many restrictions on their fiscal autonomy.

The Indian Constitution provides the basis for the distribution of powers and functions between the Union government and the states, and since 1992, between the states and the local level. Although the constitution amendments adopted in 1992 encourage states to devolve powers and responsibilities and to endow panchayats and municipalities with powers and authority to enable them to function as institutions of self-government, the language in the constitution relating to the devolution of functional responsibilities to the level is quite vague and permits state governments the discretion to decide which powers and authority to devolve and which functions should be retain at the state level. Although local governments play a somewhat more important role in public service delivery in some states than in others, in most states, key public services—such as public education and health services—continue to fall almost exclusively under the control of the state governments. For instance, teachers and health workers in all states are employed by state governments. The responsibility for the delivery of frontline public services by state governments is typically assigned to district-level administrative units.