The pandemic has brought the work of government into focus. Over the past three years, as governments across the world have struggled to respond to the rapidly changing circumstances, they were forced to prioritise their expenditure and ask themselves: what is the work of a government?
India has been asking this question now for over 30 years, ever since the reforms of 1991 (and some may argue, since 1947), but while it has achieved some clarity on what the government should not be doing—for instance, it should not be running hotels, textile mills or information technology firms—it is not clear what it should be doing and how.
