the bureaucrat express august 2014 issue

ALL THE KING’S MEN

Nripendra Misra Ajit Doval

Bharat Lal

Ajit Seth

AK Sharma

Dr. PK Mishra

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August 2014 bureaucratexpress.com` 40 Volume 1 Issue 1

MODIVATING BUREAUCRACYMODIVATING BUREAUCRACY

Kush Verma on NCGG

Sanjay Jaju on AP’s MEE SEVA

Dr. Shalini Rajneesh on Karnataka’s SAKALA

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Spirituality

Dr. Trehan on Cardiac Surgery 2.0

Raghavendra Rathore’s Dressing Tips

August 2014 Volume 1, Issue 1

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CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

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MARKETING CONSULTANT

MANAGER MARKETING

ART DIRECTOR

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PHOTOGRAPHY

CONTRIBUTORS

: Manoj Sharma

: Dhiraj Ahuja

: Kritika Agarwal

: Neha Kaushik

: Sharib Suhail

Trisha Saikia

: Sumeet Nath

: Subhrat Khanna

: Khushboo Ahuja

: Sunil Singh

: Shri Shyam Graphics

: Avadh Narayan

: Surender Saini

Anup Jindal

: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Dr. Naresh Trehan

Raghavendra Rathore

Sanjay Jaju

Dr. Shalini Rajneesh

Dr. Neelesh Tiwari

Roli Jindal

CONTENTS

6Motivating Bureacracy

How the PM is making the bureaucrats match his march

Cover Story

22Indian bureaucrats are like F1

racers caught in a traffic jamTBE speaks to Kush Verma on

administrative reforms

Interaction

26Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, IT & Communications,

Andhra Pradesh writes about Mee Seva

Technocrat of the Month

32Dr. Shalini Rajneesh, Principal Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms,

Government of Karnataka writes about Sakala

Change Maker

36Live your life to the fullest

by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The Spiritual Quotient

40“Things shall change for good

once GST is implemented...”

TBE interacts with Dr. CV Ananda Bose, Chairman, Central Warehousing Corporation

PSU Watch

44Cardiac Surgery Version 2.0

Dr. Naresh Trehan, CMD, Medanta Medicity on latest advancements in cardiac surgery

Healthcare & Wellness

August 2014 | | 3The Bureaucrat Express

46Dr. Neelesh Tiwari, one of the leading neuro-psychiatrist advises bureaucrats on how to beat the stress!

Matters of the Mind

48Raghavendra Rathore, the renowned fashion

designer advises bureaucrats on how to dress up for different occassions

Fashion Code

50‘From Metcalfe House to Charleville’ - nothing else could have captured the long and illustrious journey of civil services in India before and after independence in one phrase better.

Independence Day Special

52Here’s how India Inc. reacted to the Union

Budget 2014 presented in the parliament by Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance

Budget Reactions

62Go Scandinavia – Roli Jindal, a management professional and erratic blogger shares her travel experience in Scandinavian countries

Travelogue

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CONTENTS

4 | | The Bureaucrat Express August 2014

EDITORIAL

here is a dearth of credible media that talks about bureaucracy and related issues in serious details. TThe Bureaucrat Express (TBE) intends to plug in this

very void and become the de-facto voice of the administrative tier in the country. It will be their very own platform for productive deliberations and much more!

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum strong enough on which to place it and I can move the world, said Archimedes. He introduced the world to the power of lever – how applying a small force at the right point can make a big impact. Modi is “leveraging” on bureaucracy big time to deliver what he had promised the electorate during his run-up to the PM post. The cover story of TBE’s inaugural issue revolves around the same.

Besides, we spoke to Kush Verma, DG, NCGG, in length on how Indian bureaucrats – who as per Kaushik Basu, the veteran economist, are like F1 drivers caught in a traffic jam – can best deliver what is expected of them, and the much needed reforms. We also have good governance case studies – the Mee Seva from Andhra Pradesh and Sakala from Karnataka. Interestingly, these and more such success stories can be easily replicated across the country only if the political executive and bureaucracy have a strong intent to bring the much required change.

Bestowing faith in a start-up is not ordinary…we thank our distinguished contributors – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,

Dr. Naresh Trehan and Raghavendra Rathore who agreed to write for us.

As far as the typical editor’s comment is concerned, the apex court recently intervened and came up with a landmark verdict insulating the bureaucracy from political interference. This was in response to a petition filed by 80 former bureaucrats. The verdict will lead to major reforms such as a fixed tenure, formation of Civil Services Board (CSB), instructions to officers in writing, etc. The big question is — did the Supreme Court overstep its ambit? The verdict quotes K Santhanam Committee, the Hota Committee and the second Administrative Reforms Commission. The suggestions in committee reports were not paid heed to and finally the court had to step in. TBE believes that this will only further the confidence of people in governance.

DHIRAJ AHUJA

[email protected]


COVER STORY

If the developments in the recent past are any indication,

the ‘steel frame’ – as bureaucracy is often called, will be

central to the ‘minimum government, maximum

governance’ agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

he top 77 secretaries have been given a clear indication of the times that are changing, and in no uncertain terms. “The fact that he shook hands with T

each one of us, patiently listened for more than two hours and recalled our names while making intelligent

interjections during the 25 short presentations we made was unexpected and impressive,”

remarked a senior bureaucrat who was a part of that meeting. The official press release claims that a meeting of this scale and sort has taken place after eight years. The former prime minister had met the senior

secretaries of ministries and departments together just once, that too informally over tea and snacks at his bungalow lawns quite in contrast to Modi’s corporate boardroom-like drill.

Ministers were not invited. Modi, much like his campaign which was similar to US presidential elections in ways more than one, has quietly introduced the presidential form of governance as well which depends more on bureaucracy

than polity.“1st time in my career free, frank &

fearless interaction with d PM of d country. Highly motivating! Gr8 flow of ideas! (sic)” –

MODIVATING BUREAUCRACYMODIVATING BUREAUCRACY

6 | The Bureaucrat Express | August 2014

tweeted Amitabh Kant, Industrial Policy & Promotion Secretary. This coming from a career bureaucrat of three decades renowned for the ‘God’s Own Country’ campaign that made Kerala highest tourism revenue grosser, is certainly no ordinary observation. Almost all secretaries who attended this 150-minute long meet that commenced at 6:00 pm on June 4 would echo the sentiment. “He sought to know why Tamil Nadu now grew only one type of crop when an 1830 gazetteer had recorded wide variety of food commodities there,” shared another bureaucrat while talking about the epic meeting. The secretaries did expect something different coming their way but it was a bevy of surprises for them, pleasant ones though. For example, it was straight out of an Asimov's fiction to hear that they could approach the PM directly over phone and email – unprecedented in power corridors that follow protocols to the letter. What’s more, if they have any conflict with the minister, they can bring it to his notice immediately. While the move has been appreciated, it does raise a question. Will the minister’s control over bureaucracy come to a naught if the PM is so approachable? Bureaucrats could use this bridge or hotline to speak the language that PM would like to hear, even if the PMO doesn’t. One of his moves, clubbing the ministries, has attracted a lot of comments as well. Some retired bureaucrats believe that this has more ramifications for the polity than bureaucracy. “Downsizing the number of top bureaucrats

may not be easy. While you could have one minister for two ministries clubbed into one, it is not feasible to appoint one secretary for two departments. Coal and Power ministries have been clubbed into one as Energy Ministry under one cabinet minister but you require two full-time secretaries to manage these departments,” explained a retired secretary. “Bureaucrats will not like it for sure because every bureaucrat aspires to become a secretary to the Government of India one day. If you reduce the number of secretary level positions, this would mean fewer chances of promotion to the super post,” he added. There is a difference of opinion on another initiative as well – abolishing the GoM and EGoM. “The industry and environment ministry are always at loggerheads with each other when it comes to clearances. Does this mean that the PMO is the one and only EGoM now?” questions another bureaucrat citing this as a clear case of concentration of power. Only time has answers to these in store. However, what we do know for sure is that sarkari forms shall get shorter, the questions crisper and the decisions faster! If it takes repealing an archaic 19th century act almost immediately or using disruptive technologies to leapfrog into the future – so be it. “Your 10 year fatigue will end…now you’ll enjoy working…you all are talented people,” is what the PM told the secretaries, reveals one of them.

PM has full faith in commitment &competence of

bureaucrats. Team spirit is required, and

secretaries need to be the team leaders

Make rules & processes

simple, they’ll become

people-friendly automatically

Identify and do away with archaic rules

and procedures

Take decisions fearlessly for

the PM would stand by them

Ideas should be converted to

institutions because institutions last

longer than individuals

Clean-up offices and have a better work culture for

servicing the citizens effectively

Use technology to the hilt for efficiency and effectiveness

Collaborative action

is must for faster results

PM is ready to give an account

of the work being done by him (implies that similar standard of accountability is

expected from bureaucrats)

August 2014 | |The Bureaucrat Express 7

Takeaway bullets of the top-77 meeting

PRESENTING TO MODI? The rumor is that one of the senior secretaries called one of the business consultants in the wee hours of the night. The consultant was bewildered and asked what the emergency was about? Presentation was the answer!

Here are five tips to reckon if you are presenting to Modi, on condition of anonymity, from a Gujarat-based bureaucrat who’s worked in state government for quite many years…

If you are making a presentation to Modi, make sure you have bullet points only and not a big document for he detests vague generalities as much as he does red tape and associated procedural delays. Write only practical, doable, action points.

He is a very patient listener, he can sit through for hours without uttering a word or touching tea, coffee and cookies, not even a glass of water. But never ever approach him with ideas or suggestions without being well prepared. He cannot be fooled for he is very systematic. He’d get to know if you have outsourced your presentation.

Do not have more than 10-20 slides and it should not take you more than 10 minutes – the shorter the better.

He has questions on all aspects and expects good answers. Be ready for follow-up meetings if the points are not clear or when the questions have not been answered satisfactorily. You have to get back as fast as you can…it’s like a board meeting of a private company, nothing short of it.

You must come alone, unaccompanied by additional or joint secretaries for whenever there is a query, you may resort to junior officers for answers, which he abhors. He believes that come-solo approach makes you study everything.

05

02

04

03

01

The presentations on “what should not have been done and if given a free hand how would they correct the wrong” would help Modi separate the wheat from the chaff for he isn’t a novice who can be handed a status report. “He may ask, for example, why the direct cash transfer subsidy scheme failed and what could be the corrective measures,” remarked an officer involved with previous government’s direct benefit initiatives just before the elections. “The schemes failed because we were under intense pressure to roll it out across the country without adequate preparations. There was little or no coordination with the banks and Aadhar card generation. We just hope he is

patient enough to understand these implementation issues while we present it to him,” he said.

“The ones who did not perform are nervous and busy finding convincing reasons for the failure. They may claim that although they did all that they could, yet the initiatives were thwarted by the ministers. Putting the blame on UPA for the helplessness is the easiest. And the ones who have interacted with Modi as Gujarat CM earlier on different platforms know exactly what is expected of them and the mistakes to avoid while working with the man. It is like preparing for a job interview,” said an additional secretary.


“Modi is a simple man and likes his team to follow austerity. During the entire election campaign, he had khichdi as staple diet and nimbu pani as his favorite drink. I guess it pays to be a vegetarian in his regime. Those who have liking for kebabs, etc., must not express it in the open. Besides, those for whom Page 3 parties and Golf – popular as a sport of the administrative class – used to be a routine fixture, must desist from such indulgence for the ‘boss’ considers these as being out of focus,” informs another senior secretary from Gujarat.

There has been a steady decline in attendance of bureaucrats at Delhi Golf Club. “Modi sees golf greens as places where the club walkers get to interact with North & South block occupants,”

PAGE 3 PARTIES AND GOLF ARE A BIG NO-NO


comments a retired officer. There is strong buzz that the PMO is checking it all up with the clubs and drawing a list of such officers.

As per a 2009 data, there are about 700 bureaucrats who indulge in the sport regularly in eight zones earmarked by All India Civil Services Golf Society. In Delhi NCR, there are about 300 odd retired and serving bureaucrats who tee off frequently. In

fact, on May 26, the day when Modi took the oath along with his council of ministers, the officers around President House including North & South Block had a half-day. Most of them had hit the golf courses post-lunch to make the most of this unscheduled holiday.

“Only if some of us put our mind and heart to work every morning rather than the ‘holes’ out there, Modi would do more good in 100 days than what the previous government has in a decade,” comments a Delhi cadre IPS. “ A s b u re a u c r a t s , w e re c e i v e preferential VIP treatment at the clubs. Delhi Golf Club, for instance, reserves membership for 50 top officers. The membership fee is equivalent to several months’ salary of most elite bureaucrats,” he adds.

According to MJ Akbar, national spokesperson of the BJP, Modi wants to bring in discipline and thinks that solving India’s problems would require longer hours at office. He is not anti-golf or anti-anything. He is simply pro-work.

Modi wants to bring in discipline and thinks that solving India’s problems would require longer hours at office. He is not anti-golf or anti-anything. He is simply pro-work.

MJ Akbar, National Spokesperson, BJP

STRETCH THE DAY

THE MIDNIGHT CALL

“I am not lucky, I am hardworking,” says Modi. He prefers to call himself Mazdoor No. 1, and that sets the tone for bureaucrats as well. The Prime Minister is all set to scrap the 29-year-old rule introduced in 1985 by Rajiv Gandhi – 5 days-a-week. The idea is to extend the work hours beyond 40 hours-a-week (or 8 hours-a-day for five days – Monday to Friday) and by the time this gets published, Modi is likely to choose one of the options – (1) Make all Saturdays working, (2) Make alternate Saturdays working, (3) Increase number of working hours to 10 a day (from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm) with 5 days-a-week intact (could be 12 hours-a-day as well).

It is probably for the very first time in these many years that secretaries have been asked to cancel all their leave plans and stay in office for a few weeks to gear up for PM’s expectations from them. Modi knows that if a minister puts in long hours, the bureaucrats will not leave earlier than him. In fact, ministers have started calling officers late in the evening or early in the morning to discuss important matters.

Officers have started hitting their office desks as early as 8:00 am and are staying put as late as 11.30 pm only to start their day at 8:00 am again the next morning, or for that matter a six-day week. The “achche din aane waale hain” slogan has changed to “busy din aane waale hain”. The ‘boss’ is workaholic and puts in 18-hours-a-day himself. “Expect the bureaucrats to be bleary eyed and jumpy...I don’t get the parking parchi these days because the attendant in the parking lot still comes at the ‘old’ time. Unlike us, he is yet to adapt to Modi’s time,” quips an officer.

A day after BJP parliamentary party appointed him as its leader and the president appointed him as the PM, an earthquake struck about 275 km south-east of the Paradip port in Odisha at around 10:00 pm. Modi was in Ahmedabad to pass over the charge to Anandiben. However, it was past midnight when Gujarat officers told him about it and that the tremors were felt in Kolkata, Chennai, Vishakhapatnam and even Delhi NCR. With horror of 2001 earthquake in Gujarat still on his mind, he wanted to ascertain whether or not the quake had triggered a tsunami and why a quake struck the east cost of the country when the region is not prone to it. He placed a call to Ajit Seth well past midnight and the cabinet secretary

woke up to inform the PM that the epicenter of the quake was 10 km below the sea level and hence there was no tsunami.

K Kailasnathan, Gujarat’s most powerful bureaucrat, recalls getting calls from Modi as early as 7:00 am.

Another agenda on top of Prime Minister’s mind is cleanliness. Soon after taking charge, he conducted a surprise check at South Block where PMO is based. One of the rooms on the ground floor was filled with smoke and he gently reminded the officers that this was no smoking zone. In another room, he found used tea cups on the desks. A polite reminder and he made his way to the lift. And before the word “Modi ji aane waale hain” could reach out, he entered the fourth floor only to catch the officers by surprise.

The broom is out, old files are being dusted, betel-leaf stains are being painted over, not just rooms but even toilets are being inspected, and the broken furniture is being disposed. Cracked and uneven floor tiles lined the dimly-lit corridors that led to comparatively swanky suites of top bureaucrats. The lobbies with cobwebs since were no one’s office, hence no one’s responsibility. Some women bureaucrats were quick to turn this into a gender issue terming it as the usual apathy of men towards keeping their whereabouts clean.

Modi Sarkar shall take everything into account when it comes to appraising the bureaucrats including their past performance over a decade, achievements in terms of time to deliver, project delivery record, political neutrality (many bureaucrats have a distinct UPA tag attached to them for it was in power for 10 years) as well as their dedication to work or put in long hours. And these four factors could be the basis for reshuffle, if any, as well though Modi has expressed his dislike for transfers quite explicitly.

Performance-Related Incentive Scheme (PRIS) may soon become a reality. Incentive or variable part of the salary will be payable taking into account the performance of the organization and individuals. “PRIS could be a big game changer however performance of the organizations should be a key criterion. No one should be eligible for an incentive, say for example, if a PSU is making losses,” cautions a retired bureaucrat. Ministries and departments shall become

CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO

MODI!

PERFORM MORE, GET MORE

10 | | August 2014 The Bureaucrat Express

eligible for it only after preparing Results Framework

Documents (RFDs) – a summary of most important results that a department or ministry expects to achieve during the financial year – for two years. Modi is expected to make some highly relevant additions to this.

TALENT MATTERS, NOT

WHERE IT COMES FROMModi is considering drawing talent from the private sector to head state run companies, the way Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani was brought in to launch and head the Aadhar card project. “It is a tried and tested model for Modi. In Gujarat, he has made people who aren’t IAS heads of public sector units. Some state PSUs have tremendous potential but are in red. Experienced CEOs from the private sector can turn them around but the challenge is will the government be able to meet the packages they are used to,” commented a renowned head hunter.


HINDI TIME AT RAISINA HILL In the meeting with the 77 secretaries, Modi heard them speak in English but chose Hindi while addressing them. Selections to the PMO is based on officer's proficiency in the national language. There are rumors amidst bureaucrats that South Indian counterparts shall be at disadvantage however some refute this.

One of the senior officers said, “BJP wants to build on the electoral gains in South and East India and therefore shall not get into the politics of language.” However, the transformation from English to Hindi, if there is one at the first place, should be gradual as lack of professional translators and interpreters can lead to problems in governance. According to K Mohandas, former secretary of Shipping, “Imagine an officer’s plight when he after having served in any of the South Indian states for a decade or two, is posted to Delhi…he would struggle with the written language for sure.”

Dhiraj [email protected]

HE’S NOT AN AUTOCRAT! here are no two doubts about the success of Modi and his Gujarat model however in his march ahead, there are some perceptions that have become deep T

seated – he is an ‘autocrat’, a one-man show, and someone who likes to dictate than discuss. A team from the reputed brokerage firm Motilal Oswal Securities Limited (MOSL) visited Gujarat and spoke to bureaucrats in the state to ascertain the truth. Here’s a summary of what they found out:

Dictator or not? Certainly not. He wishes to know all possible options before closing on one. When he was presented with 10 options for BRT (bus rapid transit), he spent the entire night coming up with 10 more.

Concentration of power? Bureaucrats in the state said that this is not feasible and not likely to happen in the center as well. Ministries would take the decisions. The abolition of GoM and EGoMs has shifted the work back to ministries. The message is bold and clear – do your work and deliver as a team.

Does the ‘coterie’ run affairs for him? Modi does not like to befriend or hobnob with anyone at personal level. You can meet him only if it is something related to work, gossip and relationship building is best avoided.

Does he take arbitrary decisions? Opposition has levelled charges that he has favoured certain

businessmen. “The first thing that he had done as chief minister was to have a policy for just about everything which reduced the scope for using discretion completely. There’s a software in place for the power purchase from producers and not even the chief minister can make discretionary power purchases from a particular player,” says a bureaucrat in Gandhinagar refuting the allegations about

Modi favoring someone. Does he think big, always? His

vision for 100 smart cities may give you this idea however it is not

always so. He had an option of spending 900 crore on BRT or ` 30,000 crore on metro in the state and he chose the BRT because austerity was the need of the hour. Metro would have been better in the longer run but he is practical and ‘cuts his coat according to the cloth’.

WILL THE GUJARAT MODEL WORK FOR INDIA TOO?

There’s no denying the fact that his experience of working with the bureaucracy as CM for 13 years would come handy but there are so many other responsibilities involved in running a nation unlike a state, e.g. defense and external affairs,” comments a retired bureaucrat. So, will the Gujarat model work for India too?

ven before the elections were held, bureaucrats with their ears to the ground could hear the rails humming and vibrations of a juggernaut approaching. It was the topic of their lunchtime Ebanter. They were wary of Narendra Modi

becoming the PM as he is known to be a tough task master who hardly forgives slip-ups. He would put a system in place that would be too rigorous for them was the apprehension. And their apprehensions did come true. Now, they are busy taking tips from their Gujarati counterparts on how to deal with the man at the helm. “One of the best things about bureaucrats is they are well connected to their batch-mates and cadre-mates. They are good at gathering information, and if something works well for one, they believe in sharing the same for everyone’s benefit,” explains a senior officer while talking about how the bureaucrats intend to ‘adapt’.

As Chief Minister for 13 years, his mantra for success was a bureaucracy that functioned well. Officers can expect the legacy of his ‘chintan shivirs’ to come to Delhi along with freedom to think and act besides well cut-out tasks and completion timelines. This is precisely what has made Gujarat, Gujarat. He’s been a successful CEO of Gujarat and is now the CEO of India and intends managing affairs akin to how they are managed in a large private enterprise.

He believes in taking stock of the situation himself. In Kanya Kelavni, a project for the welfare of the girl child in Gujarat, he made bureaucrats leave the comfort of their air-conditioned offices and visit villages to ensure that intended beneficiaries are benefitted indeed. His office would check from the local panchayats if the officer actually visited the village. Not surprisingly, the dropout rate of the girls has reduced from 36.9% to a meager 8.12% within a decade.

Earlier, their loyalty was towards following procedures and their political masters made them do things at hand rather than what was important in the long run. Now, according to the sources, they have been directed to bother about communication from MPs only and only if it’s something relevant to their constituency, and not anything personal.

As CM, Modi was always impatient with too many procedures in bureaucracy. He started meeting the officials directly without the concerned minister being present. He prefers low-profile, hardworking officers of impeccable integrity. If he ever felt that a joint secretary is more efficient than a secretary, he would deal directly with the junior officer. In the beginning, it seemed that he wanted all the powers and the cabinet did not matter. But later, as the results started pouring in, everyone appreciated his methodology. Some called him autocratic but eventually had to eat their words as the approach worked wonders. One of his most controversial quote on the system that attracted a lot of comments, says it all – “Politicians should learn to say no and bureaucrats should learn to say yes.”12 | | August 2014 The Bureaucrat Express

His formula of empowering bureaucrats for speedier implementation of big-ticket projects in Gujarat primarily in transportation, electrification and water conservation – more than his council of ministers – has paid rich dividends. It is becoming evident by the day, and expectedly so, that he’s started implementing this formula in Delhi too. Vibrant India summit, like Vibrant Gujarat – envisaged and successfully executed by his select team of bureaucrats in the state – is on the cards. It’s the bureaucrats that made him a successful CM and it is the bureaucrats that’ll make him a successful PM. A major reason why in his 100 days-10 point agenda, to be monitored every 10 days and mistaken by some as broad policy guidelines, he has categorically emphasized on empowering and building confidence amidst bureaucrats. Working closely with bureaucrats would also allow him to track the way his council of ministers is working. They would not be allowed to run it as their personal fiefdoms, suggested an officer.

Unshackling the bureaucracy from the influence of the ministers is prime on his agenda however what he expects in return is timely delivery of results. Inept and corrupt shall be punished and the performers shall be rewarded – as the case has been in Gujarat. This certainly is a good news for a large section of bureaucrats who have ideas but get bogged down by political interference.

Officers have culled out NDA and BJP manifesto besides data on programs of the Vajpayee’s NDA Government like Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, Anna Antyodaya Yojana, Golden Quadrilateral highways, port-connectivity roads, etc., expecting that the new government may be keen to know their implementation status, with high chances of their revival.

Modi will never do a near-complete rejig of the bureaucracy for the sake of continuity but will keep everyone under the radar. He has told the secretaries that “transferring people who don’t perform is like transferring a problem elsewhere. Let them remain there and ensure they deliver. I don’t believe in developing

individuals. I believe in developing institutions so that the institutions can keep performing after the individuals go.” Akin to Gujarat, he wishes to shut the ‘transfer-posting industry’ at the center as well. “There are no middlemen now and officers know that nothing but merit alone shall work for them,” reveals a Gujarat-based secretary. “If he trusts them, he also inculcates fear and impatience in them. He demands and knows how to get the work done, ensuring that his orders are implemented both in letter and spirit,” confides another senior bureaucrat from Gandhinagar.

Bureaucracy is sensitive and responds to commands which are clear. Modi has the reputation of sending out clear directions. Bureaucrats like to work with a political leadership that is strong. If you are thorough with your homework and convince him (Modi) on your idea, he is more than happy to give his assent to it.

TSR Subramanian, former cabinet secretary

Vinod Rai, former Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG)

Bureaucracy by nature likes to work with someone decisive. Though I haven’t worked with Modi, bureaucrats who have worked with him in Gujarat apparently have good views about him as far as I understand.


Politicians should learn to say no and

bureaucrats should learn to say yes.

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

“…transferring people who don't perform is like transferring a problem elsewhere. Let them remain there and ensure they deliver. I don’t believe in developing individuals. I believe in developing institutions so that the institutions can keep performing after the individuals go.”

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

hey shirk from taking big decisions owing to the lack of a mechanism which absolves them of unintended mistakes. Supreme Court’s recent order is certainly a deterrent wherein a bureaucrat, joint secretary and above, can be T

investigated by CBI without seeking permission from the government. The failure of the investigating agencies in their ‘witch-hunt’ to differentiate between bona fide mistake and abuse of power leads is the prima facie reason for their reluctance and the ensuing policy paralysis. “Even the minutes of meeting at PMO took time to be reconciled and meetings remained inconclusive,” reveals an officer. Streamlining clearances and fast tracking the projects that were stuck would only help Modi for the results would start adding to the bottomline apparently, soon enough.

“Policy paralysis plagues the system as much as corruption does. Forming high level bodies like Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) is not the solution. The solution lies in streamlining the existing decision-making system – the bureaucracy. The Centre should reconsider amending the draconian Section 13(1)(d)(iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act that holds public servants including bureaucrats responsible for criminal misconduct if he or she obtains for any person any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage without any public interest. This is too broad and subjective in nature, and hence has been misused time and again against many honest bureaucrats. How can a bureaucrat feel secure if you bring even the file notings under the gambit of RTI...transparency is important but only to a certain extend or else officers will have no choice but to wash their hands off,” observed a retired secretary.

How will Modi roll out the red carpet for investors until he cuts the red tape? How will the bureaucracy become confident? Of course, a man of his vision, has taken this into account as it is the biggest stumbling block to what he intends to do. In the landmark meeting, he offered them a ‘safety valve’ by assuring them, and adequately enough, that he would stand by them.

This ‘Main Hoon Naa’ promise seems to be working as certain cases that were in their advanced stage a few weeks ago have been relegated to the backburner for the time being at least. However, legal pundits have a different view. According to them, CBI acts on Supreme Court’s directives and if the apex court resumes seeking updates, these cases may gain momentum again. A senior IPS officer from CBI

It may be a daunting task for Modi

Sarkar to do away with the policy logjam

characteristic of the last few years of the

previous government. Bureaucrats will

have to be encouraged to take risks and

sign the files for the sake of moving

forward sans any fear of harassment

owing to bona fide mistakes in the

process.

COMBATTING

POLICY

PARALYSIS AND

ISOLATING

BUREAUCRACY

FROM POLITY


refutes this. “Only eight officers of joint secretary rank and above are under the scanner and this is certainly not a big number to cause a policy paralysis as bureaucrats would have everyone believe,” says he.

Arun Jaitley

Those in decision-making positions, who have to exercise discretion, need to be protected against frivolous complaints.

Ajay Shriram, President, CII &

Chairman, DCM Shriram

Consolidated

The bureaucracy is an integral part of

decision-making and implementation,

so it must get the support of the

bosses. There can never be 100 per

cent right decisions, but decisions

made with the right intent and right

clarity of mind must be backed,

otherwise the system won’t work. If a

bureaucrat is hauled up for something

10 years after retirement and asked to

attend court hearings for another five

years, why would he take decisions?

This is a very practical and sensible

approach of the Prime Minister.

Anand Mahindra, Chairman & Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra

It is almost brilliant to put at the head of the list the fact that bureaucrats should be encouraged to take decisions without fear. In a sense, he’s gone to the heart of the problem of the paralysis of the past.

Shailaja Chandra, former secretary

The biggest fallout of a correct and well-intentioned judgment could be unbridled sleuthing of the decision-making process that is the hallmark of governance.

Nripendra Misra (before the election results were declared)

A good political executive defines clear-cut accountability for bureaucracy and that helps deliver in a given time. Bureaucrats, we have seen in recent years, fear taking strong decisions, for at times they can be wrongly held accountable for a well-intended decision that could not bear the desired results. They are sometimes even prosecuted for a decision they have taken in past. I hope Modi looks into this....


Shaking this inertia off and wriggling them out of the semi-stupor they were admittedly in under the previous regime, especially when graft too has dug its teeth deep, would be a big challenge for Modi Sarkar but the new-found optimism in bureaucrats is hard to miss!

Another paradigm shift that Modi is bringing in is the manner in which the secretaries are appointed. “Earlier ministers had too much of a say in the process, making officers indebted to their political masters. Even the sanctity of not having the minister and secretary from the same state was violated. The procedure is – names of three secretaries are sent to the minister and he chooses one amidst them. But in the previous regime, the ministers called up the PMO or the cabinet secretariat and suggested the three names to be sent to them. And the violation of norms did not end with secretaries, the ministers chose their joint secretaries and additional secretaries as well –

again from a panel suggested by them. Insiders knew about this but it wasn’t out in the open. However, to everyone’s surprise, the former prime minister allowed a free-run to his ministers last year, giving away the control PMO always had to itself. The ministers were free to ask for specific names as

secretaries for their respective departments, and they did,” informs a bureaucrat posted at the center for long now. In Gujarat, Modi never allowed ministers to choose their bureaucrats. Modi has asked Shyamal Sarkar, Secretary (Personnel) to look into this and come up with solution.

Last year in November, the apex court delivered a ruling in response to Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that bureaucracy has to be insulated from political interference. SC had directed the Centre and the States to set up a civil services board (CSB) for managing transfers and promotions of bureaucrats.

Menaka Guruswamy, the advocate for the PIL This will go a long way in insulating the bureaucracy from political interference.(on SC’s directive)

AN Tiwari, former secretary

(Personnel)

If Modi takes some action on this front

then it will correct a distortion that took

place due to weakness of the PMO.

The ministers arrogated this power to

select their favourites because the

PMO was very weak. Even creating

intermediaries like the central screening

committee chaired by the cabinet

secretary to select joint secretary level

and above officers has not helped

because the minister’s approval on file

is required. In fact, this was the bane of

the UPA Government.

he writing is clear on the wall – the loyalists of UPA ministers will have to go. It is a difficult time for Tprivate secretaries or OSDs of UPA ministers who

managed to get reappointed with the new NDA ministers. Appointment of at least eight private secretaries has been put on hold but insiders say that they will be ‘removed’ eventually. PMO, it is said, has directed the DoPT in this regard. They will be scrutinized and assessed but till then their work has been assigned to other officers in the respective ministries and departments.

Reportedly, Rajnath Singh had appointed Alok Singh, an IPS officer of the 1995 batch from UP cadre. Alok Singh had served Salman Khurshid, the former External Affairs Minister as his private secretary as well. Rajnath’s deputy Kiren Rijiju had another 1996 batch IPS officer from Uttarakhand cadre, Abhinav Kumar, as his private secretary. Kumar was PS to Shashi Tharoor, former MoS, HRD. Both Alok Singh and Abhinav Kumar are two of the eight private secretaries who it seems would bear the brunt. Other officers who could be on their way out include Badruddin Khan, PS to former Minority Affairs Minister K Rehman Khan and now PS to Najma Heptullah who has been allocated this ministry. Uday Kumawat, PS to MoS Agriculture, Tariq Anwar was appointed as PS to Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications and Information Technology. He too could make way for a fresh face now. Some other ministers who wanted the private secretaries of ministers in the UPA Government to continue as their PS as well but were denied include Nirmala

IT’S TIME FOR THE CAUCUS, TO GO Sitharaman and Smriti Irani. Thawarchand Gehlot wanted E Ramesh Kumar, a 1999 batch IAS officer of MP cadre as his PS. Similarly, Narendra Singh Tomar, the Steel Minister, appointed Nikunj Srivastava – a 1998 batch IAS officer as his PS while Uma Bharati appointed Vinay Nigam as additional PS in the water resources ministry. The fate of all three – E Ramesh Kumar, Nikunj Srivastava and Vinay Nigam is in limbo as of now.

A retired secretary informed that this is not a new development. It’s just that the PMO has enforced a 2010 circular which debars those having spent 10 years or more, formally or informally, with a minister from holding any position in minister’s office. It’s just that it wasn’t being followed, he added. The PMO had reminded the new council of ministers about this circular but they still went ahead and appointed men of their choice like the UPA regime. According to the sources, some high profile ministers had even approached the PMO for an exemption but their request was shot down. The news from the Bhawans that house the central ministries is that nameplates of these officers have been taken off.

The caucus because of their long presence at the same position had started believing that they ran the place and this had angered the higher echelons of bureaucracy. The top bureaucrats made DoPT issue the prohibitive circular but the caucus wielded so much power that it was never enforced in four years, informs a secretary. “It is not an act of vengeance but an across the board affair such that new talent gets ‘injected’.


Dhiraj Ahuja [email protected]

According to a senior DoPT official, “The way in which bureaucrats are appointed for specific jobs is about to change. We are about to put a competency-based HR management program in place. Put simply, engineer bureaucrats will be preferred for technical projects and doctor bureaucrats would be preferred for healthcare missions, i.e. knowledge, skills, ethics and attitude of the officer shall be considered as well and not just service record. Attributes of every post will be mapped and whosoever matches them the best shall be selected. Quite unlike the past wherein an ex-IIT bureaucrat could be made, and frustratingly enough, in-charge of tribal affairs.”

ALL THE KING’S MEN! There is a formidable reason behind everything he does…be

it ‘Abki baar, chhoti sarkar’ or his choice of bureaucrats. He knew well enough about who best could coordinate with all the senior secretaries, break the policy logjam and speed up decisions. Nripendra Misra, an efficient pro-business administrator with impeccable integrity is his choice for Principal Secretary. A 69-year-old UP cadre officer for implementing the Gujarat model? Modi knows that meeting the expectations, running high post the grand win, is an uphill task but can be accomplished if he has all the senior secretaries toeing his line. Most of the secretaries are from North…and Nripendra, the master bureaucrat, can push his agenda forward well enough across, and if required, past them.

NRIPENDRA MISRA

PRINCIPAL SECRETARY

Here’s a look at the most important cogs in the administrative wheel at Raisina Hill…

TIME FOR SOME

HISTORY OR HIS-STORY

Nripendra Misra believes in putting all the available options across to politicians, including his views, and let them take the pick. Once they pick an option, the job of a bureaucrat, according to him, is restricted to efficient implementation. His tryst with controversy started early. As a young DM of Unnao during Emergency, he sent back the list of persons to be detained suggesting a review.

Misra became principal secretary in Mulayam’s Government in UP in 1990. This was the year when Lal Krishna Advani carried out his Rath Yatra. As per bureaucratic historians, Yadav wanted to arrest Advani and had the DGP and chief secretary by his side. This is when he


sought Misra’s advice and Misra disagreed arguing that the State Government had no reason to arrest Advani for he had not preached hate openly. Yadav was miffed but it is when Chandra Shekhar, Yadav’s political guru, phoned suggesting not to arrest Advani that Yadav relented. However, some days later Lalu Prasad arrested Advani in Bihar and earned the brownie points. Mulayam still nurses this grudge against Misra. It is learnt that Yadav had turned so vindictive that he spoilt his CR by making negative remarks but later TSR Subramanian, a UP cadre IAS officer and cabinet secretary then made a fresh CR that helped Misra.

Post this, Mulayam’s Government fell and BJP’s Kalyan Singh became UP Chief Minister. Misra continued as principal secretary having done a favour of sorts to party’s most veteran leader. Misra convinced Kalyan to carry out administrative reforms like single window clearance for investment projects but eventually he fell out with BJP and RSS. Panchjanya, the official mouthpiece of the ‘Sangh’ even carried out an article hinting that Misra was a US man. Kalyan had no option but to give in to the internal pressure and posted Misra as head of Greater Noida Authority.

Later, he became the telecom secretary under the Dayanidhi Maran and gave the country its broadband policy. Misra, as TRAI chief, was in news for a long time for he objected to A Raja, Telecom Minister then, giving away 2G spectrum licenses in 2008 at 2001 prices. He had recommended the auction route to the minister who chose otherwise. Called as prosecution witness, he contested Raja’s stand.

He has also had successful stints with WTO, IMF, World Bank and ADB. His appointment, as most bureaucrats are of the opinion, could well mark the beginning of a new chapter when it comes to politician-bureaucrat relationship.

The manner in which Nripendra Misra was appointed exhibits Modi’s steely resolve. An ordinance – bypassing the Parliament and the Cabinet using the emergency provisions – was pushed in record time raising a big question mark on propriety of toying with an established law. According to Ajay Maken of Congress, a minister in the previous government, it is ironical for it is the same BJP that opposed UPA’s food security and anti-corruption

ordinance tooth and nail. The ordinance was necessitated because his appointment could have been a violation of TRAI Act which bars its chairperson from further appointment in the Central Government.

But if you think it was a cakewalk for Misra because he happened to be Modi’s favorite, you’ve got it all wrong there. It was like a talent hunt or a ‘brains parade’ conducted by Modi where the entry was by invitation only and that too, to select five men in their sixties. The selection criteria were domain knowledge on governance in the country and unconventional thinking that will help him carry his development agenda further. Immediately after the results were declared, on May 17, the process was initiated and these selected men were asked to reach the Gujarat Bhawan in the capital. The media waiting outside Gujarat Bhawan in hordes were oblivious to their presence and the reason for it. Each of these five men were assigned an independent room and private secretary to assist them in typing and research. All of them made presentations from morning till evening, and sometimes till wee hours of the morning, which were later checked by Modi and Jaitley. Experience and track record were the testing parameters, not loyalty. And this is exactly how and why Modi selected Nripendra for the job! Not to forget his ability to deal with politicians without being subservient and yet being soft-spoken.

Some bureaucrats are of the opinion that besides emerging as a winner in the brain parade, Misra’s name for ‘PrinSec’ was recommended to Modi by Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley. Misra’s appointment also highlights the fact that Modi is different from his predecessors in ways more than one. He did not appoint a loyalist to the top post. Indira Gandhi had chosen PN Haskar, Vajpayee had chosen Brajesh Mishra and Dr. Manmohan Singh had selected TKA Nair – all of these bureaucrats had known their ‘masters’ for a long time. Nripendra Misra was almost unknown to Modi till May 16 when the election results came in.

It is ironical for it is the same BJP that opposed UPA’s food security and anti-corruption ordinance tooth and nail.

Ajay Maken, Indian National Congress


AJIT DOVAL, NATIONAL

SECURITY ADVISOR

It’s the return of the super spy! Ajit Kumar Doval, the new National Security Advisor (and Assistant to the PM on National Security Affairs), is a 1968-batch IPS officer of the Kerala cadre. Former IB director and a legendary spymaster who planned the invitations to the SAARC leaders – particularly Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan for Modi’s oath-taking ceremony – happens to be one of the rare IPS officers to have earned a military honour, the Kirti Chakra.

No other top spy has been able to do what Doval has – running meticulously conceived anti-terror operations deep inside the e n e m y t e r r i t o r y. H e h a s personally trained agents in the dangerous art of exhaustive reconnaissance of terrorist hideouts in Kashmir at great risk to life and freedom. He could have spent his bureaucratic years safely behind the office desk but he was addicted to ‘thrill’ and preferred drafting and signing INT reports from the field. In the Eighties, he spent six years in Pakistan as undercover, pulling off daring coups that left ISI feeling miserable. Within hours of his appointment as NSA, radio signals intercepted from PoK showed that the terror commanders were worried and Dawood Ibrahim shifted his base from Karachi to Afghan border fearing an Osama-like strike operation.

He was the lead negotiator when an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked to Kandahar. Besides this, he played a key role in the 1985-86 Mizo accord. As an undercover agent in Myanmar and China, he broke the back of the insurgency in the Northeastern region when he was able to defect six out of the seven commanders of Laldenga’s outfit to the Indian cause, forcing Laldenga to sign the papers.

In 1988-89, residents around the Golden Temple complex where Jarnail Singh Bhinderwale held fort, and the Khalistani separatists spotted a rickshaw puller. He was new to the area and looked very ordinary. He was put on the watch list by militants immediately. The rickshaw puller (Doval) eventually convinced them that he was an ISI agent sent by Pakistan to help them. He then entered the

complex and returned with crucial information like actual strength, weapons and position of terrorists with near-exact maps. He supplied fake bombs to Khalistan separatists which went dud when the separatists used them against Indian soldiers. And when the final assault came, he streamed much needed information from inside the complex to security forces that helped them carry out search and flush operations.

An intelligence officer who has worked under Doval spoke about his informal style towards agents

engaged in field operations. They were encouraged to live the characters and

could come to office dressed anyways they liked. There was no compulsion

to dress like a bureaucrat or shave. Most undercover agents had beards for the natural look. They learnt Urdu and Arabic (Doval is an Urdu expert himself) and learnt shoe-making to work as mochis in the targeted areas including enemy

territory. The surrender of the dreaded

militant Kuka Parray in Kashmir in the nineties was Doval’s achievement

again. He was able to brainwash Parray and his outfit Ikhwan-e-Muslimon to become

counter insurgents. Parray and his outfit together with Indian Army then neutralized top militant commanders in the Valley. ‘New Delhi’ was not sure whether Doval would succeed but this coup earned him great laurels both outside and inside the agency. Earlier, those opposed to him were considering peace talks with Pakistan–sponsored militant organizations but post the Parray incident, they preferred not to utter a word. He is a master strategist as well for he has brought separatists like Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Maulvi Farooq and SAS Geelani to the negotiating table.

In 2004, Doval was appointed as IB director. His appointment was controversial for it was rumored that he may not make it to the post because of his proximity with Advani. However, Dr. Manmohan Singh found him worthy for the job. After retirement in 2005, he continued to help intelligence agencies in the country with his valuable inputs on secret operations. Doval also helped Advani author a paper on black money stashed in foreign banks which BJP used as the main poll plank in 2009 elections.

Though India’s very own George Smiley is believed to have hung up his boots in 2005, the Wikileaks cable dated August 2005 suggest that he had planned an IB operation on Dawood which failed because Dawood was tipped off by some corrupt Mumbai Police men and escaped. What’s worth mentioning here is that both Ajit Doval and Nripendra Misra have worked together at Vivekananda Foundation, a Delhi-based think-tank.

The challenges and problems we face are well known to all. Now we have the right man for the job. I have always advocated that someone with field operations background should be the NSA.DC Pathak, former director, IB


AJIT SETH,

CABINET

SECRETARYMr. Seth is a 62-year-old IAS officer of the UP cadre, 1974 batch. He was scheduled to retire in June last year but the UPA Government extended his tenure by one year. The term of

the Cabinet Secretary is for two years. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has given him an extension of six months, his second – just 12 days before his term ends, and he will now retire in December 2014 becoming the fourth Cabinet Secretary since 1950 to complete four years in office. Experts believe that this was primarily done for the sake of continuity. His extension eliminated the chances of Sutanu Behuria, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industries and the senior most after Seth, to the prestigious post as he retires in July this year. This essentially means that PK Sinha, power secretary (1977 batch) and Saurabh Chandra, petroleum secretary (1978 batch) – both UP cadre officers will be in line to become Cabinet Secretary after Seth’s retirement in December. Seth, the 29th cabinet secretary prefers being invisible and yet carry out what has been asked of him.

DR. PK MISHRA,

ADDITIONAL

PRINCIPAL

SECRETARY PK Mishra a retired 1972-batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre has

been appointed as additional principal secretary to the Prime Minister. An Odisha native, Mishra is close to Modi and was one of the very few bureaucrats present at the meeting called in by Modi on the evening of February 27, 2002, after the Godhra train incident. Before going on central deputation in 2004, he was the principal secretary to the Chief Minister. He retired from service in 2008 as secretary, Ministry of Agriculture. Post his retirement, he was appointed as chairman of Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC). Having served at GERC

AK SHARMA,

JOINT SECRETARY The appointment of AK Sharma, a 1998-batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer from Azamgarh, to the PMO as joint secretary came as no surprise. He was the only officer to take the flight to Delhi the day Modi went to the President to stake claim for forming the next government. Sharma, a master strategist expert at implementing big projects was associated with joined CM’s office for 13 long years – ever since Modi became the Chief Minister. He joined CM’s office as additional secretary in 2001 and was promoted to the post of additional principal secretary to the CM in 2013. A religious man with immense patience for hearing what others have to say, he has been instrumental in successfully executing Modi’s flagship Vibrant Gujarat summit as well as the International Kite Festival. If the work demands, he can walk into his office in jeans and t-shirt even at odd hours. No matter what the work volumes are, he is known as one who never gets angry and never falters. He has served the state as CEO, Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) too. He is also the man behind Modi’s business-friendly image, his meetings with foreign dignitaries and trips abroad. He is credited with successfully marketing Modi’s Gujarat Model as well, one that was the mainstay of Modi’s electoral campaign and the ensuing win.

successfully for five years, he became the DG, Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM) and had the additional charge as chairman of state’s environment impact assessment committee, of the Central Ministry of Environment & Forests. Some of his key achievements include active involvement in initiatives of national importance like Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and the National Food Security Mission (NFSM). During his tenure as secretary, agriculture (2006-08), the production of food grains and the resultant agricultural GDP had touched a new high. He had played a key role in making Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) into an award winning entity as well. Mishra during his Gujarat Electricity Board (now Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited) days had worked immensely towards 100% electrification of the state, a model that Modi showcased during his electoral campaign. “He had built a network in the North Block corridors which gave him an edge over KK,” observed a bureaucrat from Gujarat. Notably, additional principal secretary is a new post in the PMO hierarchy.


BHARAT LAL,

JOINT SECRETARY Bharat Lal is likely to be appointed as joint secretary at PMO. It is learnt that ever since Modi has taken charge, Lal has been performing two duties simultaneously – managing PM’s office and his own as resident commissioner of Gujarat Bhawan. He is a 1988-batch Indian Forest Service officer from Gujarat and only a few days back he was empaneled as a joint secretary, clearing the deck for him to join the topmost office. He has been Modi’s eyes and ears in the capital, and was responsible for interacting with media and bureaucracy on behalf of the Modi. He helped Gujarat bag prestigious Tata Nano and Suzuki Motors projects and has accompanied Modi on foreign trips as well. When Badri-Kedarnath tragedy occurred in Uttarakhand owing to a cloudburst, he ensured that Gujarat was the fastest in helping the victims.

RAJIV TOPNO,

PRIVATE SECRETARY Rajiv Topno has been appointed as private secretary to the Prime Minister. In his appointment order from the DoPT, there is no mention of the tenure unlike the prevalent norm though. A Gujarat-cadre IAS officer of 1996 batch, Topno had served under Dr. Manmohan Singh as well, as Director at the PMO for five years wherein he handled key portfolios like telecom and ports. He was the only bureaucrat from Gujarat at the PMO then. His deputation at the center was about to end when this announcement came in, it has been extended now. He has earned the distinction of being the youngest IAS officer at this post. While in Gujarat, he was the MD, IndextB. What is interesting to note is that when a massive earthquake hit Gujarat in 2001, Topno was posted in Kutch as District Development Officer. Modi’s government in Gujarat issued a charge sheet against him in 2011 for alleged irregularities in earthquake debris removal. His promotion was stuck for more than a year but subsequently he was absolved of all the charges and promoted to secretary level. Before he joined PMO in 2009, he was the CEO of GSDMA.

R RAMANUJAM, SECRETARYR Ramanujam, secretary in PMO has been granted an extension of three years till September this year. His extension has been approved by ACC. A 1979-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, Ramanujam had joined the PMO as additional secretary in September 2011 and was promoted to secretary position in November last year. He had been at the PMO earlier as well (1997 to 2000) when IK Gujaral and AB Vajpayee were PM. What remains to be seen now is how Modi will adjust three of his close aides – K Kailashnathan (more popular as KK), GC Murmu and Vijay Nehra into the PMO. KK, a 1979-batch IAS officer who was retained as Principal Secretary to Gujarat CM on contract basis even after his retirement last year. He was the man who ‘strategized’ the last two assembly elections in the state and has done political liaison for Modi in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. While GC Murmu, the other Principal Secretary to Gujarat CM, is the legal brain behind all court-related matters faced by Modi and Amit Shah including the Ishrat Jahan case. Vijay Nehra is the junior most bureaucrat in Gujarat Chief Minister’s office as of now. Until a year back, he was the collector at Ahmedabad. Then he became joint secretary (law and order) in the state’s home ministry with additional charge of joint secretary at Chief Minister Modi's office. Later he was re-designated as additional secretary in CM’s office.

Some Gujarat IAS officers are of the opinion that these officers may be made to continue their stint in Gujarat because Modi may choose not to handicap Anandiben, his successor, with bureaucratic vacuum. In fact, as per the latest report, Murmu’s appointment as principal secretary to the new Chief Minister Anandiben has almost put a full stop to his chances of being in PMO.

There shall be more appointments to the PMO by the time this issue is out, including one from Indian Foreign Service to help Modi in terms of diplomatic relations (three names have been suggested by Sujatha Singh for the same and Modi is yet to make a choice amidst them) and a few more joint secretaries. However, it is the top brass of Misra, Doval, Seth, Sharma and Lal who would largely steer the ship for Modi. They are going to be more influential than ministers, and the PMO like in Indira days will become omnipotent again – not overshadowed by National Advisory Council – thereby regaining the glory it had lost over the years.

Dhiraj Ahuja [email protected]


INTERACTION

INDIAN BUREAUCRATS ARE LIKE F1 RACERS CAUGHT IN A TRAFFIC JAM

The Bureaucrat Express spoke to Shri

Kush Verma, Director General, National

Centre for Good Governance (NCGG)

about administrative research and

reforms that are currently underway.

Here are the excerpts of the interview

1. National Institute of Administrative Reforms (NIAR) has been upgraded to NCGG. Can you Qtake us through the journey?

NIAR was a sister institution of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie. It was set up in 1995 as the research arm of the Academy. A lot of work was done in the field of education, health, social sector delivery, infrastructure, water and sanitation, etc. Over the years, we were approached by a number of institutions – both from the Central Government and the State Governments to do cutting edge research on matters which were very important for governance, for instance – on the functioning of district collectors. The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) has commissioned a study and NIAR is conducting it in about 18 States. We are looking very closely at what makes a district collector efficient and what drives him to attain the objectives of the government. DoPT finally came to a conclusion that they need an institution which could on a national platform look at all issues of governance and this led to NIAR’s upgrade to NCGG. We’d be having two offices – the head office in New Delhi and another in Mussoorie. In Mussoorie, we have the advantage of synergy with the Academy.

We have the advantage of getting in touch with policy-makers because now apart from foundation courses, we have MCT (mid-career training) programs also being conducted by the Academy. We get an opportunity to interact with IAS officers with 8 to 10 years of seniority, 16 to 18 years of seniority and finally when they are about to be



empanelled as additional secretaries – they are at the real policy-making level at that stage and hence we get a really good platform. So we intend to primarily conduct our research in New Delhi and to disseminate the same at Mussoorie through a series of capacity building exercises, training programs, etc.

Good governance has become the lead motive for all activities that are being undertaken not only in India but abroad as well and you would be aware that there has been an administrative revolution of sorts going back to 1979-80 under the rubric of new public management followed by the discourse on governance which was initiated by the World Bank. There are generic issues of governance – ethics, accountability, transparency, leveraging technology by way of e-Governance, etc. There are a number of centers both in India and abroad who are working on these issues, for example we have the Centre of Good Governance, in Hyderabad which has done some outstanding work on e-Governance. The idea here is not to reinvent the wheel. This is why we are going into a series of MoUs with these institutions so that we can leverage on their faculty as well as their research studies and at the same time we can contribute with our findings which we have come up with by way of our research over the last 18 years or so. It becomes a win-win situation – we use the synergies of these institutions with our activities and we get them to a situation of mutual benefit.

There are a number of private universities that have set up public policy wings and branches. We intend to partner with them because they are doing some very intensive work on

2. Will NCGG partner with private and government Qinstitutions operating in the

similar domain?

public policy formulation. We would be able to give them practitioner’s view point. Again, it would be a case of mutual synergy.

There are five research centers w h i c h w e r e f u n c t i o n i n g independently in the Academy and CRS is one of them. These centers were merged with NIAR in 2011. Now a decision has been taken that these would revert to the Academy and not be a part of the NCGG. CRS was looking very closely at land reforms, tenancy laws and subjects of similar kind. As far as rural development is concerned, we at NIAR had a division looking after the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA. We have done a lot of work including formulation of best practices, case studies, etc., and shared them with the Ministry of Rural Development. These efforts have been appreciated a lot. We have looked at and have chronicled i n s t a n c e s o f c o n v e rg e n c e o f MGNREGA with other programs and activities of land departments, and that’s where maximum optimization of results comes from.

Administrative reforms in India have had a long history. If you go back, since the time of independence we have had 75 commissions and committees and something like 600 committees at the state level which have gone into this question of administrative reforms and lately of course we have had the second

3. Please elucidate on the role of CRS (Centre for Rural QD e v e l o p m e n t ) a n d i t s

association with NIAR, and what would its role be in NCGG?

4. Can you kindly take us through the administrative Qreforms that are underway in

the country? What have been some of the important developments in the recent past and your comments on the same?

Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC). The second ARC has given a very scathing comment on the reforms recommendations implementation. They have said that while the recommendations were very good and broad ranging the implementation has been very poor. The second ARC itself has given a very long list of recommendations running into about 1000 plus if not more, and out of those 90 per cent have been accepted. Out of the ones accepted, only 10 per cent have been put into practice. As I see it, we need a complete redesign of the administrative system to optimize the working. The administrative system has extremely brilliant individuals but the system needs to be reformed to work in such a fashion that optimizes the output of these bright officers. In fact, there is a very perceptive comment of Mr. Kaushik Basu, the veteran economist, who said that Indian administrators are like F1 racers caught in a traffic jam.

In fact, there is a very perceptive comment of Mr. Kaushik Basu, the veteran economist, who said that Indian administrators are like F1 racers caught in a traffic jam.

So you need to clear the bottlenecks and clear this clogging up that takes place. I would say that the main issue is how to inject more professionalism than what is there already in the working of civil servants. I would like to begin right at the time of r e c r u i t m e n t . A t t h e t i m e o f recruitment, we need to have a system that looks into competency mapping. As of now, we have a rather jumbled up system in which there is some attempt,

24 | | August 2014The Bureaucrat Express

particularly after CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test) has been introduced, but the focus is more on the kind of knowledge you have obtained as a result of your educational qualifi-cation, etc. Now that’s not quite the way things are progressing elsewhere. You should be looking at competencies not only at the time of recruitment but also at the time of promotion, placement and transfer. At this point in time, I guess there are enough mechanisms, techniques and tools to map a person’s competencies. You can look at what are the kind of competencies required at different levels of seniority and accordingly tailor the systems to capture whether a particular officer has that particular competency or not, because you need to have the right man at the right place at the right time, that’s very crucial.

You can look at what are the kind of competencies required at different levels of seniority and accordingly tailor the systems to capture whether a particular officer has that particular competency or not, because you need to have the right man at the right place at the right time, that's very crucial. Secondly, I feel a generalist civil service, the kind that we have, probably needs to be honed up in an age in where there is so much specialization.

Secondly, I feel a generalist civil service, the kind that we have, probably needs to be honed up in an age in where there is so much specialization. If you look at the functioning of government, essentially you have the regulatory function, the developmental and welfare function, the financial and management functions and the type which PSUs

undertake. My suggestion would be that you tailor your recruitment systems in such a way that people come in and specialize in these areas or categories so that you do not have a scenario where someone with a technical background becomes culture secretary and then feels like a fish out of water.

…tailor your recruitment systems in such a way that people come in and specialize in these areas or categories so that you do not have a scenario where someone with a technical background becomes culture secretary and then feels like a fish out of water.

So if you have a system wherein people with engineering backgrounds are mandated with infrastructure, they would already have the required skill set. Now within infrastructure there are so many different domains – water and sanitation, power, electricity, etc. If you have a background in engineering, you can work in any of these domains without much of a problem but instead if you are from the humanities background, you would be more suited to get into a regulatory or developmental framework. All these things needs to be fine-tuned. It can very easily be done such that your background matches the kind of category to which you are assigned.

I have been fortunate as I was part of the Academy council and for the last four years I have been very closely involved with the training process, both with its design and its execution

5. What is your observation regarding duration and Qcontent of training at the

Academy which has been a hot topic of discussion lately?

and I have also been acting as a counselor to a number of officers and have had a very close interaction with all of them. I feel the content is more important than the duration which could be 75 weeks or 103 weeks. You need to customize the training content to some extent, in the sense that you get a lot of people who have already done a vast amount of work in terms of preparing for the examination, general studies and so on, and therefore a lot of lectures on issues like the constitution are repetitive for them.

Perhaps if you do the customization, you could segregate people and then get them the kind of inputs which they n e e d t o f u n c t i o n i n t o d a y ’ s administrative set up. Take for instance logical analysis – you can simulate a S D M ’ s o ff i c e a n d g i v e t h e m photocopies of live files which have been dealt with and see how an officer would logically apply what he has learnt in training to resolve these cases.

…you can simulate a SDM’s office and give them photocopies of live files which have been dealt with and see how an officer would logically apply what he has learnt in training to resolve these cases.

Same could be done for court cases. I am a great votary for check list and actual field visits. Officers could be taken to the field with a checklist to see Mahatma Gandhi NREGA and what are the implementation issues that need to be captured during a field inspection. The officer must have a check l ist in mind regarding information to be captured when inspecting a school or a primary health center (PHC).

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ANDHRA PRADESH’S

MEE SEVADepartment of Information Technology, Government of

Andhra Pradesh has rolled out Mee Seva that won the Gold

Award for Outstanding Performance in Citizen Centric Service

Delivery at the 17th National Conference on e-Governance

held in Kochi early this year. Sanjay Jaju, Secretary,

Information Technology & Communications, the architect of

this stellar project takes us through what it is all about…

EVOLUTION States in India have a critical role in bringing about governance reforms.

In recent years, India witnessed a massive outpouring of public indignation manifested in street

protests against corruption and a series of high-profile scandals involving

allotment of public resources.

Harassment faced by the common people for accessing basic public

services from the government agencies was a shame. Poor ranking of India on the World Bank’s “Doing Business Index” is also a reflection of this pathetic combination of greed and apathy.


Andhra Pradesh, though a leader in software development, had failed to harness the true potential of this revolution to smoothen out the glitches within the government. The various

departments operating in independent

silos were unwilling to reform and reluctant to cede control. This created

the conditions for perpetuating vested interests with “red tape” ruling the roost.

The challenge was to conceptualize and evolve an idea, strong enough to capture the imagination of the political and administrative bosses and package it creatively to get their attention and acquiescence. Technical,

legal and structural challenges apart,

the toughest was to bring about an attitudinal change in the officials

b e s i d e s e n s u r i n g c i t i z e n e - participation, in a country with huge digital divide. To mitigate this, an

innovative public-private partnership business model was evolved wherein educated young people were inducted

to open kiosks with uniform branding, infrastructure and the right approach

to deliver services on payment of

nominal user fee. The next step was to identify the

government departments, which had high public interface. Studies revealed that the large demand and lack of transparency had resulted in wide spread corruption and breeding of large number of unauthorized agents and touts. To curb these and to ensure that the requests were processed only through authorized channels, it was decided to standardize the entire delivery channels across the state. In addition to these, the state also came up with ESD rules. Government of Andhra Pradesh issued Andhra Pradesh Information Technology Rules (Electronic Service Delivery), 2011 in order to provide legal sanctity to the digitally signed certificates. It

was also made mandatory for departments to migrate to electronic

service delivery within a period of five years.

District e-Governance Societies

(DeGSs) were formed, registered and empowered to function as nodal agencies for the implementation of

Mee Seva. With the help of these DeGSs, the central team did many capacity building activities in all districts and blocks and ensured that the IT awareness levels of department officers were enhanced. In the similar

TECHNOCRAT OF THE MONTH

Sanjay Jaju, Secretary,

IT & Communications,

Andhra Pradesh

manner, training for using digital signatures was also given to the

concerned officers. Convincing other departments and

bringing them under the Mee Seva

parasol was another and perhaps one of the most challenging tasks the team

had to undertake. Inter-departmental

coordination meetings were arranged regularly with key departments to

ensure that they join the bandwagon. The team studied the hardware gaps and necessity and helped the

department in establishing backend hardware, wherever required. This ensured that the hardware available in the department were capable and adequate enough to support high transaction applications.

The entire solution was hosted at a state-of-the-art State Data Center. The web-based system, which was deployed at a central location, ensured that the services were easily accessible to all the stakeholders, anytime and anywhere. The project worked on an Integrated Service Delivery Model to provide a single entry point for a wide range of services to the citizens. It also brought in a digital PKI-enabled integrated architecture through multiple service delivery points by blending various pre-existing state

initiatives with the mission-mode projects like State Data Center (SDC),

State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and

Common Service Centers (CSCs). Government process re-engineering

was done to improvise overall efficiency of government service delivery. ITE&C Department had envisioned procedural changes in various government processes to enable faster delivery of services, optimization of operational cost and improvement in quality of service delivery.


CURRENT STATUS

Mee Seva currently has 318 high impact services. Category A (high volume, high impact services are delivered across the counter) and the services involving workflow and field verification are categorized as Category B with strict citizen charters. 44 Services are Category A and remaining 274 services are Category B. The table below provides the list of services being offered through Mee Seva pertaining to various departments.

Government Services Coverage

S.No. Department Cat A Cat B Total1. UIDAI 3 0 32. Revenue 7 68 753. Registration & Stamps 9 10 194. Municipal Administration 4 18 225. Police 0 4 46. Civil Supplies 1 13 147. RTA 4 0 48. Education 0 4 49. NPDCL 0 13 13

10. Industries & Commerce 0 8 811. ITC 0 11 1112. Labour 0 4 413. Mines & Geology 4 9 1314. Agriculture 0 36 3615. Election 2 4 616. Social Welfare Department 0 3 317. Health Care 0 2 218. School Education 0 2 219. Rural Development 2 0 220. Co-Operative Societies 0 5 521. Employment 0 1 122. Technical Education 0 4 423. Collegiate Education 1 3 424. Warangal Municipal 0 4 4

Corporation25. Minority Welfare 4 1 526. Intermediate Education 0 3 327. Aarogyasri 0 1 128. HMWS 0 4 429. Legal Metrology 0 8 830. Endowments 3 0 331. Power Distribution 0 31 31

Total 44 274 318

Besides this, project also delivers more than 200 million transactions every year for other services like bill payments and a big range of B2C services making it the country’s biggest one stop e-Governance shop. Mee Seva kiosks are now also providing Business Correspondent Services for various banks and achieving financial inclusion for the citizens. This is significant because of the large-scale ADHAAR-based DBT roll out in the country.

Category % of Kiosk SCA Infra Department TotalBreakup Charges with

Service TaxA Amount 8 4 6 7 25

(INR)% Share 32 14 26 28 100

B Amount 20 3 5 7 35(INR)

% Share 57 9 14 20 100

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGEMee Seva is operational across all the districts of Andhra Pradesh; where large number of “Mee Seva” kiosks is established in each and every district in the state.

S.No. District APOnline CSCs eSeva Bhoomi DoP Total

1. Srikakulam 51 165 17 0 3 236

2. Vizianagaram 10 152 23 0 3 188

3. Visakhapatnam 89 169 52 0 4 314

4. East Godavari 145 175 58 0 6 384

5. West Godavari 135 140 46 0 7 328

6. Krishna 101 171 63 0 6 341

7. Guntur 81 200 56 0 6 343

8. Prakasam 59 149 18 0 5 231

9. SPSR Nellore 9 143 33 47 3 235

10. Chittoor 15 138 37 0 6 196

11. Y.S.R. 10 162 48 0 3 223

12. Ananthapuramu 28 164 39 0 4 235

13. Kurnool 53 178 54 0 3 288

14. Mahabubnagar 21 293 49 0 4 367

15. Ranga Reddy 166 138 98 0 1 403

16. Hyderabad 198 2 188 0 6 394

17. Medak 32 176 23 0 4 235

18. Nizamabad 24 240 22 0 3 289

19. Adilabad 25 120 19 0 2 166

20. Karimnagar 72 198 67 0 4 341

21. Warangal 86 200 47 103 5 441

22. Khammam 48 185 23 0 3 259

23. Nalgonda 23 204 51 0 4 282

Total 1481 3862 1131 150 95 6719

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCEThe project was launched with an initial seed investment of 9 crore. The user fee model allows ploughing back the revenues for maintenance and development of services. With 4.4 crore transactions by now, project has already made more than ` 125 crore in user fees and recovered the initial investment allowing decent returns for the stakeholders, which are being shared amongst them as given below:

MEE SEVA

TRANSACTION VOLUMECategory A/B wise Total Transactions

Service Number of % of Category Transactions Transactions

Cat A Total 15,725,525 35.4%Cat B Total 2,87,43,348 64.6%Grand Total 4,44,68,874 100.00%

The figures below clearly indicate that 35.4% of the total transactions are Category A, which have been delivered across the counter.

Category B breakup of Total Transactions

Service Number of % of Category Transactions Transactions

Approved 2,62,72,808 91.4%Rejected 3,18,944 6.0%Pending with in SLA 4,14,110 1.1%Pending Beyond SLA 17,30,270 1.4%Total (Cat B) 2,87,36,132 100.00%

Even in Category B, only a meagre 1% of the transactions are pending beyond the citizen charter time limits.



The achievement of Mee Seva can also

be measured in terms of the wider

digital inclusion of the entire

population of Andhra Pradesh

towards development and growth.

The key learning is that the projects

like Mee Seva should avoid the deeply

rooted technological determinism

which assumes that the layering of

ICTs in development alone will

automatically solve many pre-existing

constraints related to gender, caste,

feudalism, privilege and traditional

exercises of power, factors which limit

the real potential of ICTs in citizen-

centric service delivery in particular

and development in general.

The project also holds a lesson that

thorough preparatory work is

important to avoid mishaps or

breakdowns in service delivery,

availability and updating of accurate

data, adherence to timelines indicated

in Citizen Charters, monitoring the

performance and dynamic evaluation

from time to time. The project has been

a success mainly because of the

involvement of multiple stakeholders

with specif ic motivations, al l

seamlessly fusing towards a common

goal.

Mee Seva approach to service delivery

needed a complete transformation in

capacity which was strategized to be

achieved by bringing in innovation in

organizational and technological

model. A complete realization that the

process had to move through all the

Economies of Scale, Scope and

Learning

stages starting from visioning and

leading to a sustainable model of

service delivery was the cornerstone of

the overall strategy. Technology-

driven efforts were planned, assigned

and implemented for various

departments to increase efficiency in

service delivery; department processes

were re-engineered considering

feasibility of implementation and

participation from various stake-

holders was ensured for problem

solving and decision making. Resource

util ization was maximized by

incorporating innovative procedures

and expanding domain expertise

among government departments to

increase their overall capacity. Mee

Seva approach also made it possible to

achieve multiple economies of scale,

scope and learning leading to

enhanced capacities and ease of

expansion.

Various departments exist to

facilitate and simplify the government

functions. However, when a citizen has

to approach different departments for

a single request, it complicates his life

and effort. Mee Seva successfully

addressed this concern. It facilitates the

in terac t ion between di fferent

departments thus sparing citizens

from the pain of knocking the doors of

different departments for a single

application/request. For example,

Mee Seva facilitated communication

and data transfer/file movement

between Revenue and Registration

Departments.

Breaking the Department Silos

CAPACITY BUILDINGITE&C Department has collaborated

with Institute of e-Governance,

Hyderabad to organize trainings to

kiosk operators and department

officials on Mee Seva services. 156,193

department officials and kiosk

operators have been trained till 21

April 2014 by capacity-building team

of Mee Seva.

To enhance the capacity-building

efforts, Mee Seva capacity, building

portal has been conceived. It is an

online system to publish training

calendars, accepting nominations,

capturing attendance and monitor all

the training programs which are being

conducted through Mee Seva. Online

tests have been introduced on the

capacity-building portal to evaluate

kiosk operators on the learnings

through training program.

LESSONS LEARNTMee Seva is seen as a realization of the

direct and manifested will of the

citizen. The political leadership

channelized the demand generated by

the people into the effective delivery of

citizen centric services. It also allowed

a relook into age-old archaic

procedures, which were no longer

relevant. The re-engineering of the

business processes of the departments

became both the prerequisite and the

by-product of Mee Seva. The efficiency

levels of departments have also

increased as IT deployment drastically

reduced their avoidable workload.

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Dr. Shalini Rajneesh, Principal

Secretary, Department of

Administrative Reforms,

Government of Karnataka has

ensured that services are delivered to the citizens in

time, every time. This has been made possible through

Sakala project that bagged the Silver Award for

Outstanding Performance in Citizen Centric Service

Delivery at the 17th National Conference on e-

Governance held in Kochi early this year. In this

exclusive article, she writes about how Sakala

has made a difference to the lives of the

people in the state.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Vision of Sakala is “to ensure in-time delivery of government services to citizens by practicing innovative and efficient management systems through capaci ty bui lding in government and empowering citizens to exercise their right to service.”

In the year 2011, the government realised that common citizens should not be made to run from pillar to post asking for routine services that were bound to be given by the government in a normal course of time. Hence, the task of managing the Right to Citizen Services initiative was handed over to Chief Secretary, who in turn identified the Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms (DPAR) and under her leadership the team worked on several processes such as preparation of the Act, Rules, IT

solution, citizen awareness, training of staff, state wide roll out, identification of new services, implementation of the project, regular inspection, coordi-nation and developing governance process re-engineering which are citizen and staff friendly.

The logo says it all…given by the citizens, it shows a clock which indicates “time consciousness” and a hammer which means, if you don’t adhere to the commitment of time, then justice follows! Sakala in Kannada means “In time or Good time”. The slogan “No more delays, we deliver on time” has re-defined the work ethics of the government employees. The project which started with 151 services under its umbrella, subsequently added 114 services in Phase II, 110 in Phase III and 44 in Phase IV, 28 in Phase V and 32 in Phase

VI adding up to a total of 478 services. As of date 4.60 crore citizen service applications have been delivered with 98% success rate.

To add more smiles to the citizens, Sakala added 135 services in the online mode, so that citizens need not visit the individual offices for registering respective service request.

DIAGNOSTIC APPROACH

The image of the government suffered due to a bureaucratic legacy known for undue delays in obtaining services from the government; ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude of the staff; undefined time lines for service delivery; lack of single window solutions; rampant corruption; staff unrest and the loss of the revenue to the state exchequer owing to all of this. The piling of grievances and pendency of files in

Methods of Identifying the Problem

KARNATAKA’S SAKALA


CHANGE MAKER

various offices is indicative of the problems involved in service delivery.

Multipronged strategy to address above-mentioned problem areas was employed. Some of the important efforts included: 1. Stipulation of time frame to deliver public services as per citizen charter and f ix ing accountab i l i ty on employees through a participative, bottom- up approach.2. Standardisation of processes and norms to achieve the purpose of the project.3. Continuous training for providing right attitudes, knowledge and skill to the cutting edge employees.4. Use of IT to create a single monitoring system for service delivery across all departments, so as to ensure full control over the project outcomes in a transparent manner.5. Involvement of public participation in governance by creating awareness among the citizens and empower them to avail the services, without difficulty.6. Taking all stakeholders, i.e. the citizen, the government and the employees along in the process of reform.

1. Ownership by Government Employees – Extensive discussions and deliberations were held with government functionaries and their associations to convince them about the benefits of implementing this Act and improving their own brand image. They accepted the fact that they are citizens first and employees later and it is high time to put themselves in citizens’ shoes!2. Performance Agreements – Bottom up planning for voluntarily selection of services and timelines by all stakeholders was very critical before

Degree of Efforts Employed

Strategies for Implementation

fixing both individual and collective responsibilities. Workflow charts were built to map the time taken by each government servant for providing the service and to ensure that the administrative system can gear up to deliver much before the stipulated time. Once the services were identified by respective departments along with their time lines, workshops were conducted at state, district and sub- district levels to build their confidence levels. 3 . U p g r a d i n g C a p a c i t y a n d infrastructure – A detailed training plan was drawn with the help of Administrative Training Institute, Mysore to train 20,000 designated officials. Infrastructural needs to boost confidence was provided in the form of providing additional staff and IT hardware to every remote office.

4. Transforming Work-culture – Needless to say, e-Governance is a key factor in assessing and enhancing effectiveness of citizen services legislation. The citizen continues to approach the very same offices he used to approach for a given service delivery but now appreciates a pleasant experience! The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has created a s t a t e - o f - t h e - a r t I n f o r m a t i o n

T e c h n o l o g y p o r t a l , w w w. s a k a l a . k a r. n i c . i n , w h i c h provides a seamless interface to the citizen and a platform to the government officials to (i) Receive, (ii) Process, (iii) Deliver the services as per a pre-designed format. An acknowledgment receipt is generated along with an SMS, indicating due date for delivery. Citizen can use the unique 15-digit acknowledgement number to track status of the application on-line and can also register a complaint to the call centre, whenever there is a delay/default. The official system and the officials are now responsive to the citizens! 5. Management by Objectives – On the management front, a Lean & Mean Mission has been constituted for the successful implementation of this Act. The organisational structure is as

shown below:‘Effective monitoring was and is the key to successful implementation’ of this project. Earlier, there was no tool to measure what is happening in government offices, in a real time basis. Sakala ICT and Software solution provides for entering al l the applications received from citizens on a real time basis and monitoring the service delivery for all the depart-


Mission Director

Management Consultant

State ITConsultant

Addl. Mission Director

Administrative Office

Addl. Mission Director

ments/services in an integrated manner. Analytics software has been developed to give insights into critical managerial aspects, besides mapping exceptional defaults to employees’ service records through computerised Human Resource Management System (HRMS). 6. Right to be heard – Integrated grievance redressal mechanism includes the following, as shown below:

FINANCIAL AND TANGIBLE BENEFITSThis is a government-sponsored program and there are no

financial benefits for Sakala/government per se. However,

the project aims at reducing the harassment of citizens

involved in chasing their papers in different government

offices and increasing their satisfaction levels from service

delivery.

(a) The notional savings for a citizen who has availed a

government service in one single visit can be calculated as

below:

By one visit reduced to government office a citizen saves:

* 50 for transportation

* 200 daily wage serviced

* Total number of applications delivered in time = 4.6 crore

Hence, the notional savings for citizens is approximately

` 250 * 4.6 crore = 1,150 crore.

(b) Not only are services rendered in time, but delivered

before the stipulated time. Analysis show that on an average,

a citizen saves more than half the stipulated time.

(d) Standardising the checklist of documents required for each service and mandating their submission along with the application have ensured lesser rejections of applications. Rejections are being monitored closely that ensured a drastic fall from 8.85% to around 4% over the period of time.

© Grievances for Top 50 services have been reduced

considerably over the period of time (Jan 2013 to Jan 2014) is

shown above.

450

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

Jan-

13

Feb-

13

Mar

-13

Ap

r-13

May

-13

Jun-

13

Jul-

13

Au

g-13

Sep

-13

Oct

-13

Nov

-13

Dec

-13

Jan-

14

128

234

386

330

284

109 12699

158

175

11188 66

Note: In the months of February to April 2013, some Sakala services were banned due to Election Code of Conduct. Hence, the rise in count of Grievances is seen.


S.No. Mechanism Description

1. Call Centre 080 44554455 functions as a hub for receiving and channelizing complaints, providing information and serving as a feedback. More than five lakh citizens have availed services.

2. Helpdesks 200 desks established at every District and Taluk HQ. After all ‘Asking is knowing!’ More than seven lakh citizens benefitted.

3. Phone-in Program Every fortnight, the Hon. on Doordarshan Law Minister hears out

public grievances. This puts everyone on high alert.

4. Unified Grievance e-SPANDANA has beenPortal developed to act as a single

window for grievance andcomplaint management.

8.85

7.80

5.79

6.126.00

6.24

7.55

6.60

5.01

3.44

2.13

4.47

3.76

3.69

2.47

3.67

5.86

6.61

5.97

Rejection Trends

April ’12

May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan’13 Feb Mar April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

IMPACT OF THE PROJECT ON PRODUCTS/SERVICES 1. Customer Stakeholder Satisfaction

Although there were time frames prescribed as per Citizen Charter for each service by the respective department, yet these deadlines were rarely adhered to before introduction of Sakala. Besides, there was no mechanism to document the time taken for delivery of each service, which has now been made online at

(a) The customer satisfaction carried out by DARPG through the ATI revealed that 89% of the citizens were happy with services after Sakala came.

(b) In a field study that Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore conducted, most employees expressed happiness with the implementation of Sakala as it actually eased their job.

(c) University of Chicago’s internal study revealed that more than 50% of the officers were courteous to citizens visiting them.

(d) The summary of the survey conducted by Karnataka Evaluation Authority through IMRB with a sample of 10000 citizens in five sample districts, is given below:?99% of citizens are happy/very happy with the

delivery of Sakala Services.?99% of citizens expressed politeness and helpfulness

shown by officials during submission of application.?97% of citizens had overall experience with the

application related information.?95% of citizens found ease in application for services.?94% of citizens had overall experience with the

fulfilment of service request.?93% of the citizens mentioned, post-Sakala there was

no need to visit multiple desks.?90% of the citizens received a unique 15 digit GSC

number as acknowledgement to their service request.?70% of the citizens are aware of the Act by the name

Sakala.Sakala Model has been recognized both nationally and

internationally for providing an innovative ‘Citizen friendly’, ‘Technology driven’ and ‘Business like’ Governance Model which aims at 100% transparency, accountability and efficiency. Some of the awards are as follows: 1. Sakala is 9001:2008 certified (2014) 2. Google cub innovator award (2012) 3. National e-governance award for outstanding performance in citizen centric service (2013)4. National award for the government category of the Quality Council of India – DL Shah Quality awards 20142. Social Benefits

(a) Transparency, Accountability and Efficiency in

www.sakala.kar.nic.in.

Governance: Recorded data has replaced anecdotal information on service requests and their disposal to support monitoring and decision-making. Credibility of government is being restored by promising in time services and then seeing to it that the promise is kept consistently.

(b) Simplified Procedures: It is one of the biggest benefits to citizens from the project as a whole. For example:

Land conversion process reduced from 120 days to 45 days using the Dharwad Model

Self-declarations in place of Affidavit

SC/ST Caste Certificate - now Lifetime

Suo motu Birth Certificate at Birth in government hospitals

No need for Domicile Certificate – Housing Board

Police verification for passport-time reduced from 90 to 20 days

Analytics led reforms

3. Citizen ConvenienceReduction in hidden costs borne by citizens by paying bribes for expediting their cases cannot be quantified. However, the citizens now get compensated for delays or defaults by respective employees. 375 citizens have claimed compensation @ 20 per day up to 500 for delay/default by officials.(a) Access points in addition to usual office locations accessible during office hours. Cyber centres, helpdesks add to citizen convenience. 777 Nemmadi Kendras at the Hobli level besides 6000+ gram Panchayat offices at every village level have brought service delivery to citizens’ doorstep. MoU has been signed with more than 1000 cyber cafes to assist rural population gain access to online services. Mobile application has further added to the convenience of the citizens. State wide single number call centre has become a virtual bridge between citizen and government. (b) Time-bound grievance redressal – About 95% of the complaints redressed as of date 3276 complaints are resolved out of the 3481 complaints received.© Automatic escalation of complaints beyond a stipulated resolution time to appeals – which results in either payment of compensation and delivery of service or either as chosen by the citizen.

To conclude, we can comfortably say that Sakala empowers each and every person to exercise his right for availing public services in a time bound manner and in an amicable environment.


THE SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT


Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

LIVE YOUR LIFE TO THE FULLEST!

he hustle-bustle of life is not allowing us to live

the life to the fullest. Today, the biggest enemy of Tgood health is stress. Many of the modern-day

disorders are not really illnesses, but manifested

symptoms of stress. Not only does stress take a heavy toll

on our health, it doesn’t allow us to feel young at heart as

well. A research in the UK found that a baby smiles 400

times a day, an adolescent 17 times and an adult doesn’t

smile at all. It is the stress in life that’s robbing the smile.

Often health is seen as the mere absence of disease. But

that’s not totally true. Total health can be experienced

only when all the layers of our existence – breath, mind,

soul, etc., come into harmony. If one is feeling rough from

inside, then he is not healthy; if the mind is not calm, then

one is not mentally healthy. When the emotions are

rough, one is emotionally not healthy. True health must

ensure happiness of the person. Without physical health,

you can’t be completely happy, and without happiness

you can’t be completely healthy. The state of healthiness

has to flow from the innermost of one’s being to the

outermost and vice versa. That’s why in the ancient days

health was regarded as a gift from the Cosmic Mind or the

Indra.


The state of perfect health was what was referred to as

Swastha in the Shastras. It means health. It also means

being in one’s Self. To be healthy, one needs to be

established in the Self and vice versa. The best way to

attain good health is to attain to simple practices that

calm the mind and help you get in touch with yourself.

Start with your breath. Proper breathing can greatly

enhance not only the quantity of life; but also its quality.

Proper breathing also increases the prana or subtle life

force. When the level of prana in the system is high, one

feels happy, bubbly and enthusiastic. And when the prana

level goes down, the same person will feel down,

depressed and even suicidal. So, the secret of feeling

young at heart is in the level of prana. Pranayam and other

similar exercises that help regulate the flow of life force

are vital as they also invoke positive emotions, replacing

anger, frustration and jealousy.

Yoga and meditation also help greatly in getting

established in the Self. Yoga means to unify. It attends to

all aspects of life: physical, mental and spiritual.

Meditation and yoga lead to body-mind-soul harmony

which is the indication of true health. Take out some time

and go to the most beautiful place which is within you. A

few quiet moments are sources for creativity. Silence

heals and rejuvenates and gives you depth and stability.

Another secret to good health is learning to take life in

its stride. Life is as complicated as you want it to be. Life

involves ups and downs. Do not be afraid of this. Know

that every pinch that you are feeling is for the best, to

make your life livelier and make you stronger.

Life is not such a serious matter. So start your day by

looking into the mirror and giving a big smile to yourself.

Sing, dance and celebrate. The very intention to celebrate

will lift you and bring you to the present moment.

Make your smile cheaper and anger expensive. Have a

sense of humour. You are endowed with certain

naughtiness as a child. Keep it alive. Humour will grease

all tough situations. One who has humour can sail

through any conflict. Humour is the buffer that saves you

from humiliation. Humour is not just words; it is the

lightness of your being.

Be enthusiastic as it is another measure of living life to

the fullest. Life is enthusiasm, but paradoxically we call

the process of losing it as living. Reverse it and keep your

enthusiasm alive. That will surely make you feel young at

heart.

Follow Sri Sri @SriSriSpeaks

The Bureaucrat Express intends to be the voice of the whistleblower

IF YOU ARE WITNESS TO CORRUPTION AND NEPOTISM IN YOUR DEPARTMENT,

YOU CAN SHARE THE DETAILS WITH US WITHOUT DISCLOSING YOUR IDENTITY.

Write to us at: [email protected] or mail the details to us at

Investigation Department, The Bureaucrat Express24, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002

YOUR IDENTITY SHALL BE KEPT ANONYMOUS.

If you have the flair for writing and wish to contribute editorially, email the draft to us at

[email protected] it could be a blog, case study, poem, an interesting narration or anything that would interest our readers.

FIGHT CO UPTION``& nepotismwe will be your partners!

PSU WATCH

The Bureaucrat Express interacted

with Dr. CV Ananda Bose, Chairman,

Central Warehousing Corporation on

various issues that plague the

warehousing scenario in the country,

the possible solutions and his

organization’s initiatives. Here is what

he had to say on all aspects…

1. Some of the key challenges for warehousing in India are land availability, lack of standardi-Qzation, power outages, high costs due to long

transit time, lack of IT penetration and warehousing technologies, process inefficiencies, etc. What are CWC’s initiatives on these fronts?

Lack of standardization: CWC is known for its standard scientific storage techniques. A well-defined code of storage practices is adopted for various notified commodities handled and warehoused by CWC. It has its own engineering department responsible for creation of warehousing infrastructure on sound and standardised structural designs. CWC is an ISO 2001:2008 certified organization with well-defined Standard Operating Procedures and Work Instructions for the various activities carried out by the Corporation as well as for the staff functions. From its long-dawn experience, CWC has also developed its Best Management Practices for various functional domains.

Power outages: Though CWC has deployed diesel generators as an energy backup to ensure uninterrupted operations wherever required, the problem of scarcity of energy is a problem of the society at large. CWC has taken initiatives to cut down its electricity consumption and reduce dependence of conventional energy by introducing LED-based solar photovoltaic charged lighting systems for

THINGS SHALL CHANGE FOR GOOD ONCE GST IS IMPLEMENTED


providing illumination in the office and warehouse premises.

High costs due to long transit time: CWC is getting its warehouses accredited from the Warehousing Development Regulatory Authority (WDRA) from where Negotiable Warehouse Receipts (NWR) can be issued in respect of stocks deposited at the warehouse. Though not imple-mented, yet a NWR issued at one place for a given quality and quantity of a commodity can be exchanged/ negotiated for seeking delivery of a same quality and quantity of the commodity at another place, thereby avoiding the need for transportation between two places. This would be a revolutionary turnaround cutting down on transit costs and time and losses.

Lack of IT penetration and warehousing technologies: CWC has developed fully functional, though standalone IT systems for warehouse management. CWC is in the process of developing a full-fledged Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System for day-to-day management of its

operations. Though CFSs/ICDs are equipped for mechanized handling, mechanization studies are being conducted for food grain warehouses, and once a suitable solution is found, same shall be implemented by CWC.

Free Trade Warehousing Zones (FTWZ): There are direct benefits to importers like flexibility towards end-distribution; duty deferment benefits (freeing up working capital); quality control capability prior to duty-payment; exemption on SAD, VAT & CST on imports through FTWZ; hassle-free re-export regulatory/duty implications; reduced buffer stocks; service tax exemption on services availed including transportation inside India; lowered product costs; and foreign exchange transaction capability.

2. The government has taken several initiatives – Free QTrade Warehousing Zone

(FTWZ); Logistics Parks; Ware-h o u s i n g ( D e v e l o p m e n t & Regulation) Act, 2007; new tax policies to reduce supply chain costs, etc. How far have these initiatives helped in addressing the challenges?

T h e b e n e f i t s t o e x p o r t e r s i n c l u d e : products from India entering the FTWZ are treated as deemed export providing immediate benefits to suppliers; local tax exemption (e.g. CST, sales tax, excise and VAT) on all activities conducted inside the FTWZ; export quotas able to be met for companies exporting into FTWZ; increased e f f i c i e n c y t h r o u g h l o w e r e d r e v e r s e logistics through quality control before dispatch from India; foreign

exchange transaction capability; and increasing supply chain efficiencies (forward and reverse) while enhancing capital cash flow.

The benefits for re-export include: service tax exemption on all activities conducted inside the FTWZ including rental and labor; exemption from custom and stamp duty on products imported into FTWZ meant for re-export out of India; income-tax exemption on profit where applicable; hass le - f ree re-export process ; permission of 100% FDI for the set-up of units by the unit holder of the FTWZ; and ability to leverage India’s cost, skill and geographic positioning advantage as a hub for regional/global distribution post-value optimizing activities.

B e n e f i t s o f Wa r e h o u s i n g (Development & Regulation) Act, 2007 (WDRA): The Act has provided the legal framework for issuance of Negotiable Warehousing Receipt ( N W R ) a g a i n s t c o m m o d i t i e s warehoused in an accredi ted warehouse, scientific standards for which are also prescribed by the Act,


and for such NWRs to be pledged with financial institutions for availing credit. Besides as the NWR market evolves, it would be possible to avoid long distance hauling costs and cost on account of multiple handling, and curtail transit losses by negotiating a NWR for delivery of same quantity/ grade/quality of a commodity at another place.

Tax policies to reduce supply chain costs: The cascading effect of local taxes and complex regulatory structure of central and state bodies have added to the inefficiencies for businesses. The proposed GST augurs well for businesses through simplified processes. The dual governance structure of central and state bodies make the current tax system very complicated. The multi-layered system, with both Central and State Governments having the power to levy taxes brings about many inefficiencies in the system. The double taxation policy also adds cost as the tax paid earlier in the value chain gets re-taxed and firms end up paying tax on the tax paid. The government over the past years has tried to bring about some changes to try and minimize this cascading impact, however this is not to the same extent as the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) intends to do. Once GST is implemented, logistics and supply chains will therefore see a major change; sourcing, distribution and warehousing decisions which are currently planned based on state level tax avoidance mechanisms instead of operational efficiencies will be reorganized to leverage efficiencies of scale, location and other factors relevant to the business.

GST would eliminate the existing penal t ies on inter-s ta te sa les transactions and facilitate consoli-dation of vendors and suppliers. This

will eliminate the need to have state-wise warehouses to avoid CST and the associated paperwork, leading to elimination of one extra, redundant level of warehousing in the supply chain. This will result in a reduction in the number of warehouses improved efficiencies, better control and reduction in inventory due to lesser numbers of stocking points and cases of stock outs. This would allow a firm to take advantage of economies of scale and consolidate warehouses at the same time reduce capital deployed in the business. Larger warehouses can benefit from technological sophis-tication by deploying state-of-the-art planning and warehousing systems which are not feasible in smaller, scattered warehouses. At the same time, IT costs of having ERPs deployed at many small warehouses can be saved. This will pave the way for improved service levels at lower cost in the overall supply chain. A rationali-zation similar to warehousing can also be done in distribution and transpor-tation routes as tax ceases to become the deciding factor. Since the tax rates across states are envisaged to be uniform, state boundaries will no longer be the parameter for deciding routes. At the same time, with larger warehouses, transportation lot sizes will automatically increase, making way for more efficient bigger trucks. The optimization and rationalization that these options can bring about in the supply chains of a firm on account of GST will provide a competitive advantage to the business through better service and faster turnaround times at lower costs.

3. What about IT inter-vention for it has many Qapparent advantages like

reduced labor costs, improved space efficiency, track and trace, etc. What

have been some of the barriers to IT adoption?

4. The government has been thinking of allowing village Qcouncils, or panchayats, to

build their own intermediate warehouses, which will bring storage areas close to the recipients. What are your observations on this?

IT is definitely an enabler for streamlined operations, process adherence, efficient monitoring, control and review of operations. IT intervention can also help reduce redundancy and helps management in decision making as an information system. However, the success of IT systems in any organization depends on how well it is devised to process the various inputs to give results that represent true picture of the operational and process flow aimed at a c h i e v i n g t h e o rg a n i z a t i o n a l objectives. The IT systems to be put into place need to be agile to be able to adapt to organization’s dynamics. In organizations where full-fledged IT systems are being introduced for the first time, the biggest challenge to success lies in change management that involves, acceptance, adaptation, and learning by the manpower to shift to the new platform. Besides, the ultimate success of such IT systems depends on critical feedback by the users which can alone help fine tune and optimise an IT system to deliver the expected results.

The government’s vision of ensuring food security to each household can only be achieved when the benefits of the PDS system percolate down to the grass-root levels. Village councils can play an active role in ensuring that the beneficiaries in their jurisdiction do not go deprived. B u i l d i n g w a re h o u s e s / s t o r a g e infrastructure in the consumption


areas shall eliminate supply chain gaps ensuring seamless availability of grains for consumption commensurate to the beneficiary population.

CWC has been playing a vital role in development of such warehousing infrastructure at the panchayat level. CWC was entrusted with the construction work of mini godowns of 300 MT capacity each for Primary Agricultural Co-operative Societies (PACS) at 148 locations in five districts of Odisha, viz. Kalahandi, Bolangir, Sambalpur, Cuttack and Puri on ‘Deposit Work’ basis. Work at 100 locations have been completed by the end of ? nancial year 2012-13 and the work at 21 locations is in progress.

FDI that goes into development of supply chain infrastructure coupled with agricultural reforms that besides effectively setting up a competitive market scenario for the Indian farmer where he can market his agricultural produce, also establish linkages between the farmer and the supply chain solution providers so that overall bargaining power of the farmer increases to ensure him a remunerative price for a produce instead of resorting to distress sale at the hand of middlemen due to dear th of economically available warehousing infrastructure, such an arrangement would definitely improve the scenario of agri-farm supply chain in the country.

5. FDI, combined with agricultural reforms, is the Qway to fix Indian supply

chain. Do you agree with this? Please elucidate.

6. Despite recent invest-ments and government Qmeasures, the majority of

cold storage in India is fit only to store potatoes, the New Delhi based PHD

Chamber of Commerce and Industry said recently in one of its report. What are your observations regarding the same?

It is true that there has been an increased demand for mul t i -commodity cold chain infrastructure comprising both the static (i.e. warehousing infrastructure) and the mobile (i.e. refrigerated trans-portation) infrastructure. According to a market research report “India Cold Chain Market Forecast & Oppor-tunities 2017”, the cold chains market in India is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 28.7% during 2012-17, which will make the market to reach mammoth size of $11.6 billion by 2017. This demand has been spurred by the growth of industries like pharma-ceuticals, evolution of new service models, e.g. the quick service restaurants, etc. There is also a huge scope for development of infra-structure for post-harvest manage-ment of fruit and vegetables, dairy products, meat and fisheries in the country. India is the largest producer of milk, second largest producer of fruits and vegetables and fifth largest producer in the meat and fisheries segment. However, due to lack of requisite cold chain infrastructure, not only India’s share in international trade in these commodities is insignificant, the trade is crippled on one hand by huge storage losses as high as 10-40% across the various perishable commodities, while the consumer has to bear price escalations from the farm gate price as exorbitant as 50% in case of milk, 70% in case of grains and cereals, beyond 100 % in case of fruits.

The cold chain industry in the country has kept from flourishing in the past on account of high capital cost

and long break-even periods due to low demand, however, despite that the recent demand promises economies of scale, high real estate costs coupled with errant availability of electricity at high cost, besides high life-cycle costs, are the impediment to growth of the industry today.

It is a fact that majority of the cold chain infrastructure in India was developed during 1960s, which majorly supported the storage of potatoes and potato seeds. About 75% of the total capacity of cold storages is suitable only for potatoes today as well. Cold chain infrastructure for other temperature-sensitive goods is at abysmal state right now. Under the ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI) flagship “Scheme for Cold C h a i n , Va l u e A d d i t i o n a n d Preservation Infrastructure”, financial assistance in the form of grant-in-aid at 50% of the total cost of plant and machinery and technical civil works in general areas, and at 75% of the total cost of plant and machinery and technical civil works is provided by the ministry in difficult areas subject to a maximum of 10 crore. Another gover-nment initiative by the government to promote the cold chain industry has been in setting up the National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCD) which has the following thrust areas – (1) Training and Capacity Building, (2) Research and Development, (3) Building standards through inter-national benchmarking, (4) Interaction with national/international bodies for development of cold chain infra-structure and trade in perishables.

The government has also liberalised the cold chain sector by allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the extent of 51%, being an enabler for equity infusion and technology transfer.


HEALTHCARE & WELLNESS


CARDIAC SURGERY

VERSION 2.0We must become the change we want to

see. Imagination is more important than

knowledge. Never say sky is the limit

when there are footprints on moon.

dvancement is a part parcel of human race. The new developments not only enrich us with Aknowledge but open up a lot of possibilities as

well. Cardiac surgery is no exception to it. Lately, we have made a lot of progress as far as technology, drugs and research are concerned. Here’s a look at some of the important ones…

When it comes to medical devices for surgeries, last year we saw the emergence of new transcatheter valves with which we can now offer surgery with minimal risk. In the field of heart failure, the size of heart assist devices has further shortened and their durability increased due to use of magnetic levitation technology. ECMO devices which can be inserted with no waste of time, are now much safer and have given a new ray of hope to patients with either lung or heart failure. The introduction of certain new cardiac drugs have made treatment much safer. For example, the new blood thinners benefit the patients who have valve replacement or who suffer from heart rhythm abnormality. Blood monitoring shall not be required in their case – which was a must with blood thinners available earlier. Another new and important development is guidance by American Heart Association in using statins – we can use higher dose of drug if the person has higher risk of heart attack irrespective of his cholesterol levels. Use of antioxidant like Vitamin C and Vitamin E has shown to be effective in prevention of heart rhythm disturbance port cardiac bypass surgeries.The advancements in cardiac research have touched a

new high as well. The launch and availability of 4D Echo and virtual and spatial imaging has made the understanding of heart disease simpler and offers complete and safer treatment. Recent developments in gene therapy have made repair of scar tissue and regeneration of dead muscle possible. With advancements in tissue engineering and stem cells, it is possible to generate new heart tissue for transplantation. From the perspective of prevention of disease, we have now scanned the type of specific immune cells which causes the change which leads to heart attack and stroke. Surgeries with smaller incision are increasingly becoming the norm. The recent developments in minimally invasive cardiac surgery owing to finer instruments, better bypass pumps and much safer anesthesia have made surgery possible in those subset of patients who were considered inoperable till now. Robotic surgery is also paving the way in cardiac surgery however the high cost is a limiting factor as of now.

The Way Forward We shall continue with our research in managing heart failure patients with new devices and ECMO therapy besides our endeavor to make cheaper assist devices and conduct valve repair wherever possible leveraging on modern techniques to save the Indian population.

Dr. Naresh Trehan Chairman & Managing Director

Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon

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Dr. Naresh Trehan, Chairman & Managing Director, Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon

REVERSE YOUR THOUGHTS,REVERSE YOUR DISEASES

Self-Helf/Spiritual/MotivationISBN—978-93-80707-43-3

As per Psychoneuroimmunology, a new branch of science that studies the mind-body connection, the thoughts and emotions that we choose get instantly transformed into chemicals. These chemicals are, effectively, either self-administered injections of ‘slow poisions’ or of ‘healing medicines’ that eventually freeze into and become our physical states, i.e. the way we feel physically in our bodies—dis-eased or eased (i.e. healthy).

Reverse Your Thoughts, Reverse Your Diseases is your guide to retrace your path back towards health from diseases through the same routes whence these came from, i.e. through the route of your thoughts, emotions, beliefs and imagination. The book shares with you symptoms, emotional causes, metaphysical reasons, affirmations and dietary suggestions for averting and curing over 150 diseases...along with a very special chapter on how to overcome destructive emotions.

by Anil Bhatnagar

GLOBAL VISION

PRESS

GLOBAL VISION PRESS 24, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002www.globalvisionpress.com

Anil Bhatnagar, a graduate of IIT Delhi, is an experienced Reiki teacher, author and a well-known ‘top-notch’ Corporate Trainer to over 50 leading private, multinational and public sector companies and is a visiting

faculty to several management institutes.

Anil Bhatnagar’s words and techniques have the power of the dynamite. He has been featured as among the 19 spiritual teachers consulted by Brenda Barnaby whose work he has based her book on and quoted in her international bestseller: Beyond the Secret. His work in and contribution to the field of behavioural excellence and energy healing has attracted testimonials from international authorities on the subject such as Ira Chaleff, Tom Gegax, and Dr. William Cottringer, Dr. Bernie Siegel and Dr. Christiane Northrup.

My complete recovery from cancer facilitated through Ayurveda, meditation and guided visualization is a

testimony to the message that Anil is conveying through this wonderful book.

Reverse Your Thoughts, Reverse Your Diseases—Tom Gegax, Consultant and Author of The Big Book of Small Business

Reverse Your Thoughts, Reverse Your Diseases holds the key to a lifetime of health and happiness. This is, quite

simply, a delightful book that speaks the truth.

Christiane Northrup M.D.,Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Author of New York Times bestsellers, Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause


he first thing that comes to our minds when we think of a bureaucrat is power and the glamour associated Twith that power. However, most bureaucrats would

tell you that this notion is far removed from reality and their job is stressful most of the times.

Being an administrator is not an easy task for sure. They are expected to be fair, impartial and dutiful all the time. Any minor divergence from line duty is unpardonable. They carry a baggage of larger than life expectations almost always and therefore have their fair share of stress. Pressure owing to volume of work, long duty hours as a result, back-to-back meetings and the last straw that broke the camel’s back – frequent transfers – are just some of the very apparent reasons for their stress.

Precisely, why they are more prone to all sorts of stress – related problems as compared to the general population. However, we need to understand certain terms before we delve further into the problem.

Sometimes there’s nothing you can do to change a situation, but often you’ll find an opportunity to take action and actually change the circumstances you face. These types of solution-focused coping strategies can be very effective for stress relief; often a small change is all that’s required to make a huge shift in how you feel. For one thing, one change can lead to other changes, so that chain reactions of positive changes are created. Also, once action is taken, the sense of being trapped with no options – a recipe for stress – can

dissipate quickly. It’s important to be thoughtful about which actions to take, as each situation may call for a unique solution, but a less-stressed mind can more easily choose the most beneficial course of action.

Hans Selye, a Hungarian endocrinologist, was the first to

give a scientific explanation for biological stress. He

explained his stress model, based on physiology and

psychobiology, as General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). He

explained about hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA

axis) system which prepares the body to cope with stress.

His model states that an event that threatens an organism’s

well-being (a stressor) leads to a three-stage bodily response

– (1) Alarm, (2) Resistance, and (3) Exhaustion.

Upon encountering a stressor, the body reacts

with “fight-or-flight” response and sympathetic nervous

system is activated. Hormones such as cortisol and

adrenalin get released into the bloodstream to meet the

threat or danger. Body's resources are now mobilized.

Parasympathetic nervous system returns

many physiological functions to normal levels while body

focuses resources against the stressor. Blood glucose levels

remain high, cortisol and adrenalin continue to circulate at

elevated levels however the outward appearance of

organism seems normal. Increased heart rate, blood

pressure and breathing are common symptoms. Essentially,

the body remains on red alert.

ALARM:

RESISTANCE:

BEAT THE STRESS!

MATTERS OF THE MIND

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power

to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Viktor Frankl

Dr. Neelesh TiwariWorld Brain Center Hospital


EXHAUSTION:

IMPROVE EATING AND DRINKING HABITS

LEARN TO RELAX AT WORKPLACE

If stressor continues beyond body’s

capacity, organism exhausts resources and becomes

susceptible to disease and eventually death as well.The way we deal with these pressures has a lot to do with

our mental, emotional and physical health. Although the

attempts at managing stress amidst bureaucrats need to be

personalized and tailor-made to suit their need, there are

some basic suggestions that can help while you get started

on managing the stress. If for some reason, you are too

stressed out and are not being able to sleep, medicines can

help you to sleep and make you feel better. But remember,

this is just a temporary relief. Take the following steps, especially when you are in

office, to keep the stress at bay:

• It’s always good to have a lot of this zero-calorie drink

– water! • If you think coffee will help you stay alert and

focussed, the bad news is that its intake has been

found to raise the stress levels. • Eat fruits cut and decorated in an appealing manner or

have fresh juice in a trendy glass – presentation does

matter, a well-decorated platter and taking time out to

eat it is known to reduce the stress levels in office.• Do not be a loner, if possible have lunch or snacks with

colleagues rather than eating alone.

• Listen to soft instrumental music (no vocals as they tend

to distract) at a feeble volume while working, if

possible. Instruments like flute, piano, violin or classical

tunes generally work well.• Try to do some journaling, i.e. writing down your

thoughts and the problems that you think are the reason

for your stress.• Stop worrying about problems you cannot change or

the ones beyond your control.• Learn to say “no” on occasions. You cannot do

everything you are asked to.• Develop a sense of humour and avoid taking things too

seriously.

WORKPLACE CHANGES

CHANGE THE WAY YOU WORK

CHANGES IN PERSONAL LIFE

• Organize your table and workplace.

• De-clutter your office and table, it helps in thinking

clearly.

• Try to decorate your room and table with fresh flowers

and green plants.

• If possible, a sunny and well-ventilated room should be

preferred.

• Personalizing your surroundings with paints or

artefacts of your choice would increase your

connectivity and bonding thus making you feel more

comfortable.

• Give in occasionally – avoid quarrels whenever

possible.

• Tackle one thing at a time – don’t try to do too much at

once.

• Avoid being perfect all the time, it leads to unnecessary

stress at times.

• Ease up on criticism of others, it takes away lot of

energy.

• Don’t be too competitive in all situations.

• Get away for a while – read a book, watch a movie, play

a game, listen to music or go on vacation. Leave yourself

some time that’s just for you!

• Work off your anger – get physically active, go for a

walk, start a project or simply clean the house.

• Make the first move to be friendly.

• Have some fun…laugh and be with people you enjoy

being with most!

My concluding message is – “Take responsibility for

making your life what you want it to be”. It is less stressful to

make your own decisions and take action than to feel

powerless and react to other’s decisions. Decide clearly

what you want and go for it calmly.

Dr. Neelesh Tiwari

MD (Neuropsychiatry)

Chairman, World Brain Centre Hospital, New Delhi

FASHION CODE


INDIAN BUREAUCRATS…Raghavendra Rathore is a noted fashion designer, costume designer, and

entrepreneur. He is popular for his bandgala jackets and jodhpurs, and for diversifying

his business into interior design, jewelry, and multimedia. In an exclusive tête-à-tête

with The Bureaucrat Express, Rathore shares dressing tips for Indian officers…

Still called ‘babus’ by some, as we are yet to get over Qwith ‘British Raj’ culture even after 67 years of independence, coat has been an integral part of bureaucrat’s dressing. What are your comments and observations? Should they shun the coat culture away and adopt something that’s Indian?The colonial rule has left India with a legacy of a heterogeneous approach. The coat culture has become an integral part in Indian men’s dressing. However, according to me, adhering to something more Indian would be a means of parting from an ideology which has persisted for a long time. For instance, a safari suit could be an option to opt for in various cuts and styles.

Should they go in for Khadi? If yes, how about Qmarrying the ‘safari’ with Khadi?The white of Khadi stands for purity, its coarseness symbolizes identification both with simplicity and poverty; together they imply the official’s capacity to renounce his own material well-being, to make sacrifices in public interest. Khadi indicates the person’s capability to serve the country. Hence, Khadi definitely is an appropriate fabric for the officials.The safari suit dates back to the colonial era, a dun-colored pair of trousers, with a half-sleeved shirt cut of the same cloth, sporting a lot many pockets, resembling a jacket. The safari suit symbolized a break with the hand-spun Khadi that was championed during the independence movement. However, the safari suit could be opted in the same to make way for Khadi in a different avatar.

What should they be wearing to work? Given the Qextreme weather conditions and rural setup in some districts, would a tie be appropriate? Please share your comments and observations.The safari suit being related to the slow-but-steady Indian

bureaucracy of the 1970s and the 1980s could get a transformation and an altered notion associated with it through the introduction of a few variations in the safari suit, with improved cuts and styles. The safari suit was something that reflected a government or a public-sector culture and is a comfortable wear for officials in their respective districts in which wearing a tie would be somewhat inappropriate.

What should they be wearing post work at parties Qand informal get-together – something that’s neither formal nor too casual, and goes well with their position of authority?They could opt for polo shirts, which would do good justice for a post work look, in which the position of authority still could be represented smartly.

Is bandgala still contemporary? Does it go well with Qtheir image of a modern-day executive officer that’s surrounded by gadgets?The bandgala is an extremely versatile attire, which works well for any level of occasion. It exudes a sense of sophistication and discipline, which becomes a handy tool in projecting the seriousness of the assigned designation.

What should they be wearing when they represent Qthe country abroad?When having the opportunity to represent India abroad, it should be ensured that brand India is promoted to the utmost. For instance, they could try matkha Khadi silk shirt with white-coated Khadi pants. A tie and dyed waistcoat with white double thread could be worn to complete the look.

What are some of the ‘must-have’ accessories?QA pocket square would complete the above-mentioned look. The must-have accessories are definitely the pocket scarves.

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INDEPENDENCE DAY SPECIAL

ndian Civil Service (ICS) - like the Indian Railways, Indian Army and the Indian legal system - is one of the most important Ilegacies of British rule in India. Its members were appointed

under section XXXII of the Government of India Act, 1858 by the parliament of the United Kingdom. Post the Indian Sepoy Mutiny or the First War of Independence in 1857 which came close to toppling British rule in India, ICS took on the administrative responsibilities.

Provincial Civil Service (PCS) was constituted in the 1890s on the basis of the recommendations of the Aitchison Commission. This resulted in the application of the scheme of cadre organization to the administrative departments. For example, the forest and public works departments had both the imperial (all-India) and provincial (state) branches. The basic pattern of the cadre system in the Civil Service was thus established. In 1912, the Islington commission was appointed and by 1934, the system of administration in India consisted of seven All India Services and five Central Departments.

David Lloyd George, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain while speaking in the House of Commons in 1935 said that ICS was the steel frame on which the whole structure of Government and of administration of India rests. In 1947, when India gained independence and was partitioned into two dominions – India and Pakistan – even the ICS got divided. The Indian part retained the name while Pakistan renamed the part it inherited as Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP).

'From Metcalfe House to

Charleville' - though this

is the title of a memoir

published by Lal Bahadur

Shastri National Academy

of Administration at

Mussoorie (authored by

KJS Chatrath and VK

Agnihotri), nothing else

could have captured the

long and illustrious

journey of civil services in

India before and after

independence in one

phrase better.

FROM

METCALFE HOUSE TO CHARLEVILLE


Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first prime minister of India often ridiculed the ICS for supporting the British policies. Despite his initial dislike, he continued with the organization and its officers. He changed the name though – from Indian Civil Service (ICS) to Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and appointed experienced ICS officers like Chintamani Deshmukh as Finance Minister and KPS Menon as his Foreign Minister.

Post-independence, the training institution for the Indian administrative officers was set up at Metcalfe House in Delhi by the then Home Minister of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Currently this institution is based at Charleville Hotel in Mussoorie which was acquired by Government of India in 1959. Immediately after this even the Happy Valley Club area was acquired

to house the sports complex of the institution. It was initially named as The National Academy of Administration but was rechristened to Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in 1974 in honor of the late Prime Minister. AN Jha was appointed as the first director of the Academy.

The primary objective of this Academy is to train the civil service officers of the Indian Foreign Service, Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Forest Service, Indian Revenue Service, Indian Audits and Accounts Service, Indian Railway Traffic Service and many other services of the government of India.

A lot has changed in the last 150 years but the civil service continues to be the steel frame of Indian administration.

Two books worth reading if one wishes to have a deep insight into the origin, history and transformation of civil service (from ICS to IAS) are:

India's Political Administrators: From ICS to IAS Author: David C Potter

Oxford India's Paperbacks

From Metcalfe House to Charleville: Memoirs Authors: Kanwal Jit Singh Chatrath & VK Agnihotri

Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration


UNION BUDGET 2014-15

BUDGET REACTIONS Here's how India Inc. reacted to the Union Budget 2014 presented in the parliament by Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance

e at Intel have always been strong advocates of the use Wof technology for nation

building. We are pleased to see the government putting its efforts in tapping the potential for ICT to promote the interests of our citizens in a sustainable manner enabling them to contribute across different sectors of progress.

This budget envisages using ICT to deliver services to citizens as well as furthering the growth of other sectors like the Railways. Setting aside of funds for the Digital India program to ensure broadband connectivity at the village level and in facilitating trans-parent governance is a step in the right direction and we applaud the govern-ment for the same. It is very heartening to see the government's commitment in ensuring ubiquitous connectivity, digitizing of land records and moving to a paperless office in five years.

Debjani GhoshVice President, Sales & Marketing Group

Managing Director, South Asia, Intel

BD Park President & Chief Executive Officer

Samsung India

The increase in investment limits in FDI (foreign direct investment) announced in the 2014 budget will favorably impact the economy. Significant encouragement has been provided to domestic manufacturing that will likely enhance both local product ion and employment , especially in the sectors of retail and e-commerce. Measures on tax reforms like advance rulings, tax settlement mechanisms and APA (advance pr ic ing agreements) e tc . wi l l contribute to improving investors' confidence and removing uncertainty regarding taxation.

The introduction of inter-quartile range in transfer pricing as well as the setup of a committee to evaluate retrospective taxation are positive s teps . Outlays for improving infrastructure in ports, roads, airports, Smart Cities as well as education related initiatives and the funding model resonate well with the country's growth plans.

The allocation of funds in building Smart Cities and the decision to set up 7 Industrial Smart Cities is very encou-raging. We also welcome the government's move in empowering women with the allocation of the funds for the 'Beti padhao, beti badhao yojana'. F ix ing basic issues f i rs t wi l l automatically help in fixing the larger problems. The steps taken to help local technology manufacturers and the focus on entrepreneurship are steps in the right direction and we hope that the local ecosystem seizes the opportunity to customize solutions to take technology to the grassroots.

This budget stays true to a lot of the items listed in the manifesto and we're happy to see the government delivering on the election promises. This budget truly resonates with the government's vison of bringing back optimism and investor confidence while keeping an eye on the fiscal deficit. In my opinion, this is a very progressive budget with the right intent and priorities and I welcome the focus on IT as an enabler for development with open arms. This is a great opportunity for the Indian IT industry to redefine itself and become a positive contributor to national growth.


N. ChandrasekaranChief Executive Officer & Managing Director

Tata Consultancy Services

The Finance Minister's maiden budget signals, both in sentiment and policy, the new government's intention to drive the next generation of reforms and swiftly put India on a higher GDP growth path.

It has provided key sectors like agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure with impetus and incentives to pursue growth. It has spelt out its commitment to public-private partnerships to drive investment and encouraged retail savers to invest more in debt and equity. The FM has also acted positively to further develop quality higher education and encourage skill development programs.

For the IT sector, the budget has provided clarity on some long-pending issues in transfer pricing and offered a collaborative framework to minimize future disputes. Above all, the government has strongly signaled that we will see lot more reforms across sectors shortly. This is a positive start to a long term process.

Bhaskar PramanikChairman,

Microsoft India

There were five specific priorities that I was looking for to be addressed in this m a i d e n b u d g e t b y t h e n e w Government – ubiquitous use of technology for inclusive growth, enhancing the education ecosystem, promoting a tax regime that is stable and growth oriented, focus on the start-up ecosystem and greater impetus to the manufacturing sector. It is heartening to note that the budget has provided the right direction on these.

India's transformation has to be powered by technology – this is well recognized by the Government and has been articulated in the various initiatives in the budget. I see this budget setting the stage for higher growth on strong fundamentals of manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, built on the backbone of technology.

Richard RekhyChief Executive Officer

KPMG IndiaThe Finance Minister has dealt with some major challenges in the economy around fiscal consolidation and infrastructure growth. He could have been more specific with regard to GST, measures to deal with black money, widening of tax base.

Amar Babu Managing Director,

Lenovo India

Modi government's budget for the year is positive, encouraging, and includes some much-needed reforms. With a strong focus on infrastructure, connectivity and with the rollout of GST, the FM has given a boost to the economy's growth momentum, making it easier for businesses to operate.

The reduction in Income Tax for the salaried comes as a relief, with a resultant rise in disposable income, encouraging IT purchases. For indigenous manufacturers, the Budget has aptly addressed the issue of inverted duty structure, thus enhancing local manufacturing. Furthermore, with a boost given to e-governance, and the focus on broadband penetration, the Budget has adequately harnessed technology to propel future growth.

Overall, this year's Budget is optimistic and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Deepak KapoorChairman, PwC India

Given the tight fiscal situation, the FM had very little elbow room and within this constraint, he has addressed the key issues of providing the tax incentive to individuals, encouraging manufacturing sector and giving a fillip to infrastructure and its financing.

Sundeep Malhotra Founder & Chief Executive Officer

HomeShop18

Uniform GST and tax measures will play a crucial role to make e-commerce a success story in India. The move will certainly simplify the tax structure and make India one single common market by rationalizing the supply chain and thereby, offering better value. The importance given to rural infras-tructure will ease pressure and allow faster movement of goods.


Sanjay KapoorChairman Micromax

Budget is not a one day event; it is a journey to reach Government's vision for its term. Given the current situation, budget creation was an arduous task by any standards!

The Finance Minister has made pragmatic choices around available resources and has articulated a road map towards reducing the fiscal deficit and fueling economic growth. While all of us hope he achieves the ambitious target of containing the fiscal deficit, executing it seems very challenging.

His focus on giving fillip to the infrastructure seems exhaustive and he has rightfully protected the common man's interest in his first budget. While we welcome his stand on retrospective tax policy and intent to finalize GST this year, the current Government has the potential and mandate to take a stronger stance on subsidy and policy.

Arup Roy Research Director

Gartner India

Overall I would view this budget to have a positive push to industries across the board and augurs well for IT industry as well. This budget focuses clearly on growth, development and job creation with particular focus on infusing growth in manufacturing and infrastructure sectors. From industry perspective, the policies that would have major positive impact on the domestic IT uptake are: 'Digital India' program; “Good Governance”; and “one hundred smart cities” program. Also, FDI cap increase in defense and insurance sector is a huge positive and has direct bearing on IT industry.

This budget has also set aside funding for adding new top-notch educational institutions such as the IITs and IIMs in various cities, which is likely to have a long term impact on generating technical and management talent. Lastly the focus on micro and small and medium sized businesses and their enablement/empowerment with various schemes is a huge positive and is likely to have positive impact on the IT industry.

The orientation towards growth across sectors augurs well for the domestic IT industry however things more or less remain 'status quo' from offshore or exports perspective as there is no change in the position there. One area where we would have expected some concrete decision taken would be retrospective taxes and the position thereof. But overall, this is a balanced growth oriented budget with focus on accelerating on the fundamentals.

The FM has done a good job by clearly defining the fiscal targets without any tax raise. The raising of FDI cap in insurance and defence is a big-bang announcement. Another important step taken is for the restructuring of the Food Corporation of India.

Rakesh Bharti MittalChairman

Bharti Infratel Limited

Sangita ReddyJoint Managing DirectorApollo Hospitals Group

The Budget has been prepared in a short time but every sector has been looked into deeply. Simplification and rationalization are the major take-aways of this visionary budget.

Puneet ChaddhaChief Executive Officer,

HSBC Global Asset Management, India

This is a budget that focuses on Speed, Scale and Skill. Speed - the push is for quick and time bound decisions, Scale - there is a lot of emphasis on improvement and more importantly expansion of infrastructure across a wider geography and Skill - the effort is to improve the capability of individuals at the rural/small scale level to make them self-sustained.

Vikram KirloskarVice Chairman

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd.

The key concern for the auto sector is whether the excise duty concessions that were announced in the interim budget will continue after December or not. No comment was made on this matter in the budget. We hope that the concessions continue.


Sidharth BirlaPresident, Federation of Indian

Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI)

The FM has set the ground for repair of the economy. There has been a mix of both short-term and long-term measures geared towards boosting confidence of all key constituents.

Arvind Saxena President & Managing Director

General Motors India

The budget looks to be a reform oriented one as it focuses on i n f r a s t r u c t u r a l d e v e l o p m e n t , educat ion, ski l l development , agriculture, irrigation, health care etc. Given the condition of the economy, the direction given in the budget is a positive one and the call for fiscal prudence is a welcome move. The corporate sector was expecting a timeline for the roll out of GST. But the government's intention to introduce

CenGST and also the DTC after review are very encouraging news. The steps outlined for the manufacturing, power, coal and mining sectors should spur economic activity going forward. Having said this, a monitoring mechanism should have been in place to ensure timely implementation of the projects in these sectors.

As far as the automotive industry is concerned, the focus on rural roads, highways and expressways are welcome decisions. Some of the other announcements made by the finance minister on the taxation front are also positive steps. These proposals and announcements made in the budget, if implemented effectively, should have a positive impact on industry and the economy as a whole going forward. The challenge now is the implementation of the proposals. Our hope is that the market will respond favourably.

It would have been much better if the finance minister had announced a timeline for GST. The minister made sure that each geographic area is covered through the budget initiatives.

S SandilyaChairman & Managing Director

Eicher Motors Ltd

Dr Subho RayPresident, Internet and

Mobile Association of India (IMAI)

It may be recalled that two years ago, this sector was kept under the negative list of service tax as a gesture of support to this fledgling industry. The legitimate expectation of this industry was that such exemption would continue for at least 3-5 years as is normally the case.

Unfortunately, the present budget while continuing with the broad trends of the previous two budgets, has curiously decided to re-impose service tax on the industry at a time when the industry, based on the Prime Minister's pre-poll announcements and the great support that the medium had provided to the PM personally and to the current ruling party, was expecting some more hand holding and support from the government. For the industry, this has come as a very unpleasant surprise.

Kishore BiyaniGroup Chief Executive Officer, Future Group

The finance minister has provided the right medicine for generating growth, domestic demand, innovation, entrepreneurship and urbanisation for India. This budget will work as a catalyst for economic resurgence in India. From Manipur to Tumkur and from fishermen to young entrepreneurs, everyone has something to gain from this budget.

CP GurnaniManaging Director &

Chief Executive Officer, Tech Mahindra

We at Tech Mahindra feel that the only way forward for the IT industry is 'collaborate, connect and co-create' and this thought seems to echo by the government as the Budget proposes an allocation of Rs 7,060 crore this financial year for developing 100 'smart cities' in the country. Further, Jaitley's Rs 500 crore National Rural Internet and Technology Mission aims at connecting the rural and urban India and thus connect the nation with technology.

Tulsi TantiChairman, Suzlon

This is a growth-oriented and futuristic budget. The big shift in policy initiatives will revive and promote manufacturing, thereby paving the way for 7 per cent growth.


Madhavan Menon Managing Director

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.

We truly applaud the Government's delivery of its pro-tourism strategic vision via the Budget 2014 announce-ment of eVisas at 9 key airports - at once bringing Destination India into the spotl ight, as also creating an immediate window of opportunity for the upcoming inbound season. The multiplier impact will empower allied businesses connect, both directly and indirectly with the tourism industry and we look forward to swift and effective implementation.

Joe King Head, Audi India

We expect the steps announced by the finance minister to lead to an improvement in economic sentiment which will in-turn benefit the automobile industry in the long term. The decision to extend the cut in excise duty till December 31 announced earlier also augurs well for the industry.

We welcome the announcements related to infrastructure growth such as development of 100 smart cities and rural roads development. Also, the auto industry will be one of the beneficiaries of increased savings due to direct and indirect tax proposals.

Kenichiro Yomura President

Nissan (India Operations)

The Budget 2014 presented today by the honourable finance minister is based on fiscal prudence with a progressive outlook. We appreciate his considerations and his aim to achieve 7-8 per cent GDP in 3 to 4 years. Structural reforms, including FDI liberalisation in defense and insurance, initiatives to support local manu-facturing and commitment to remove retrospective taxation, are significant steps from a larger macro-economic perspective.

The previous financial year was challenging for the auto industry and we were expecting bolder reforms in favour of the auto industry. Though the earlier decision to continue the excise duty concession till December 2014 along with the reduction in steel prices and elimination of customs duty on auto components certainly bodes well for the sector. The union government's intent to move towards a GST regime is good news and we hope it is implemented at the earliest. The industry really needs a robust and streamlined indirect taxation structure that will lend customers the confidence to spend more owing to the taming of prices. This should have a positive impact on car shopping as well. In addition to the Government's willingness to give a fillip to the Indian auto industry, we were expecting a move towards making green vehicle technology a reality so that we could get the opportunity to bring our world-class electric and hybrid vehicles to our Indian customers' doorstep.

Pawan Goenka Executive Director

Mahindra and Mahindra

The finance minister has delivered a well defined and prudent budget with specific focus on infrastructure, manufacturing and rural schemes. To view it in the macroeconomic perspective, it has laid clear emphasis on supporting investment. Though there were no big bang announce-ments, the intent of the budget is clear. It is a move towards the right direction and there is an attempt to put a lot of placeholders through the various Rs 100 crore schemes. In fact, I see this budget as a blueprint to the direction the government will take over the next nine months.

It's really great to see the finance minster talking about health and sanitation. More AIIMS institutes and medical colleges will boost the research environment in this country.

Naresh TrehanChairman & Managing Director, Medanta

Jyotsna SuriChairperson and Managing Director,

The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group

The FM has tried to balance promoting development with enterprise. For the first time, tourism has found such a big mention in the budget speech and even a fair amount of funds has been allocated for this segment.


Kunal BahlChief Executive Officer & Co-founder

Snapdeal

The extension of railway logistics support to e-commerce companies is a positive initiative. This will reduce their reliance on surface and aerial logistics for their deliveries.

Implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST) by end of this year comes as a prudent decision which will reduce the friction in interstate commerce. This will further lower the prices for consumers and thereby enable higher consumption and fuel growth for e-companies and small businesses who will be able to supply locally and sell nationally.

Tarun KatialChief Executive Officer

Reliance Broadcast Network

The ruling on custom duties for LCD and LED televisions being completely scraped to nil, as compared to the earlier 10% will result in a significant boost in the consumption of the television sets. The decision would have an impact on converting single TV households to double TV households, resulting in an increase in the number of TV viewers, which is good for the industry.

Shantanu PrakashChairman & Managing Director

Educomp Solutions Ltd.

The Skill India programme is an encouraging signal indicating priority for a much needed thrust in this area. We also congratulate the Finance Minister for making a strong pitch for online education to bypass the limitations of access to schools. It is expected that both these thrust areas will receive incremental allocations in the budgets to follow and that these small beginnings in these critical areas will convert to a long term policy with budgetary allocations to match.

Vipin Sondhi Managing Director &

Chief Executive Officer, JCB India

Given that this government has been in office for less than 2 months, no big bang reforms were anticipated. The union government recognising the need for revival of investment cycle had already extended the excise duty cut on capital goods for another six months in June, 2014 itself. The budget's focus on infrastructure sector, encouraging banks to lend long term funds to infrastructure sector, extending the benefit of investment allowance to small and medium enterprises and emphasis on manufacturing growth should help revive the capital goods sector. While PPP in relation to many new projects has been announced, however, a roadmap for execution of existing held-up projects could have helped turn things quickly

Naresh TakkarManaging Director &

Chief Executive Officer, ICRA Ltd.

The tone of the budget for 2014-15 is g ro w t h - p o s i t i v e , p a r t i c u l a r l y measures such as the incentives to b o o s t l o n g - t e r m l e n d i n g f o r infrastructure, rationalization of various taxes, and the assurance of a stable and predictable tax regime, which would support business sentiment and provide the foundation for an economic recovery.

Additionally, the focus on fiscal prudence and roadmap for con-solidation with the commitment to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3.0% of GDP by 2016-17 are encouraging.

In contrast to market expectations, the fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of GDP that had been announced in the Vote-on-Account in February 2014, has been retained in the Budget for 2014-15. We

Neeraj RoyManaging Director &

Chief Executive Officer, Hungama

The aspect of bringing back online advertising into the service tax ambit, whilst it is still a fledgling segment, is therefore almost a conflicting action and not a welcome move.

maintain our view that achieving this target would be challenging, given the optimistic assumptions for nominal GDP growth (13.4%) and net tax revenue growth (20% relative to provisional data for 2013-14), in light of the unfavorable progress of the south west monsoon over the previous five weeks and the exemptions that have now been provided under personal income tax.

We look forward to additional clarity on a roadmap for the transition to the much-awaited goods & services tax and efforts to improve targeting of subsidies in order to free-up resources for more productive capital spending.


Pradeep JainChairman

Parsvnath Developers

For the first time after the slowdown the Union Budget 2014 gives a boost to the real estate sector.

Government's emphasis on PPP shows its commitment towards a collective growth. Allocation of Rs 7,060 crore to develop 100 smart cities is certainly going to promote the sector on global front. Funding had always been a concern for us as developers. Foreign investors were also shying away due to ambiguity in rules. With implementat ion of REITs and relaxation in FDI norms, the problem of fund crunch will get mitigated.

George Alexander MuthootManaging Director

Muthoot Finance

The finance minister's focus on expanding the purview of the banking system through both universal and differentiated bank model clearly indicates its thrust on financial inclusion by providing banking services to the country's unbanked population. Introduction of uniform KYC norms and its inter-usability across the entire financial sector too will simplify processes further.

The proposed two bank accounts in each household under the govern-ment's financial inclusion mission and considering them worthy for credit, the government seems on the right path to unlock the massive potential of emerging India.

Anshuman Magazine Chairman & Managing Director

CBRE South Asia

Many pending decisions in real estate and infra sector have been taken. I would rate this as above average to a good budget. FDI limits are reduced which has opened doors to newer investments.

Harkirat Singh Managing Director, Woodland

With only six weeks to his credit, the FM has done a good job by emphasising on the manufacturing, infrastructure, housing and solar energy sectors in a big way. While few initiatives have been proposed, there have been no big bang announcements.

We welcome the FM's decision to approve Goods & Services tax (GST) by year end and hope that he truly understands its importance to the retail sector. If adopted, the government could put together a common market by seaming together a host of taxes such as Excise, VAT and Octroi.

The announcement to cut excise duty to 6% from 12% on footwear upto MRP of Rs 1000/- pair, is a welcome move for SMEs and will help provide them with a level playing field. Competition is always welcome!

I also feel that the announcement of Skill India, a programme to train youth for jobs could lead to more skilled workforce, a gap which needs to be urgently addressed for the growth of the retail sector.

And lastly, more savings, will lead to more consumer spends, giving a boost to the retail sector.

Vineet AgarwalManaging Director

Transport Corporation of India Ltd.

The new government's presentation of the budget for the year was preceded with high expectations not just for the country but also for supply chain and logistics industry. The budget did not disappoint and for the first time we s a w s e v e r a l i n d u s t r y l e v e l announcements for the logistics sector. Just the fact that the Finance Minister used the word 'warehouse' more than 10 times indicates the focus on logistics!

As per the 'Doing Business' report 2014 of the World Bank, India's rank is 134 against other BRIC economies like the Russia Federation (92); China (96); Brazil (116); Indonesia (120). Aspects related to logistics in the ease of doing business cover areas of cross border traffic. In India, both inter and intra trade have been addressed in this budget with specific announcements of increasing 24X7 customs clearance at ports and airports and a solid intent to implement Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the coming year.

The impact of infrastructure on the transportation industry is massive and the Government's plan to accelerate game changing projects like the Diamond quadrilateral, Sagar mala, dedicated expressway on high traffic density roads will help the sector tremendously.

According to Transport Intelligence among 49 emerging markets, India has slipped by 2 ranks in the 2014 logistics index. More thrust on multimodal transportation and better coordination between concerned ministries should get our nation competitive in the global economy.


Umesh RevankarManaging Director

Shriram Transport Finance

The Union Budget has come on expected lines and emphasises the thrust on the revival of the growth in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. What we are glad to see is that the government is coming forward to resolve the mining issues, including the iron ore and coal mining bottlenecks. This we see as a positive for the broader economy.

The finance minister has rightly focused on the MSME sector and provided much needed impetus to it by providing friendly framework with focus on reviving the sector. This governments first budget seeks to draw a road map to address various issues which will not only stimulate the economy, but also will be the foundation stone for setting it on the high growth path in the coming years.

Ajay S Shriram

It is a visionary budget keeping a two-three-year framework in mind. The finance minister has a target of 3 per cent fiscal deficit in long term. There is a high focus on job creation and sectors like agriculture and manufacturing, and for tax stability at the macro level. Specific issues on people front like sanitation, health, skills and subsidies are treated well in this budget. Agriculture is a sector with 60 per cent population of our country and we are happy that it is treated properly.

Anil ChaudhryCountry President and Managing Director

Schneider Electric India

Smart cities lie at the heart of the Union Budget of the new government. The a l locat ions and the measures announced now gives shape to Narendra Modi's initial idea of 100 smart cities. The Government has made an allocation of Rs 7060 crore - an enabling factor that will boost the planning and development of the smart cities. And to compliment it, the Government has incisively identified 7 corridors. Overall, these are very promising preamble to the realization of the smart city concept. It now needs to be seen how the details are worked out by the Government.

The budget has adequately focused on energy, in sync with the new Government's vision, and announced various measures that will benefit in ensuring sustained growth for the sectors. The reeling power sector will find some respite, if the measures announced in the budget are implemented properly. There are measures accounted to strengthen the entire power value chain. From Rs 100 crore allocation for super critical ultra-modern thermal power to the rationalization of coal linkages will facilitate the struggling power producers and put the stranded power plants on a rebound course. The Government's promise to resolve the existing deadlocks in coal sector and provide fuel to all projects coming up before March 2015 will be a massive thrust to get the flailing sector on course to meet the Government's 12th Plan target of 88,000 MW.

The budget has adequately focused on the solar energy sector. Rs 500 crore allocation for ultra-modern solar power projects will give the deserving boost to solar companies to increase generation capacity which is currently

a mere 1 % of India's total energy production. Rs 100 crore for the development of 1 MW solar parks on the banks of canals and Rs 400 crore for setting up solar power driven pump sets are some unique measures introduced that will further drive utilization of solar energy and reduce our dependency on conventional energy resources. Implementation of the Green Energy Corridor Project will be a great move to integrate channels for evacuation of solar power - a formidable challenge for generating companies at the moment. The removal of customs and excise duties on solar equipment on the other hand will incentivize indigenous companies to increase domestic manufacturing and reduce reliance on import. These are most welcoming moves.

Manasije MishraChief Executive Officer, Max Bupa

From an industry standpoint, I am pleased with the budget as it fulfils the key priorities from our budget wish list primarily FDI hike, overall push to the health insurance segment and greater thrust to the PPP model. The hike in FDI limit to 49 per cent in insurance will boost industry growth and deepen health insurance penetration in the country. The opening up of the sector will pave way for greater innovation and better quality healthcare. Also, impetus to collaboration with banking correspondents and ample financial sector reform will further insurance penetration in the country. Govern-ment's assurance to take up amend-ment to the insurance bill will also bring in greater focus on the sector.

The decision to invest in credible medical institutes and colleges along with digitization in rural areas will enable utilization of technologies like tele-medicine to enhance quality of healthcare and healthcare access in the country.

Chairman & Managing Director, DCM Shriram & Head, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)


Rajesh R Gandhi Managing Director

Vadilal Industries Ltd.

Overall Budget seems good as major focus is on overall development. F i n a n c e m i n i s t e r h a s g i v e n weightage to almost all sectors and regions. It looks like a beginning of long term strategy for overall growth.

As such, no major changes are evident for Food and Agriculture sector except reduction of excise duty to 6% from 10 % for specified food package industry, which is very positive step for food processing industry. This is should have been extended to all related sectors - food processing, transportation and marketing machinery as well.

Overall target of 7 to 8% GDP growth with focus on 4% growth in agri sector is very encouraging. Focus on infrastructure i.e. roads by spending Rs 37,000 crores, gas pipe line by 85,000 km through PPP mode, reducing transaction cost by keeping ports open for 24 hours are some other welcome initiatives.

Further, Finance Minister ’s announcement on availability of power to every home is really good for industries that are into frozen products. This will help in increasing the consumption of frozen products across the country.

There is no change in direct or indirect tax rate and structure, except few industries . GST wil l be introduced shortly and DTC will be reviewed, and this will be interesting to watch in the days to come.

Seshagiri RaoJoint Managing Director &

Group Chief Financial Officer, JSW Steel

An increase in plan expenditure by 26 .9 per cent besides capital expenditure of Rs 2,47,941 crore by PSUs in current financial year is a welcome step. The targeting of plan expenditure on infrastructure development particularly rural roads, national highways infrastructure and railways network expansion supple-mented by public private partnership is expected to revive the investment cycle.

Power has been recognized as another vital input for economic growth and comprehensive measures f o r e n h a n c i n g d o m e s t i c c o a l production and supply of adequate coal to power plants has been assured. However, in view of the current shortage of domestic coal for both steel and power sector, increase in basic customs duty for cooking coal from NIL to 2.5 per cent and for steam and bituminous coal from 2 per cent to 2.5

per cent requires to be reconsidered.The investment linked deduction to

slurry pipelines for the transportation of iron ore will boost investment in this sector and help the steel companies to set up slurry pipelines to reduce their transportation costs. The investment linked tax incentive is also a positive for manufacturing sector.

Ravi SwaminathanManaging Director, AMD India

VP (Sales & Marketing), AMD South Asia.

We welcome the announcement for the IT sector, the budget looks very pragmatic and realistic. The govern-ment has pledged to support the growth of domestic information technology capabilities in both hardware and software, focused on enabling the timely delivery of citizen services and creating new job opportunities, especially in rural areas.

Ullas KamathJoint Managing Director

Jyothy Laboratories Limited

The maiden budget presented by BJP government has set a positive course for inclusive growth. Measures announced in education, manu-facturing, skill development and tourism will provide the much needed boost to ailing economy and help create more job opportunities.

The Finance Minister aims to spur growth through integrated reforms such as project based infrastructure for rural development, incentives for infrastructure investment trusts, agriculture infrastructure funds etc. All these measures will lead to faster movement of goods thus providing a fillip to the FMCG industry. Also increasing the personal income tax and investment limit under section 80 C will lead to more disposable income in the hands of middle class leading to higher spends in consumer products.

The much awaited reform on GST comes as a fresh wave of announce-ment which will help in simplifying the entire tax structure, thereby reducing costs and help to generate revenues. There was no negative surprise element in the union budget on the corporate taxation policy. By maintaining a status quo on the same the FM has provided a major relief to India Inc.

Overall the union budget has provided a much needed impetus towards the key sectors of the economy.


Antony JacobChief Executive Officer

Apollo Munich Health Insurance

Union Budget speech has certainly brought good news for the insurance sector. The government has clearly stated its intent to raise the current FDI cap of 26% to 49% via the FIPB route. An enhanced flow of foreign capital and international expertise will result in accelerating overall development of the insurance industry through increased access to international insurance products, distribution channels and world-class business practices. It should have a positive impact in boosting overall growth of the Indian insurance sector and more so for the fast growing health insurance sector.

Additionally, higher FDI limits will also complement the idea of creating 100 new cities as increased infrast-ructure funding from insurance companies can be used to develop these newer cities.

The budget announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is a populist one, as it has addressed all segments of the population and industries. The proposed setting up of All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in all the states of the country is a step in the right direction and should complement the promise of building universal healthcare by the Govern-ment.

To move towards "Health for All", the creation of a free drug service and free diagnostic service for people who cannot afford medical a id is commendable.

Last but not the least, on the direct tax front the changes will surely boost the confidence of the people at large at the time when inflation is a matter of challenge and concern for all.

Malvinder Mohan Singh Promoter, Fortis & Religare

Pro-growth budget looks to satisfy all sections of society and signals intent to contain expenses and keep deficit in check. The finance minister has done a good job in bringing out a budget that goes the extra mile in spurring growth within the present constraints of the economy.

Venkatesh ValluriChairman & President Ingersoll Rand

India

The Finance Minister has laid emphasis on reducing fiscal deficit, containing inflation and an improved growth rate-overall focussing on addressing structural problems of an ailing economy. The composite cap of FDI raise in insurance and defense sectors, clean energy initatives, and effort to bring approved legislation scheme for introducing GST is a good move.

The Ebiz initiative, E-kranti, Virtual c l a s s ro o m , E - v i s a s , F i n a n c i a l Inclusion Mission and many others will help to enhance technology usage in the India market. The industry would urge the government to address key challenges in the current procurement processes so that the industry can contribute optimally in this national agenda.

The budget proposal on pro-actively bringing a closure to the retrospective tax issue and setting-up a high-level CBDT committee should address industry concerns. There remain certain areas of concern, which could perhaps be addressed through subsequent guidelines and/or clarifications such as those related to royalty definition, Place of Provision of Service Rules, etc. Lastly, the statements on providing a stable tax regime, reducing litigation related to tax and providing a conducive regulatory environment for start-ups and companies to es tabl i sh , operate and where necessary, close businesses would help improve the business environ-ment in the country.

R ChandrashekharPresident, National Association of Software

& Service Companies (NASSCOM)

Chanda KochharManaging Director &

Chief Executive Officer, ICICI Bank

The budget has sought to lay out a prudent fiscal path for the country and address existing issues that have halted infrastructure investment. The budget has announced a range of initiatives to boost investment & growth. The policy direction is clear, and as the decisions and plans announced are executed, I am sure the country will move back towards a robust growth path.

The budget reactions of Indian

industry leaders have been

compiled by editorial team of

The Bureaucrat Express. For

comments and observations,

you can write to us at

[email protected]

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TRAVELOGUE

Roli Jindal, Marketing & Innovation Excellence Leader and Global Leader, Commercialization Practice at a MNC is an avid traveler. In this Travelogue, she shares her experience in Scandinavia with TBE readers…

We are in Scandinavia for summer vacation. Ashi, my little one expects to meet Santa Claus at every turn in Finland and Norway. Every day her list of what she is going to ask Santa for gets new additions. It helps that she knows Santa is watching, even though she can’t see him. At least three times a day she checks if she is being a good girl. Now I know why the Scandinavians love their kids.

CHINESE WHISPERS

SOBER SCANDINAVIA

All Scandinavian governments are in a race to please China. Every year, dozens of high level delegations from China come to Sweden, for example, to learn about environmental management, urban planning, clean energy, education, healthcare and, believe it or not, labour relations. All evidence suggests that these are not Indian-style sarkari junkets – there are real results on the ground. The Nobel Peace prize given to the Chinese dissident a few years ago seems to be major aberration. Hundreds of Scandinavian companies run hugely profitable businesses in China. The Volvo-Geely deal is merely the cherry on the top.

The Swedish crown princess Victoria married her personal trainer Daniel Westling a few years ago. Surely, there is a stereotype of the ‘cold fish’ Swede, and surely no one expected the newly anointed Duke to break into a full-blooded bhangra while sailing down Stockholm’s waters on the Royal Barge with his newly-wedded wife. But the decorum with which the wedding and its build-up were conducted is in contrast, somehow, to and intense scrutiny that has come to be associated with the royal family of England. Except Finland, which is a republic, all S c a n d i n a v i a n c o u n t r i e s h a v e

GO SCANDINAVIA!

monarchies that seem to have the love and respect of their subjects. In Copenhagen, for example, to speak lightly of the very popular Queen Margarethe II is bad form, second only to eating with your hands and then licking your fingers – guaranteed to set Danish teeth on edge.

It is not uncommon to see Danes eating burgers with knife and fork. What is truly alarming to an Indian mother like me, however, is the sight of an unattended infant gurgling in its pram on a pavement outside a café. The little one has been left alone by its parents who are inside the café for a good half hour, bonding over coffee and Danish pastries, confident that no one wants to kidnap their baby. It slowly begins to register that in the Tivoli amusement park, in the


Town hall square, walking in the park, riding on the metro, everywhere except maybe while crossing the street, kids don’t hold hands with their parents. These are child-friendly countries – our hotel lent us a stroller for free and in Stockholm you go free on the bus if a kid is with you. The Danes, concerned about the declining safety and quality of life in their society (really!) have enacted some of the toughest immigration laws in Europe.

PASSOUT PARADEIn Copenhagen, the day we arrive is when the high school students graduate. For the next two days, in a tradition called russefeiring, the young boys and girls raise hell, looked upon indulgently and even encouragingly by the rest of the city. They hire buses, decorate them gaily with balloons and festoons and drive around like crazy, playing loud music and blowing horns and mini-vuvuzelas. They scream, jump into public fountains, dance around city

squares and drink enormous amounts of Carlsberg beer. The general spirit is, “We made it.” They are allowed the obnoxious behaviour, which actually never crosses the limits of harmless fun as we watch. The bus drops each one of them, soaked in water and beer, back to their parents’ houses, where they are welcomed with much congratulatory cheer.

NO WAY IN NORWAYThe National Geographic has often voted the Norwegian fjord area as the most beautiful destination on earth – ahead of New Zealand, the Swiss Alps and the Yorkshire Dales. As always, it is right. The scenery is gorgeous – water and mountains are a constant feature on a picture-book landscape. Driving through Hardangerfjord from Oslo to Bergen or to Geirangerfjord via the Jotunheim National park, we repeatedly stop to take pictures. In the Trollstigen Mountains there is ice – vast sheets of white – despite the round-the-clock sun. Sheer, barren brown walls of rock guard frozen lakes one minute, the next minute the vista opens to rolling green meadows and gurgling streams. Waterfalls abound – refreshing little nymphs you can reach out a hand to, as well as raging harridans that scare you with their might. The roofs on many houses are green with grass – real grass that acts as insulation – it is an old Viking tradition, we hear.

The weather is excellent and it seems the entire country is outdoors to celebrate the sun – driving around in their campervans, mountain biking, canoeing, hiking, river-rafting – these are hardy mountain-folk, and like hardy mountain-folk everywhere they are supremely fit, generally quiet and introspective, and very community-minded. In many campsites, we see satellite dishes on campervans. Campervan rental companies will happily rent you camp furniture – including a fence to build a yard outside your campervan door, folding tables and chairs, a barbeque grill – camping is quite luxurious these days, in these parts of the world, for sure. The little kitchen inside the motorhome with its hob, chimney and fridge serves us well for a week. Ashi can’t get over the little shower cubicle and potty in her

A challenging drive in Norway


“moving home” – with a small child, the bathroom is very convenient. Since you can camp almost anywhere in the Norwegian countryside that doesn’t carry a “No Camping” sign – and those signs are few – campervans are designed to be totally self-sufficient – though campsites give you an electricity connection that helps you save on gas. Campsites are well equipped for septic tank cleaning, grey water discharge and topping up fresh water.

If India was Norway, we would drive to Siachin. The feats of civil engineering have to be seen to be believed. Never-ending tunnels cutting through mountains, roads that barely cling to the edge of the fjord – remember, dynamite was a Scandinavian invention. But someone needs to ask the Norwegians why they forgot to build overtaking lanes. Very often, you want to let a purring BMW behind you pass, but you can’t – on mountain roads there are poles (to mark the road in case of snow) – very close to the nearly-absent shoulder – that completely hem you in. On motorways speed limits vary greatly and frequently, and speed cameras show up regularly. Driving a seven meter long camper-home in Norway is not for the fainthearted. In a country with no poverty, free healthcare, free childcare, free education, generous pensions, one hundred and sixty days of holiday in a year and one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, nearly all motorways are single lane each way. There is some justice in the world, after all.

On the last day of our vacation, as we step out for dinner

School students celebrate their passing out

in our Oslo hotel, we are joined in the lift by a big round man with bushy grey hair and a long white beard. “What’s your name?” He asks the little one. “Ashi,” she says. “And I am Santa Claus,” he says as he steps out. I wish he knew that his joke has made Ashi’s holiday complete, and given her the memory of a lifetime!

In a country with no poverty, one hundred and sixty days of holiday in a year and one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, nearly all motorways are single lane each way. There is some justice in the world, after all.

Did you know?§The Danish national flag, the Dannebrog, is the oldest

state flag in the world.§The Norwegians eat Lomper or Lefse, a flatbread very

similar to the Indian chapatti in look and taste. §It is believed that in the year 1000, Leif Ericson, a

Viking Explorer became the first European to land in America, nearly 500 years before Columbus.

Roli Jindal is a management professional and an erratic blogger. She can be reached

at [email protected]

Photography by Anup Jindal


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the bureaucrat express august 2014 issue

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