India’s journey towards becoming a developed nation demands more than economic growth, ambitious infrastructure and global influence. It requires a fundamental transformation of governance at the grassroots. The persistent failures of the judiciary, police, municipal administration, healthcare and education have eroded public trust and burdened ordinary citizens. Unless political leadership confronts these institutional weaknesses, Viksit Bharat will remain an unfinished promise
India’s ambition to become a developed nation cannot be measured by GDP growth, highways or influence alone. The real test of Viksit Bharat is the quality of governance ordinary citizens’ experiences. For many, the State is the court where a case remains pending, the police station that refuses a complaint, the municipality that demands a bribe, the hospital unable to provide treatment and the school that fails to educate. These five institutional failures demand a National Reform Agenda.
The judiciary is a grave governance challenge. More than five crore cases remain pending, trapping citizens in years of litigation, costs and uncertainty. Vacancies, adjournments, procedural delays and inadequate infrastructure have eroded public confidence. Courts need better case management, limits on unnecessary adjournments, fixed timelines to fill vacancies, and digital filing and tracking. Specialised courts for commercial, land and property disputes, alongside mediation and arbitration, can ease the burden. Appointments and performance systems must be transparent without compromising judicial independence. Courts should be treated as essential services, providing round-the-clock access for urgent hearings. Extended hours would widen opportunities for lawyers and legal interns. Merely replacing the Indian Penal Code with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, without transforming investigation and justice delivery, is a laughable response to a monumental problem. The Justice Yashwant Varma episode has exposed the disturbing depths of institutional rot within the Indian judiciary. The discovery of burnt and scattered cash at a judge’s residence, followed by institutional explanations and apparent damage control, has raised serious questions about judicial accountability. Those who uphold the law must be equally answerable to it.
The police are the citizen’s first contact with the law, yet political interference, corruption, refusal to register complaints, compromised investigations and custodial excesses remain concerns. The Supreme Court’s seven directives in the 2006 Prakash Singh judgment must be implemented. Online complaint registration and tracking should be universal. Investigation must be separated from law-and-order duties, supported by forensic capacity and cybercrime expertise. Corruption in the khaki must invite zero tolerance, exemplary punishment and uncompromising accountability. The nexus of systemic and syndicated corruption must be dismantled; there can be no political patronage or impunity. It is a nightmare for a common man to get any help from the police station across India.
Municipal governance in India is grossly neglected. The 74th Constitutional Amendment promised empowered urban local bodies, but municipalities remain financially weak and politically dependent. Citizens face broken roads, clogged drains, irregular water, poor sanitation, opaque building approvals and bribery for everything. Decentralisation must provide revenue through rational property taxes, transparent user charges and a fair share of state revenues. The roles of mayors and commissioners must be clear. Building permissions, property records, procurement and contracts should be digitised and open to scrutiny. Municipal ombudsmen, social audits, service deadlines and public dashboards can make officials accountable. The ground realities at the provincial-level third-tier government have been horrible in India since independence.
Healthcare and education expose a brutal contradiction in India’s development narrative. While the country celebrates medical tourism and pharmaceutical achievements, families struggle with unaffordable treatment, overcrowded hospitals, shortages of doctors, nurses and medicines, and inadequate rural healthcare. Children leave school without foundational literacy and numeracy, while teacher vacancies, absenteeism, poor infrastructure and outdated teaching undermine the future workforce.
Healthcare and education must remain the government’s primary responsibility. Universal access and quality public provision are non-negotiable. Functional primary health centres, staffed district hospitals, affordable diagnostics, essential medicines, trained teachers, equipped schools and measurable learning outcomes must anchor public policy. Universities need academic autonomy, research funding, industry partnerships and vocational programmes.
Promoting private schools and hospitals at the expense of public institutions is eroding public confidence in healthcare and education. In a country of 1.5 billion people, where government figures indicate nearly 80 crore citizens depend on subsidised food, why profit driven private enterprise will shoulder welfare for the poorest? Primary health centres, elementary schools and basic hospitals should operate on a non-profit basis. Specialised hospitals and universities may attract private investment under affordability and quality regulation. Weakening public institutions while promoting private alternatives is not reform; it is a recipe for social exclusion, inequality and disaster.
These failures help explain why farmers, students, women and caste-based groups take to the streets. Not every agitation is justified, and political mobilisation can exploit grievances. But governments cannot dismiss every protest as conspiracy or opposition-sponsored disruption. Public anger often reflects accumulated frustration with institutions that do not listen, deliver or provide remedies. Democratic dissent must be heard and grievances addressed through credible administrative action, not slogans or confrontation.
The responsibility does not belong to one Government alone. Successive administrations at the Centre and in the states have failed to deliver sustained structural reform. Yet the first two terms of the Modi government offered a historic opportunity to reset India’s governance architecture. Digital platforms, direct benefit transfers, infrastructure and financial inclusion delivered important gains, but these were not matched by equally ambitious reforms to institutions shaping everyday life. This remains one of the biggest missed opportunities of the Modi era.
Viksit Bharat will not be built by economic indicators alone. It will be built when citizens receive justice without waiting decades, protection without political connections, civic services without bribes, treatment without financial ruin and education without inherited privilege. Courts must deliver justice, police protect, municipalities serve, hospitals heal and schools create opportunity. Until these institutions work for ordinary citizens, India’s development story will remain incomplete, and its promise of becoming a developed nation will rest on fragile foundations.
India does not suffer from a shortage of useless never-ending debates, committees or conferences on governance reforms; it suffers from a chronic shortage of action. Decades of discussions on judicial, police, municipal, education and healthcare reforms have produced recommendations but little meaningful change. The real problem is not a lack of solutions but a lack of political will. While governance remains trapped in conference rooms, the common man on the street continues to pay the price with his dignity, livelihood and, increasingly, his life. The message to the ruling elites is loud and clear: Act now, or abandon the dream of Viksit Bharat. A developed India cannot be built on broken institutions, rampant corruption and unfulfilled promises.
The author is a public policy expert and columnist; Views presented are personal.