(a) Policy problems are increasingly tending towards being wicked. Discuss the capacity and preparedness of the State to tackle such problems. (20 marks)

(b) Zero-based budgeting was intended to get away from incrementalism, but ended up being the m

Question

(a) Policy problems are increasingly tending towards being wicked. Discuss the capacity and preparedness of the State to tackle such problems. (20 marks)

(b) Zero-based budgeting was intended to get away from incrementalism, but ended up being the most incremental of any budgetary approach. Discuss. (15 marks)

(c) ICT has immense potential to transform governance and empower citizens. Examine. (15 marks)

UPSC Answer Check · Accepted Answer

Wicked Problems and State Capacity

Rittel and Webber defined wicked problems as policy challenges characterized by extreme complexity, open-ended boundaries, and contested definitions, where solving one dimension often generates unforeseen contradictions. In India, such challenges manifest in accelerating climate vulnerabilities, chaotic urbanization, and public health shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evaluating the State’s capacity and preparedness reveals significant institutional adaptation juxtaposed with structural limitations. The State has demonstrated capacity through statutory and strategic frameworks, notably the Disaster Management Act 2005, the institutional mechanisms under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, and NITI Aayog’s SDG Localization frameworks that benchmark sub-national performance. However, preparedness is constrained by deep administrative silos. Horizontal coordination across fragmented ministries remains weak, while vertical coordination between the Centre, States, and local bodies suffers from asymmetric fiscal and technical capabilities. Furthermore, bounded epistemic competence within generalist civil services limits data-driven forecasting and adaptive governance. Consequently, the administrative apparatus frequently addresses complex, non-linear wicked crises through rigid, linear, and departmentalized interventions.

The Paradox of Zero-Based Budgeting

Conceptualized by Peter Pyhrr in the 1970s and adopted during the Carter administration, Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) was designed to shatter incrementalism—the Wildavskyan model of budgetary drift based on historical baselines—by requiring every programme and expenditure to be justified afresh from ground zero using decision packages.

Paradoxically, ZBB degenerated into one of the most incremental techniques in practice. The immense cognitive burden, excessive documentation, and acute time constraints overwhelmed administrative systems. Faced with information asymmetry between line departments and finance divisions, bureaucrats routinely conducted superficial reviews, reducing "sunrise-sunset" assessments to ritualistic compliance. Moreover, the steep political costs of defunding established programmes and entrenched interest groups rendered comprehensive reappraisals impossible.

In India, ZBB was formally introduced in 1986 by the Ministry of Finance under the Seventh Five-Year Plan, but administrative inertia and calculation overload led to its quiet abandonment, echoing the historical failure of the Planning-Programming-Budgeting System (PPBS). The budgeting framework subsequently transitioned toward Outcome Budgeting in 2005 and the current Performance-cum-Outcome Budgeting architecture, acknowledging that administrative systems operate under bounded rationality where targeted, marginal evaluations are far more workable than recurrent zero-base overhauls.

ICT, Governance, and Citizen Empowerment

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) serves as a potent catalyst for structural transformation in public governance. Platforms under the Digital India umbrella—such as UMANG for unified service delivery, the e-Courts mission mode project for judicial pendency, and GIS-based platforms under PM GatiShakti for coordinated infrastructure planning—have streamlined processes and minimized administrative discretion.

In terms of citizen empowerment, ICT democratizes administrative interfaces. Platforms like CPGRAMS enhance grievance redressal accountability, MyGov fosters crowdsourced policy formulation, and RTI Online enforces transparency. Direct Benefit Transfer via the JAM trinity has circumscribed traditional rent-seeking intermediaries.

However, ICT is not an unalloyed solution. A pronounced digital divide across gender, income, and geography persists, compounded by sluggish last-mile broadband connectivity in rural and tribal interiors under BharatNet. Technical vulnerabilities, algorithmic rigidity, and biometric authentication failures frequently cause exclusion errors in essential welfare distribution, such as the public distribution system. Furthermore, the absence of robust data protection frameworks deepens concerns over unchecked state surveillance and privacy infringements.

Addressing contemporary public administration requires building agile epistemic capacity to tackle wicked problems, moving past procedural budgeting rituals toward outcome-oriented fiscal management, and bridging digital divides to ensure ICT remains an instrument of universal democratic empowerment.

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