Localization is globally accepted as the strategy towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this article, we put forth the South Indian state of Kerala as a true executor of the localization of SDGs owing to her foundational framework of decentralized governance. We attempt to understand how the course of decentralization acts as a development trajectory and how it has paved the way for the effective assimilation of localization principles post-2015 by reviewing the state documents based on the framework propounded by the United Nations. We theorize that the well-established decentralization mechanism, with delegated institutions and functions thereof, encompasses overlapping mandates with the SDGs. Further, through the tools of development plan formulation, good governance, and community participation at decentralized levels, Kerala could easily adapt to localization, concocting output through innovative measures of convergence, monitoring, and incentivization carried out through the pre-existing platforms and processes. The article proves that constant and concerted efforts undertaken by Kerala through her meticulous and action-oriented decentralized system aided the localization of SDGs and provides an answer to the remarkable feat that the state has achieved through the consecutive four times achievements in the state scores of SDG India Index.

Fiscal decentralization is one of the policy implementations of regional autonomy, which authorizes local governments to manage their local finances independently. However, with the evolution of the times and the dynamics that are taking place, the application of fiscal decentralization worldwide is changing at each time of year. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate fiscal decentralization research temporarily over the course of four decades. The study aims to explain the development of research on fiscal decentralization over a period of four decades. This research integrates Scopus database to offer a thorough conceptual and structural overview of the field by integrating bibliometric approaches and content analysis. The research procedure begins with the determination of the scope of the research, the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the selection process, the collection of data on Publish or Perish (PoP), and the execution of bibliometric analysis on VosViewer. The research shows that the type of journal with the highest productivity has sub-topics of economy, public service, development, and environmental. The development of fiscal decentralization research has a positive upward trend and most of the top-ranked journals indicate that fiscal decentralization has links and influences with other variables. It is apparent that the most often keywords emerged and studied in the research on fiscal decentralization are related to efficiency, measure, role, degree, growth, and fiscal federalism. Meanwhile, the least frequent keywords are related to poverty and inequality, health outcome, environmental pollution, Latin America, South Africa, fiscal autonomy, corruption, OECD country, determinant, and public sector. These keywords are the future lines of research that may be used for future research on the topic of fiscal decentralization.

Decentralized cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, use peer-to-peer software protocol, disintermediating the traditional intermediaries that used to be banks and other financial intermediaries, effectuating cross-border transfer. In fact, by removing the requirement for a middleman, the technology has the potential to disrupt current financial transactions that rely on a trusted authority or intermediary operator. Traditional financial regulation, primarily based on the command-and-control approach, is ill-suited to regulating decentralized cryptocurrencies. The present paper aims to investigate the policy option most suitable for regulating decentralized cryptocurrencies. The study employs content analysis method to effectuate the purpose of the study. The paper argues that the combination of both direct and indirect regulatory approaches would be a feasible option for regulating decentralized cryptocurrencies. The absence of centralized authority and the borderless nature of decentralized cryptocurrencies would make them antithetical to centralized direct regulation. Therefore, the findings of the study suggest that regulators should focus on regulating intermediaries bridging the connection between the online world (crypto ecosystem) and the physical world (the point of converting crypto into fiat money). These intermediaries can work as passive actors or surrogate regulators who are indirectly responsible for implementing policy options on behalf of the central authority.

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of decentralization on disaster management in North Sumatra Province. Specifically, it will analyze the intergovernmental networks, local government resilience, leadership, and communication within disaster management agencies. The study used a hybrid research approach, integrating qualitative and quantitative methodologies to investigate the connections between these factors and their influence on disaster response and mitigation. The study encompassed 144 personnel from diverse government tiers in North Sumatra and performed a meta-analysis on the implementation of disaster management. Intergovernmental networks were discovered to enhance collaboration in disaster management by eliminating regulatory gaps and efficiently allocating logistics. Nevertheless, local governments have obstacles as a result of limited resources and inadequate expertise, notwithstanding the progress made in infrastructure technology. The F test results reveal that leadership and communication have a substantial impact on the performance of BPBD personnel. The meta-assessment classifies its impact as extraordinarily high, suggesting comprehensive evaluation and successful achievement of goals in disaster management planning. Efficient cooperation among relevant parties is essential in handling calamities in North Sumatra. The government, commercial sector, NGOs, universities, and society have unique responsibilities. To improve effectiveness, governments should encourage private sector involvement, while institutions can increase their research contributions.

Public administration reform is a very critical reform activity of the government, the government changing the function, structure, behavior, and process of public administration. The change of public administration involves many aspects, this reform has many complex and multifaceted issues. The central idea of bureaucracy is entirely contrary to the concept of public administration reform, and bureaucracy has a deep-rooted impact on the administration of most countries. Hence bureaucracy is the main obstacle to the public administration reform. Besides, incomplete decentralization and imperfect supervision are also challenges of public administration reform. Devolution is an essential measure to promote the public administration reform, which can solve many problems of the old system effectively.  Therefore, to carry out the public administrative reform effectively, it is necessary to simplify managerial procedures, delegate powers to lower levels and strengthen supervision, and management.

The study looks into how governance qualities of decentralized governments mediate the impacts of decentralization on development. Based on a set-oriented approach, the study analyzed data from a nation-wide survey conducted with business managers from all provinces in Indonesia, and found evidence that, despite the country’s uniform decentralization reform, individual provinces exhibited great variation in the qualities of their various physical and institutional infrastructures. Notably, these qualities assumed nested relations, with order and security as well as accountability and rule of law seemingly being the preconditions of basic infrastructure provision as well as local governments’ coordination. Moreover, business investment decisions (measured as staff expansion and product innovation) were found to vary with some specific combinations of these infrastructural conditions. The result provides evidence supporting the argument that both physical and institutional infrastructures are instrumental to realize the supposed benefits of decentralization and supports the recent call of the literature to look into the political-institutional complex in the process of decentralization reform.