As the Chief Secretary of your state, write an article on 'Life after Covid'-- discussing the role of the government, the expectations of and from the citizens; the changes in living and working style all will need to adopt post this crisis. the first person to answer it correctly will be marked the brainliest
Answers
Explanation:
COVID-19, is as much a black swan event as it is a force majeure. The pandemic is out of the Pandora’s box, and has brought us all to an inflection point, where we are reminded of Paul Romer’s advice to economists, equally valid for policy makers, today, to dwell “on ‘ideas gap’ as much as deficiencies in factories and roads.”
The policy makers are faced with Catch 22 choices, and weighing the matrix of pros and cons in short and long term is keeping policy makers engaged round the clock, especially as scarce out of box ideas are fighting the passivity of conventional wisdom. But we cannot afford to be stuck in a Hamletian dilemma, ‘To do or not to do’.
In the last few days of the lockdown, the world seems to have changed in one broad brush stroke at many levels, across our life-work, in society-economy and some of these changes are here to stay for good. As the lockdown stands extended, this may just be the right time to reassess the public policy narrative and how governance post COVID19, will require to be conducted in and for times to come. In short, it simply means preparing through anticipation to meet expectations, based on learnings from these times, about 1) sectors and issues that have remained unattended in the past and are in dire need of urgent attention now 2) connecting the dots across the vast and complex network of interdependencies, through massive convergence drive and 3) re- defining the role of and relationship between governments, citizens and civil society at large. Because Governance is a public good, universally available to all, without exclusion.
In 1887, Woodrow Wilson, the Father of Public Administration, had carved out a separate niche for public policy administration, as the basis for governance by providing the basic principles for policy makers. Over the years, it came to acquire a distinct organizational structure, hierarchy, values and orientation. In the 1970’s public welfare and developmental orientation to address client needs became the focus of comparative public administration. The era of liberalization and globalization in the 1990’s, ushered in a more corporate style of functioning, which pushed states everywhere to move from developmental governance and welfare orientation to market style business practices through public private partnerships, with enhanced focus on efficiency, minimum governments-majorly outsourced on user pay principles. This New Public Management culture favours more privatization, and democratic governments everywhere have come to resemble the corporate world, catering to aspirational consumers than citizen needs. The COVID19, has revealed, chinks in this approach, requiring a complete overhaul, where the states rise up from the collateral damage of pestilence as phoenix to reclaim their role as administrators of the people, for the people and by the people, in true letter and spirit, by whichever nomenclature you may like to call this new phase in Public Administration, its here to stay.
The Covid19 protocol of isolation, ‘stay home, stay safe’, in one stroke, levelled individuals, as it stripped upper and middle class households of their scaffolds of support systems- maids, cooks, cleaners, drivers; the lower class mostly seasonal labour, daily wagers, hawkers, who have all lost their source of employment, as large corporations, factories, industries, small and medium enterprises, supply chains and delivery have all came to a grinding halt and workforce everywhere has became part of the lockdown. Stranded immigrants abroad or migrant workforce within the country all want a safe passage to the sanctity of their homes. Barring a few exigent and essential services of doctors, police, municipalities and such like, private and public offices, educational institutes, all commercial and cultural establishments were force shut, to contain the spread of the virus.
In order to keep the households and workplaces going, ‘hands on’ became the new mantra; while households adjusted more easily to chores being divided between individual members, public and corporate offices, educational-cultural institutions, media, all rose to the challenge by shifting gear from physical presence to jumping on several technology driven platforms and apps to continue to work from home, be it online classes or webinars, podcasts and all kinds of social media ‘live’ to stay relevant and functional. And within a matter of a few days, we were all back to normal in work spaces, working from homes, with greater ease, flexibility and perhaps greater outreach and efficiency.