Raghu Ram , P. creator text xu| 2006 continuing ng p.746-755. This article deals with the conceptual issues about governance and analyses how the problematique of governance dominates the thinking and functioning of the multilateral financial institutions as well as the policy-making apparatus in India. Secondly, a critique of the concept of governance as used in current debates is attempted here. This article argues that the ideology of the project of governance has serious implications for understanding the role of the State and of politics in Indian context because the conceptions of democracy and development have to be subjected to political contestation and negotiation by the citizens, instead of being subjected to the formal institutional prescriptions by the credit-giving agencies. This article further argues that it is possible to develop an alternative perspective on governance based on the issues thrown up by the people's movements at the grassroots level. - Reproduced. Good governance Public administration Indian Journal of Public Administration 180718