ABSTRACT
A major fault-line in governance, where corruption appears to be rampant and impinges directly on the everyday life of citizens in most developing countries, is the domain of public services. In India, although the state has made many impressive strides in expanding the access of citizens to basic public service infrastructure, the poor quality of service delivery and the high levels of rent seeking behaviour by public officials point to extremely low levels of public accountability. The evolution of 'Report Cards' from a leap of faith to an institutionalised mechanism is an interesting story. It all started with a pioneering individual experiment in Bangalore in 1992 when Dr Samuel Paul organised a public feedback exercise with some friends as a concerned citizen's response to the appalling quality of civic services. Civil society institutions can potentially play an active role in assembling and using such information to stimulate public agencies to improve their services.
