IMPLICATIONS OF FAILURES OF POLICY IMPLEMENTATION:
Given the phenomenon of policy failures, as indicated above, one often comes across the view that places the blame for these at the door of policy implementation. This may take the form of faulty, inadequate, high cost, slow and even counter-productive implementation. This leads to non-realisation of the ends of policy with all the costs it entails. Meanwhile, the underlying situation demanding policy intervention may deteriorate. Related to this view is a widespread belief, according to which, while policy formulation, in its intellectual-theoretical base and design, is good, things go sour and haywire at the stage of implementation. It seems to imply that the Indian policy-makers are clever policy formulators, but lack matching implementation capabilities as doers. This creates a chain reaction, affects many other related policies negatively and, make overtime the policy processes in general ineffective. Poor implementation erodes the credibility of both the policies and policy-makers. Of course, the social and economic costs and costs in terms of political legitimacy of frequent policy break-down are simply incalculable.
This is as much correct for the plans which are in the mixed economy of India, essentially a set of interconnected, naturally consistent and mutually reinforcing policies and programmes. A plan covers in a comprehensive framework many specific policies of varying sweep, like fiscal, monetary, foreign trade, exchange rate, regional balance, social services, employment, industries, agricultural policies, etc. The policy implementation failures, it is clear, make the state stray from the chosen declared path.