ABSTRACT
The decentralized governance has emerged as a global phenomenon for the deepening of democracy, economic development and conflict resolution. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India, identified the emerging issues in the functioning of local bodies after the passage of Constitutional Amendment Acts by conducting a series of roundtable conferences with the participation of the ministers of Panchayati Raj of the state governments, senior officials of Panchayati Raj Department and civil society organizations, which have been working on strengthening the local governance institutions. One among the issues that were identified by the Ministry was lack of capacity to the local bodies. While taking into account the contributions of international organizations for the notion of capacity development, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, at the national level, introduced National Capacity Building Framework. The Ministry launched two national-level programmes such as Backward Regions Grant Fund and Rastriya Gram Swaraj Yojna for the implementation of NCBF.
