The Cabinet Secretariat of Government of India has been instrumental in establishing Citizens' Charter in various Ministries of Government of India. The Project Team designed, evaluation template and evaluated the charters submitted by these Ministries. It developed scores and gave a final tally of the scores and ranking of the Ministries.

The project looks at providing consolidated financials of all para-statal bodies that provide urban services and not just municipal bodies. Generally, we tend to equate municipal bodies with city level financing. The fact is that services are provided by other para-statal bodies as well.

The project looks at financial status of select cities in India and raises questions about the framework for apprising municipal finances and conceptual issues about equity, debt equity structuring and borrowing capacity. The project also raises conceptual issues relating to financial appraisal of municipal finances.

The project seeks to produce a model property tax regime which can be implemented by municipal corporations. The Property Tax Reforms in Municipal Corporations in India have so far concentrated on streamlining of rate fixation. It was observed that there are many relating to tax administration which undermine collection efficiencies.

The current initiative was born out of a year-long study with 100 poor families in Ramanagara. Entitled the ''Financial Diaries of the Poor'', the study tracked the daily financial inflows and outflows of these families. Unsurprisingly, the one strong need that was expressed by a majority of the participants was that of a regular source of livelihoods.

Slums in our cities have become a regular feature of the urban landscape; NSSO estimates suggest that there were 52,000 slums in 2002 - notified and otherwise across the entire country in urban areas.

This research study is based on the proposition that proximity to the governed, and their participation, is a defining feature of effective governance.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided a programme loan to the Government of Assam in the early part of this decade to help stabilize its fragile finances.

The project is a joint initiative of the Centre for Public Policy at IIMB and the Karnataka Health System Development and Reform Project.

This was based on the previous years study, but was a fresh survey. It added another District, and collected some more information on wage earners views regarding the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). This reinforced the earlier findings on how to improve implementation.