Governments around the world have for some time been exposed to the forces of globalisation and macroeconomic reform.
Within India, efforts to regulate the impact of world and domestic markets on vulnerable populations have shifted from macroeconomic policies aimed at protecting core industries, such as manufacturing, textiles and agriculture, to micro-economic interventions aimed at providing food and cash transfers to groups and individuals affected by market fluctuations and ecological disturbances, such as flooding and drought.’
Central to this transformation has been a process of decentralisation, in which responsibility for the implementation of centrally funded employment and self-employment programmes has been delegated to lower level units of governance, especially ones at the state and sub-state level.
