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Benchmarking performance of governance quality in Indian states using MCDM techniques

Alok Raj (Department of Production, Operations and Decision Sciences, XLRI Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, India)
Rupika Khanna (Department of Finance, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, India)

Benchmarking: An International Journal

ISSN: 1463-5771

Article publication date: 29 November 2018

339

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to benchmarking the governance performance of Indian states.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper provides a framework to measure governance performance at the state level. Using the data on 28 key indicators, the authors evaluate Indian states on seven broad dimensions of governance quality covering several aspects of public service delivery, regulatory quality and law and order. The empirical methodology involves the application of multi-criteria decision making techniques in two steps. The authors, first develop suitable weights of the identified dimensions and criteria under each dimension by applying the inputs of an expert-based decision-panel in a best-worst framework. Next, using these weights, the authors evaluate ranking of each state using TOPSIS and PROMETHEE-II methods.

Findings

The results indicate wide disparities in the governance performance of Indian states. Based on different indicators, the paper evaluates the rank of all the major Indian states. Results reveal that “Social Service Delivery(S)” is the most influencing dimension for the development of a state. Overall, the authors find Andra Pradesh, NCT of Delhi and Goa to be the leading states in terms of governance quality.

Research limitations/implications

The paper provides policy makers with easy to use operational indicators to analyse the governance performance of Indian states. These would help in better monitoring of these states through competitive goal-setting for continuous improvement.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first formal assessment of governance quality in the Indian states in a multi-criteria framework. To this end, the paper addresses the issue of wide regional disparities in the country. The findings of the paper provide powerful insights to policy makers in setting up appropriate strategies to eliminate these disparities.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the seven experts who participated in discussions and subsequent validation of the methodology.

Citation

Raj, A. and Khanna, R. (2018), "Benchmarking performance of governance quality in Indian states using MCDM techniques", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No. 8, pp. 2850-2874. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-07-2017-0183

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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