About Good Governance

While governance is often equated with government, it, in fact, involves much more. Governance occurs at all levels and encompasses the ways that formal government, non-governmental groups, community organisations and the private sector manage resources and affairs.

Three factors that largely determine the efficacy of any system of governance are the quality of leadership, the characteristics of the governed, and the nature of the structures and processes employed to exercise authority and meet human needs.

The capacity of any institution to effect and manage change, and to respond creatively to challenges that lie before it, entails the development of a number of critical skills. These include the ability to maintain a clear perception of social reality and of the forces operating in it; to properly assess the resources of the community; and to implement decisions with an openness and flexibility that avoid all traces of dictatorial behaviour, among others. This constellation of skills must obviously draw on both intellectual and moral resources.


Good governance, in essence, is a moral and spiritual practice whose compass is found within the human heart. Only as the inner lives of citizens are transformed will the vision of an aatmanirbhar Bharat and the integrity of governmental and public institutions be safeguarded.