Yugandhar played a pioneering role in turning attention of administration to local institutions | The Indian Express

Yugandhar played a pioneering role in turning attention of administration to local institutions | The Indian Express

Written by Yoginder K. Alagh |Updated: September 19, 2019 10:03:29 am

The writer, a former Union minister, is an economist.

Yugandhar played a pioneering role in turning attention of administration to local institutions

Yugandhar was busy as long as his legs and lungs, devastated by cigarette smoking, would allow. He would travel to Anand to help IRMA to develop its State of Panchayati Raj reports.

After retirement, Yugandhar made a major contribution to the orientation of the Indian administrative system, through, what is called the Bopal Declaration.

B N Yugandhar, who passed away last week, was perhaps one of the few remaining “nationalist” policy reformers. He was part of a gang that constantly searched for and pushed an Indian agenda for globalisation and domestic reform. These reformers set the agenda in the Eighties — the decade which saw a remarkable spurt in growth in the last century. This was falsely labelled as unsustainable by a successor regime. At any rate, the strategy lost out to the Washington Consensus reformers in the last two decades (Manmohan Singh and the current set of policy makers). So,