"The Third Eye of Governance – Rise of Populism, Decline in Social Research" is a first of its kind book on the theme. It traces how a country which took off on scientific temper idea had declined in research based public policy formulation over the decades with rise of populism in the country. The book reminds how the independent India went about building "modern temples" of research for a just and rational assessment of public policies. What lead to public policies becoming populist as if we have lost concern for the futures? Has the rise in competitive politics caused a decline in social research and independent evaluative practices?

The book narrates how data, statistics, analysis and research have become politically sensitive and contentious. All this despite India is world’s third big education system and many individual Indians abroad are global icons on the top in research and innovations. Is it badalav or badala which is driving the policies more now as in some States? One of the factors inhibiting India from excelling on global ranking and ratings, despite everything in its favor otherwise, is its passive research outlook and environment. No country can expect to offer good governance and excel without having independent research as some kind of third eye.

The book traces social science research in the context of India’s development journey and sensitivities of India’s Prime Ministers for social research. It also claims that if Prime Minister Modi’s Mantras are also backed by social science research, India is bound to break the barriers for newer heights in the trajectory of democracy, development and governance. Veteran social researcher, Dr N Bhaskara Rao, brings insights from his fifty-five years of field research and pioneering initiatives towards sustaining citizen concerned governance. He authored two books recently on Good Governance (both by SAGE).