Accepted Panels

Governance evokes different meanings as per varied space and time. It differs from place to place. In a diverse country like India, governance differs from region to region. It is usually found that though the state has a systematic and formal way of implementing policies and programmes, people have their own ways of receiving and utilising the resources. In the context of Northeast India, especially in the Indian state of Assam, it is found that people from poor and marginalised sections of society try to compete with each other to have access to the resources and schemes provided by the state. The mediator or broker plays an important role to mediate between the agencies of the state and poor people. Through an in-depth study of welfare schemes like PMMVY, PMAY (G) in India, this paper argues that people use their informal networks to influence and win over their counterparts to get access to the goods and services provided by the state. Various social categories like caste, ethnicity and religion are important factors in shaping the everyday governance in a country like India. This paper suggests that the approach of informality and everyday knowledge could be important conceptual frameworks to understand the state and governance in India.