Dear Readers

Planning is crucial for the success of any endeavour, whether at unit level or at the helm—national and global. At the outset, a policy is rolled out, usually by a competent ministry, to provide an approach. The approach is then put up for criticism and public hearing in a democratic setup. Once this exercise is over, the policy assumes legislative importance, furnished with facts and data—its workability established. In India, policies are often used to reflect an electoral promise, although in several cases, court judgements and civil movements have also been instrumental in opening up space for interventions. A policy of course is bound by the Constitution’s basic structure, although it does take into account prevailing customs and traditions and international best practices and law.

In the Indian context, we are familiar with many policies that seem to have been formulated long ago. A case in point is the Farmer’s Policy of 2007. However, policies are periodically reviewed wherein the relevance of the over-arching framework and its broad set of principles that guide the government is evaluated. Under a policy, schemes are put in place, which are larger plans or arrangements of how a defined policy goal will be achieved. A scheme is often bettered by layered programmes that are specific action plans to achieve a particular set of targets. The implementation of a programme is delegated to a department or division in the Ministry, giving higher autonomy and fixing greater accountability.

This issue of Geography and You brings to you few such policies that seem pertinent to the development of the nation. The policies intend to showcase the structure, its amendments and achievements apart from the current schemes that have been put forth in consonance. There are however many more policies that we intend to cover in subsequent issues.

On another note, we understand that many of our readers are concerned about G’nY’s dated publications. Although our content is contemporary, we are suffering a backlog of about four long months. To clear the apprehensions about dated content, we request you to follow issue numbering instead. Every issue is a thematic milestone that remains relevant for over a year.

Do not hesitate to write to me for any further comments or queries.