Major schemes of the Centre such as Swachh Bharat Mission are reflective of collaborative and competitive federalism in India which is making them successful, according to Parameswaran Iyer, Executive Director, World Bank and former CEO, NITI Aayog.

While delivering a lecture on ‘Implementing at-scale transformational programmes’ at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) here on Wednesday, Iyer said the effort in moving from big ideas to implementing the major programmes on the ground has been transforming lives. 

Making a presentation on the modalities and implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission to make India free from open defecation, Iyer said a major challenge in implementation of the mission was creating a demand for toilets, a product that nobody really wanted at the time of the launch of the scheme in 2014. 

“The other major challenges faced were scale of the initiative, speed at which the target was to be achieved, removal of stigma attached to having a toilet at home and sustainability,’‘ Iyer, who played a key role in implementation of the scheme, said.

Referring to the lessons learnt in Swachh Bharat, the civil servant said political leadership, public financing, partnerships and participation of the people were important for proper implementation of major programmes. 

Later, while responding to the questions, the World Bank official, said, India was one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

On the water crisis in Bengaluru, Iyer said lack of water storage in traditional water bodies could be one of the reasons for the crisis and a combination of different methods for water storage could be of help.

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