Development Processes: NGOs, SHGs and Other Stakeholders · UPPCS (Uttar Pradesh)

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, General Studies II:

Development processes: the role of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Self Help Groups (SHGs), various groups and associations, donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders.

Topics in detail

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

Meaning and types: charitable, service-delivery, advocacy, empowerment and community-based organisations
Legal forms: trusts, societies (Societies Registration Act, 1860) and not-for-profit companies (Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013)
Regulation: Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 and its 2020 amendment; income tax exemptions; the NGO Darpan portal
Roles: service delivery in remote areas, awareness, advocacy and rights movements (such as the campaign for the right to information), watchdog functions, innovation
Issues: accountability and transparency, dependence on grants, misuse of funds, relationship with the State
NGOs in disaster relief, public health campaigns and education; government funding of NGOs and the risk of co-option

Self Help Groups (SHGs)

Concept: small groups, mostly of women, that save together, lend internally and borrow from banks
SHG-Bank Linkage Programme of NABARD (1992)
Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana: National Rural Livelihoods Mission (Aajeevika, 2011) and National Urban Livelihoods Mission; SHG federations at village and block levels
Models: Kudumbashree (Kerala); SHG role in women's empowerment, financial inclusion and local governance
Issues: sustainability, access to markets, over-indebtedness, dependence on promoting agencies
Bank credit and interest subvention for SHGs; the Lakhpati Didi initiative for SHG members' incomes
Microfinance institutions and their regulation by the Reserve Bank of India

Various groups and associations

Co-operatives: 97th Amendment, 2011 (Part IXB) and Rajendra N. Shah (2021) on its scope; Ministry of Co-operation (2021)
History of the co-operative movement: Co-operative Credit Societies Act, 1904; dairy co-operatives on the Anand pattern
Farmer producer organisations; user groups (water users, joint forest management committees); trade unions and professional associations

Donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders

Multilateral and bilateral donors: World Bank, Asian Development Bank, JICA and other agencies
Philanthropic foundations and charities; individual giving
Religious and charitable trusts running hospitals, schools and community kitchens
Conditions attached to aid and the shift from aid to development partnership
Corporate social responsibility under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 (2% of average net profits for companies above set thresholds)
Institutional stakeholders: panchayats and municipalities, universities and research bodies, banks
Partnerships between government, NGOs and private sector; the "development industry" and its critiques

Overlaps

General Studies V: NGOs in Uttar Pradesh: issues, contribution and impact.
General Studies I: role of women and women's organisations.