NEW DELHI, Jan. 9 -- From the (now botched up) attempt to introduce lateral entrants into the government, the launch of new schemes like the Ayushman Bharat and Aspirational Districts Programme, unveiling indices ranking states, districts and villages on every conceivable indicator to promote competitive federalism to the accelerated implementation of direct benefit transfer, New Delhi's policy elite spent much of 2018 tinkering with policies and introducing schemes to strengthen the struggling Indian State. Underlying these seemingly disparate reforms are important, unresolved and deeply contested questions about the nature, role and function of the bureaucracy and what it will take to strengthen its capacity and capability to deliver publ...