Viewing “budgeting” as a total management system, the book highlights the importance of the budget as an effective instrument of planned development and suggests the various ways in which the planning and implementation of public expenditure programmes could be improved to achieve developmental goals. This interdisciplinary study meaningfully combines the concepts and techniques of public administration, management, economics, and accountancy and critically assesses the relevance and use of cost- benefit analysis in the Indian setting , It points out the drawbacks of the mechanics and use of techniques like discounted cash flow , internal rate of return, and shadow prices and suggests a criterion called Value Added to Capital Employed (VACE) for the selection of public investment programmes.
After analysing the various factors responsible for the limited Success achieved by Indian planning since Independence, the author advocates a “disaggregated” and decentralized approach to planning, one that would be more democratic and which would call for participation at every level with a view to specifying the goals and objectives. He argues that greater attention should be paid to the complementarity of different instruments of public policy like credit , taxation , and public expenditure, The work emphasizes the need for a more systematic demarcation of the various Governmental departments and agencies in each sector of development so that a purposeful evaluation of Plan programmes and their implementation might be possible. It also discusses the relevance of the Gandhian concept of antyodaya to contemporary Indian conditions.
This lucid study should prove to be of considerable use to administrators, management personnel, scholars and students of management and economics.
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