“Technology has immense potential to bring government and citizens closer. Today technology has become a powerful tool to empower citizens as well as a medium to optimize transparency and accountability in day-to-day functioning. Through various policy interventions, we are strongly moving ahead toward digital empowerment of citizens and digital transformation of institutions.” – Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Introduction

Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the Governance landscape of India has radically changed in scale, scope and learning paradigms. India has succeeded in transforming technologically obsolete institutions into modern day digital institutions which benefit millions of Indians. Today India’s countryside has changed-banking Correspondents, e-Mitras and Common Service Centres have bridged the gap between internet poor and internet rich. As India celebrated its 75th year of Independence as Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav, the Prime Minister has gave a clarion call for adoption of Next Generation Reforms by bridging the gap between government and citizens.

This vision of Next Generation administrative reforms of the Prime Minister has been diligently translated into reality by Department of Administration Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). Secretariat Reforms, Swachhta Campaigns, Benchmarking of Governance and Services, Redressal of Public Grievances & Improving Service Delivery, recognizing meritocracy and replication of good governance practices form the core of India’s good governance model.

Maximum Governance – Minimum Government

India’s governance model in the years 2019-2023, has undergone radical reforms. e- Governance has simplified a citizen’s interface with Government, brought government and citizens closer and enabled benchmarking of service quality. I have witnessed Central government’s e-governance models like e-Gram Swaraj & Audit online, PM Street Vendors AtmaNirbhar Nidhi, Judgment and Orders Search Portal, Bharat Skills, Ayushman Bharat PM’s Jan Arogya Yojana, Rail Madad, PM’s Jan Dhan Yojana, Umang, ERONET (electoral registration officers network), One-Nation One-Ration Card, Passport Sewa Kendras; the State Government e-governance models like Mine Mitra of Uttar Pradesh, Kutumba – An Entitlement Management System of Karnataka, e-Registration (Self-Help Portal) for document registration of Delhi, Digital land in UP, Khanij online in Chhattisgarh, Antyodaya Saral in Haryana, Go SWIFT in Odisha, iSTART in Rajasthan,

MahaRERA in Maharashtra have benefitted in bringing transparency and openness to government processes. The widespread adoption of e-Office ver 7.0 has created paperless offices in all 75 Ministries/ Departments in the Central Secretariat 89 percent files being handled as e-files. In 2022, CPGRAMS helped redress 18 lakh public grievances.

The organizational reforms coupled with significant reforms in Personnel Administration like Mission Karmayogi, Lateral Recruitment, accelerated promotion policies, regional conferences for replication of good governance practices, recognizing excellence in public administration by scaling up the scheme for PM’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration represent a paradigm shift in India’s governance models. New India’s strong institutions are best symbolized by adoption of e-governance practices. The best manifestation of “Maximum Governance – Minimum Government” policy is a “Digitally Empowered Citizen”.

In 2022, India’s roadmap for Next Generation Administrative Reforms witnessed three major initiatives undertaken by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances – (a) the successful implementation of the Special Campaign 2.0 from October 2-31, 2022, (b) the Initiative for Increasing Efficiency in Decision Making in Central Secretariat (c) Governance Week from December 20-25, 2022 – Prashasan Gaon ki Aur campaign, each of which was implemented on digital platforms across thousands of government institutions.

CPGRAMS: One Nation – One Portal

The CPGRAMS today has been adopted and implemented across all the Central Ministries/ Departments, Attached, subordinate and autonomous bodies. Further the CPGRAMS is also being used by several Union Territories. In 2022, 18,19,104 grievances were received by all Ministries and Departments of which 15,68,097 PG cases have been redressed. Of these 11,29,642 cases were disposed by the Central Ministries and 4,38,455 cases were disposed by the States and UTs. The average disposal time of Central Ministries and Departments has improved from 32 days in 2021 to 27 days in 2022. 1,71,509 appeals were received of which over 80% were disposed. Over 57,000 grievances have received the rating of Excellent and Very Good from citizens in the feedback conducted by the BSNL call centre for the period July– November 2022.

A 10-step CPGRAMS reforms process was adopted for improving quality of disposal and reducing the time lines. The 10-step reforms include:

(i) Universalization of CPGRAMS 7.0 - Auto-routing of grievances to the last mile by mapping last mile Grievance Redressal Officers in all Ministries/ Departments, improving the categorization/ sub-categories of classification of grievances. The universalization of CPGRAMS 7.0 was a 3-year initiative undertaken from 2019- 2022, resulted in the mapping of 79500 Grievance Redressal Officers and mapping of 1800 categories/ over 15000 sub-categories on the CPGRAMS portal

(ii) Technological Enhancements-Automatic flagging of urgent grievances leveraging AI/ML, intelligent grievance monitoring dashboards, identification of spam, enabling word search.

(iii) Language Translation–CPGRAMS Portal in 22 scheduled languages along with English to enable citizens to file in regional languages.

(iv) Grievance Redressal Index-Ranking of Ministries/ Departments on their Performance, currently operationalized as a 5-parameter index, being expanded to an 18 parameter index.

(v) Feedback Call Centre – 50-seater call center to collect feedback directly from every citizen whose grievance is redressed, an index of satisfactory disposal, if citizen is not satisfied, the grievance is automatically upgraded to an appellate authority.

(vi) One Nation-One Portal-Integration of State Portals and other GoI portals with CPGRAMS. The integration of state portals along with reverse integration enables electronic transfer of grievances from CPGRAMS portal to States/ UT’s portals and vice versa. In the case of Jammu & Kashmir, the integration has been taken up to District level with nearly 20,000 District level grievance redressal officers mapped on the system.

(vii) Inclusivity and Outreach-Empowering the remotest citizen to file grievances through CSC’s, particularly for Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Department of Rural Development.

(viii) Training and Capacity Building - Conducted by ISTM and State ATIs under SEVOTTAM scheme for enabling effective grievance resolution. Sevottam, a capacity building program was revived and workshops/ review meetings with State ATI’s were held to ensure that all Grievance Redressal Officers mapped on CPGRAMS portal undergo capacity building programs. Further focus ATI’s have been identified which work as regional hubs under the Sevottam Scheme. 22 ATI’s have been sanctioned Sevottam Schemes for the year 2022-23.

(ix)Monitoring Process-Monthly reports for both the Central Ministries/Departments and States/UTs. Monthly progress reports present the key highlights and monthly achievements as also present the Grievance Redressal Index, identify officials with highest pendency, and examine the priority sector programs receiving large number of grievances. The monthly reports are published on the 1st of every month and discussed in review meetings with State/ Central nodal grievance officers. The monthly reports are also followed up by Flyers/ PIB Statements and Tweets to ensure wide spread dissemination.

(x) Data Strategy Unit - Established at DARPG for handling big data and providing data analytics, developed a software for monitoring Grievance Redressal Officer wise pendency, timelines of disposal, quality of disposal in dashboards.

In 2022, Ministries/ Departments had disposed 1.14 lakh PG cases in August, 1.17 lakh PG cases in September, 1.19 lac PG cases in October, 1.08 lac PG cases in November and 1.27 lac PG cases in December. This is the first time since inception of CPGRAMS that PG case redressal had crossed 1 lakh cases/ month. The disposal in State PG cases on CPGRAMS portal has crossed 50,000 cases/ month since September 2022. The total pendency in the Central Ministries is down to an all time low of 0.67 lakh cases and in States to 1.75 lakh cases. Average disposal time of Central Ministries/ Departments has improved from 32 days in 2021 to 27 days in 2022 and 19 days in January 2023 because of these reforms. The progress for January 2023 with an average disposal time of 19 days/ grievance with the lowest pendency level of 0.67 lac cases in Central Secretariat of Government of India indicates the deep impact of CPGRAMS- 10 Step Reform process. Following the Chintan Shivir deliberations, the CPGRAMS-10 Step reforms are enlarged to CPGRAMS – 10+4 Step Reforms.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee of Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pensions in its 127th Report submitted to Parliament in March 2023, has appreciated the 10-step reform process adopted by DARPG for improving the quality and disposal of grievances and reducing the timelines. The PSC also commended the DARPG for the faster rate of disposal of grievances by the Department which is over one lakh. The Parliamentary Standing Committee was also pleased to note that the DARPG has implemented most of the recommendations like One Nation-One Portal, CPGRAMS Portal in all regional languages, to develop the Grievance.

Redressal Index, reduction in redressal period from 60 days to 45 days and 45 days to 30 days, introduction of appellate mechanism, revamping of Sevottam Scheme, Operationalizing feedback mechanism and CPGRAMS dashboard. The Parliamentary Standing Committee therefore appreciated and commended the efforts of DARPG for continuously improving and bringing about thoughtful changes in the grievance redressal mechanism.

Civil Services Day and PM’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration India observes 21 April every year as “Civil Services Day”, the day is marked as an occasion for civil servants to rededicate themselves to citizens and renew their commitment to public service and excellence in work. The theme of the 16th Civil Services Day on 21 April 2023 is “Viksit Bharat – Empowering Citizens and Reaching the Last Mile.” The Prime Minister confers the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration to 15 Award Winners. The PM’s Awards were instituted to recognize the efforts and exceptional work done by the civil servants. Prime Minister personally reviewed the scheme and the restructuring of the Scheme was undertaken as per his directions to ensure maximum participation and focus on empowering citizens and reaching the last mile with a saturation approach. In 2022, an all-time high number of nominations were received from States/UTs. 743 District Collectors submitted 2520 nominations for PM’s Awards 2022. This is 97% of the total districts of the country who have participated in the Scheme. Committees at various levels screen applications based on the parameters of the scheme, presentations by District Collectors and other officers, around 5.5 lakh citizen feedback calls, on spot study conducted by two members teams for all shortlisted initiatives. An empowered committee chaired by Cabinet Secretary made the final selections from 32 shortlisted nominations. Of these 15 nominations would receive PM’s awards. The award-winning nominations are presented in the exhibition at Vigyan Bhavan.

Amongst the PM’s Awards winners 2021 are

1) iDEX - Innovations for Defence Excellence of the Department of Defence Production, a system that enables paperless, real-time interaction between the startup ecosystem and defence acquisition agencies;

2) National Generic Document Registration System of Department of Land Resources to provide document registration services by leveraging modern technology to the people in 12 States reducing transaction costs

and time;

3) Seva Sindhu an initiative of Government of Karnataka to deliver government services to the citizens through a common platform in a cashless, contactless and paperless manner providing 798 government services of 78 departments;

4) NDMC 311 App enabled through a comprehensive inclusive strategy monitored from the integrated command and control centre successfully brought down turnaround time for service delivery. 

The Awards also recognized several outstanding district performances including

1) Chanpatia Navpravartan Startup Zone of West Champaran District, Bihar, to help returnee migrants from different parts of the country to set up their own brand creating thousands of direct and indirect employment;

2) Project Sampoorna of Bongaigaon District, Assam which aimed to reduce malnutrition in children by using a decentralized technology based model using community participation;

3) Data Driven Real Time Monitoring Model of Samagra Shiksha Kendra for Schools, an initiative of Education Department of Gujarat directly impacting the learning of 1.15 crore students and improving gradeappropriate learning outcomes;

4) Building of Efficient Greenhouse to Grow Crops of Agriculture Department, Ladakh enabling cultivation of crops all year around through large number of passive solar greenhouses. 

The DARPG has made significant efforts for dissemination and replication of the Award-winning nominations. The National Good Governance Webinar Series presented 24 nominations in 12 monthly webinars in the period 2022-23 in which 15000 officials participated. The PM’s Awards winning projects presented in the National Good Governance Webinar Series included Sakala of Government of Karnataka, e-Seva of Government of Andhra Pradesh, Sickle Cell Anemia Control Program of Government of Gujarat, Making Medicines Affordable in Chittorgarh district Rajasthan, Holistic Development through One District-One Product Scheme in Siddharth Nagar district Uttar Pradesh, Promoting Jan Bhagidari in Poshan Abhiyan in Asifabad district Telangana, Prajavani Janahita of Siricilla district Telangana, Sarkar Aapke Dwar of Changlang district Arunachal Pradesh, Reviving Sasur Khaderi of Government of Uttar Pradesh, Canal Top Solar Power Project of Government of Gujarat, NDMC for Seamless End to End Delivery of Services without Human Intervention of NCT Delhi, Seva Sindhu Portal of Government of Karnataka, River Linking Project of Jalgaon district Maharashtra, Innovative Participatory Drinking Water Approach in Rural Areas of Gujarat, etc. The Themes covered included Improving Public Service Delivery, Initiatives in Health Sector, Aspirational District Program, Redressal of Public Grievances, Environment, Innovations, Jal/ Water Management, Namami Gange. The response to the National Good Governance Webinars indicated the enthusiasm and interest that the series had generated amongst District Collectors/ State Governments in the pursuit of good governance practices. 

The 2022 PM’s Awards will be awarded for Innovations in Central Government, State Governments and District Level innovations. In the Priority Programs, District performances were evaluated for Har Ghar Jal Yojana, Health and Wellness Centers, Samagra Shiksha and Aspirational Districts Program. 

In 2022, DARPG convened Regional Conference on Replication of Good Governance Practices at Srinagar, Bengaluru, Itanagar and Bhopal. The Regional Conferences on Good Governance presented award winning governance practices in regional fora, along with a national perspective.

National Conferences on e-Governance and National e-Governance Awards

Government implements the Awards Scheme for National Awards for e-Governance. This Scheme is recognized amongst the most competitive and prestigious digital governance awards schemes in the country. 2021 witnessed an all-time high of 1377 registrations and 698 nominations being received on the DARPG portal. 2022 also witnessed 468 nominations of which 18 nominations were conferred National e-Governance Awards. The National e- Governance Awards are disseminated for replication through the Annual National e- Governance Conferences, the last 3 National e-Governance Conferences were held at Shillong 2019, Mumbai 2020 and Hyderabad 2022. The 25th National e-Governance Conference was held at Katra,

Jammu was held on November 26-27, 2022. The key takeaways from the 25th National e-Governance Conference were the following:

(i) The Conference stressed on the role of technology in making governance and justice delivery systems reach the poorest of the poor, the marginalized and women living in the hinterland. The vision of India’s techade can be realized through a vigorous and all pervasive digital governance push.

(ii) Closer synergy amongst researchers, academia, industry and start-ups in the field of e-Governance is the way forward for India to be an AtmaNirbhar Nation. The Vision India@2047 on Governance is truly e-Vision India@2047 marked by saturation and benchmarking of high-quality e-services reaching out to the last man in the queue for service delivery in the true spirit of Antyodaya, focus on young policymakers and creating interactive fora between adacemia and start-ups.

(iii) Open Digital Platforms are tremendous force multipliers, and critical for providing affordable, interoperable technology to India’s citizens. Digital Governance can enable massive reach and benefits in the conduct of Special Campaigns aimed at reducing pendency and institutionalization of Swachhata with the objective of providing good governance.

The 25th National e-Governance Conference had significant spillover effects into the e- Governance model of Government of J&K. I have witnessed the expansion of e-Services in J&K from 15 to 227 over the past 2 years. This is a remarkable achievement. In a year’s time from now, it is expected that the number of e-Services will cross 400 and over a 3-year time reach the saturation level of 800 e-Services can be achieved. DARPG has commenced Regional e-Governance Conferences, the first Regional e- Governance Conference was held in Mumbai in January 2023. The DARPG and Government of Maharashtra formulated a multi-pronged action plan for implementing “Next Generation Administrative Reforms” in the State of Maharashtra.

The action plan envisaged the following:

i.A Regional Conference on e-Governance in Mumbai where the best practices in e- Governance and e- Services delivery can be presented by award winners, academicians and industry captains to enable widespread dissemination and adoption.

ii.Adoption of e-Office version 7.0 and the Initiative for Increasing Efficiency in Decision Making through delayering, delegation and digitization

iii.The updation of the Manual of Office Procedure to enable the creation of a Digital Secretariat,

iv.Documentation of the best governance practices and administrative innovations

v.Formulation of a District Good Governance Index. 

Maharashtra is amongst the most advanced States of India with a strong governance model, strong Secretariat structures and Districts where Officers have stood for innovation and commitment. The Good Governance Index recognizes Maharashtra’s strong performance in Agriculture & Allied Sector, Commerce & Industry, Public Infrastructure & Utilities, Social Welfare and Development, Judiciary and Public Safety. Maharashtra stands ahead of Indian States in the 58 parameters across 10 sectors. One of the objectives of the Regional Conference was to translate Government of Maharashtra’s core strengths in Governance into e-Governance to enable Digital Transformation of Institutions and Digital Empowerment of Citizens. The important National objectives of the Regional Conference are: (a) Effective Implementation of NeSDA 2021 recommendations to create a movement for saturation of 56 mandatory e- Services and bring uniformity in e-Services offered by States, (b) to enable the creation of Digital Institutions - State Secretariats by adoption of e-Office (c) Strengthen the linkages between the Startup industry, academics and the Government.

Strengthened State Portals and Service Portals will enable the seamless transformation to a Digitally Empowered Citizen and a Digitally Transformed Nation.

Special Campaign for Disposal of Pending Matters:

The Special Campaign 2.0 was implemented in Central Government from October 2-October 31, 2022 with the objective of institutionalizing swachhata and minimizing pendency in government. Under the Special Campaign 2.0, 5.6 lakh public grievances were redressed, cleanliness campaign was carried out in 1.01 lakh office spaces, 37.50 lakh files were weeded out, 89.5 lakh square feet of space was freed, and scrap disposal earned Rs. 370.1 crores. The special campaign 2.0 brought in a number of success stories in digitization, efficient management of office spaces, enhancement of office premises, environment-friendly practices, inclusivity, protocols and mechanisms being put in place and waste disposal.

Departments/ Ministries gave special attention to attached/ subordinate/ field offices including in the remotest parts of India in month long campaign period from October 2-31, 2022. Special Campaign 2.0 was 15 times larger than Special Campaign of 2021 in terms of cleanliness campaign sites. The Special Campaign 2.0, was holistic in size and scale, witnessed widespread participation from thousands of officials and citizens who came together to create a movement for Swachhata in Government Offices. Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State participated in the Special Campaign 2.0 providing leadership and guidance in implementation.

The Department of Posts conducted the cleanliness campaign in 24000 Post Offices, the Ministry of Railways has conducted in 9374 Railway Stations, Department of Defence in 5922 campaign sites and Ministry of Home Affairs in 11559 campaign sites. 16 Ministries/ Departments have conducted the Special Campaign 2.0 in over 1000 campaign sites, 31 Ministries/ Departments had conducted in the Special Campaign 2.0 in over 100 campaign sites. The progress of Special Campaign 2.0 was monitored on a dedicated portal www.pgportal.gov.in/scdpm22 on a daily basis. 215 Nodal Officers/ Sub-Nodal Officers were appointed in all Ministries/ Departments. The Special Campaign 2.0 was reviewed on a weekly basis by Secretaries to Government of India. The progress of the Special Campaign 2.0 has been widely reported in social media with over 67,000 social media tweets by Ministries/ Departments. 127 PIB Statements were issued by Ministries/ Departments. Over 300 best practices in conducting the Special Campaign 2.0 as a citizen centric movement, to bring citizens and government closer and create an aesthetically pleasant work environment were reported by Ministries/ Departments.

Amongst the best practices that emerged in Special Campaign 2.0 the following are mentioned:

1.Two initiatives of Ministry of Railways in Bengaluru Railway Station to create a Plastic Rakshasa sculpture from discarded plastic bottles. A new rail coach restaurant has been started at Guntur Railway Station

2.The initiative of Department of Posts in opening a Parcel cafe Kolkata GPO by refurbishing old furniture for enhancing customer experience.

3.The initiative of Ministry of Tribal Affairs in creating a Jarwa tribe hut in Port Blair which shows their way of eco-friendly cultural values towards cleanliness.

4.The initiative of Department of Agriculture Research and Education in creating a complete parthenium free and plastic free farms by KVK CRIDA, Telangana.

5.The initiative of Ministry of Women & Child Development to develop “One Stop Centers”, and imparting training for making usable products from waste material.

6.The initiative of Central Board of Indirect Taxes for innovative use of office corridor enhancement using the theme of “Aranya” in their office corridor.

7.The initiative of Ministry of Coal under the “Garbage to Garden” initiative in Central Coal Fields limited in Bokaro and Kargali fields. As part of this campaign, gardens have been developed in Coal Fields which were earlier junkyards.

8.The initiative of Central Board of Direct Taxes in creating Vertical Gardens made by use of waste plastic bottles help in recycling plastic waste and beautifying office spaces. 430 Aaykar Seva Kendras (ASK Centres) were operational in multiple locations across for redressal of public grievances.

9.The initiative of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare under the “Garbage to Green Project” by growing Ayush Herbal Plants at AIIMS Bibinagar.

10.The initiative of Ministry of Home Affairs, under the ‘Straight to security Initiative’ by CISF at Hyderabad Airport resulting in faster check-in,

11.The initiative of Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare in promoting the use of face authentication app for pensioners over the age of 80.

12.The initiative of Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Port Authority, Kolkata (SMPA) has turned the paddle steamer into a unique showcase for cruise tourism, with an under-deck museum, floating restaurant/ conference and has been made operational through self-propulsion

13.The initiative of Department of Atomic Energy in using robots for cleaning sewers and drains in BARC Mumbai.

14.The initiative of Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Geo-Tagging of Files.

15.The initiative of Border Roads Organization in building roads using plastic waste. 

On the Special Campaign on Swachhata and Reducing Pendency in Government Officers, the Parliamentary Standing Committee applauded the DARPG in bringing out such innovative and novel ideas for cleanliness campaign.

Initiative for Increasing Efficiency in Central Secretariat

In 2022, the Central Secretariat continued to implement the Initiative for Increasing Efficiency in Decision Making in Government. Under this initiative, a four-pronged approach was adopted by the Central Government with DARPG as the nodal department.

• Review of Channels of Submission for creating flatter organizations – the channel of submission was

reduced to not more than 4 levels from 7-8 levels.

• Delegation of Financial/ Administrative powers to lower functionaries.

• Adoption of Desk Officer System to ensure single points of file disposal.

• Adoption of e-Office version 7.0.

• Digitalization of all receipts in the Central Registration Units.

Some of the key highlights are the following:

• Channel of submission and levels of disposal were reviewed in 63 Ministries/ Departments. In these Ministries, the channel of submission was reduced to 4,3 and 2 levels as per new delegation. Financial delegation for miscellaneous and contingent expenditure was made to DS/ Director level officers.

• Officers were divided into separate categories. Delayering entailed reducing number of levels, and level jumping was adopted amongst officers and staff with the guidelines that no officer falling in a particular category will put up files to another officer in the same category, which means they work in parallel, horizontal organizational structures.

• Additional Secretaries/ Joint Secretaries were placed in category II and Deputy Secretary/ Under Secretary were placed in category III across Ministries/ Departments.

• The review of the channel of submission resulted in identification of surplus manpower who could be redeployed to other Ministries. Several areas of financial delegation which were not revisited for several years were reviewed.

• New digital platforms for computerized working in administrative areas were introduced. In 2022, 31.65 lakh e-files were operational in the Central Secretariat and the number of physical files came down to 7.41 lac. The share of e Files in Central Secretariat is 89.66 percent. Departments of Social Justice and Empowerment, Scientific and Industrial Research, Biotechnology, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of North Eastern Region, Parliamentary Affairs, Earth Sciences, Panchayati Raj are 100 percent digitized Ministries. E-Receipts touched 73.2 lakh in 2022 as compared to 33.24 lakh in 2021. All Ministries/ Departments have upgraded to e-Office version 7.0 and inter-ministerial e-file movement has been implemented.

• Use of heavy-duty scanners in central registration units was adopted, and fresh receipts were replied to in digital form. The digitalization of Central Registration Units along with e-Office has resulted in significant

reduction in paper consumption in several Ministries/ Departments. Flatter organizations have enabled faster decision making.

• To enable a work from home environment in the pandemic, the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure 2022 provided Virtual Private Network Facility upto Deputy Secretary level and laptops were provided upto Under Secretary level.

• Desk officer system was operationalized in 28 Ministries/ Departments where it was feasible. The Ministry of External Affairs has operationalized 264 desk officers along with Department of Telecom and Department of Posts with specific assignment of responsibilities.

The Government’s initiative for “Increasing Efficiency in Decision Making” represented one of the most complicated and far-reaching administrative reforms witnessed in the Central Secretariat. It brought a silent reform in work culture, reduced hierarchies and resulted in significant adoption of new technology. It has also enabled responsive communication and enhanced efficiency in processing of receipts.

Good Governance Week – December 20-25, 2022

The Sushasan Sapth 2022 witnessed the Second Nation-wide campaign for Redressal of Public Grievances and Improving Service Delivery. Prashasan Gaon ki Ore 2022 has witnessed significant progress – 50.79 lakh public grievances were redressed, 282 lakh service delivery applications were disposed, 863 innovations in governance were documented and 194 Vision India@2047 District level documents uploaded on the GGW22 portal till December 24, 2022.

On December 23rd, 2022, District Level Workshops were held in all 768 Districts of India to deliberate on innovations and vision India@2047. The District level workshops were chaired by a senior retired IAS officer who had served as District Collector in that District. Chief Ministers of States/ LG’s of UT’s have supported the Prashasan Gaon ki Ore Campaign with regular messages and tweets. It would be pertinent to point out that the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pensions in its 121st Report had commended the phenomenal success of Prashasan Gaon ki Ore Campaign and recommended that such campaigns should be held more frequently.

Cabinet Secretary chaired a workshop on Good Governance Practices with an experience sharing session on Special Campaign 2.0 and the Initiative for Increasing Efficiency in Decision Making in which 540 officials from all Ministries/ Departments participated on December 23, 2022. The Workshop deliberations envisaged accelerated efforts across Ministries/ Departments in creation of fully digital Central Secretariat, effective delayering/ delegation/ adoption of desk officer system – the steps outlined by Cabinet Secretary included adoption of e-Office 7.0 in all Ministries/ Departments, complete shift to e-receipts from physical receipts, constant monitoring/ reviews of delayering and delegation of financial powers in monthly reports of DARPG, and enhanced efforts for adoption of desk officer system. Further Cabinet Secretary complemented all Ministries/ Departments for the inspirational work undertaken in implementation of Special Campaign 2.0 and recommended the best practices may be shared with States.

In 2019 and 2021, the Good Governance Day celebrations were marked by release of the Good Governance Index – An Assessment of the State of Governance in States. In 2022, this biennial publication has been

extended to States/ UT’s - Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir. The National e-Services Delivery Assessment Reports of 2019 and 2021 documented the progress made in e-services delivery by benchmarking portals of Ministries/ Departments. In line with the Prime Minister’s vision, DARPG has embarked on implementation of recommendations of NeSDA 2021, for saturation of 56 mandatory and adoption of 850 optional e-services across all States/ UT’s. Consultation meetings with States have been held.

The Good Governance Index (GGI) 2021

GGI 2021 Framework covered ten sectors and 58 indicators. The sectors of GGI 2020-21 are:

1) Agriculture and Allied Sectors, 2) Commerce & Industries, 3) Human Resource Development, 4) Public Health, 5.) Public Infrastructure & Utilities, 6) Economic Governance, 7) Social Welfare & Development, 8) Judicial & Public Security, 9) Environment, and 10) Citizen-Centric Governance. The GGI 2020-21 categorizes States and UTs into four categories, i.e., (i) Other States – Group A; (ii) Other States – Group B; (iii) North-East and Hill States; and (iv) Union Territories. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa top the composite rank score covering 10 sectors. GGI 2021 says that Gujarat registered 12.3 percent increase and Goa registered 24.7 percent increase over GGI 2019 indicators. Uttar Pradesh has shown an incremental growth of 8.9 % over GGI 2019 performance. Jharkhand has shown an incremental growth of 12.6 percent over GGI 2019 performance. Rajasthan has shown an incremental growth of 1.7 percent over the GGI 2019 performance. In the North-East and Hill States category, Mizoram and Jammu and Kashmir have registered an overall increase of 10.4% and 3.7% respectively over GGI 2019. In the Union Territories category, Delhi tops the composite rank registering a 14 percent increase over the GGI 2019 indicators. The GGI 2021 says that 20 States have improved their composite GGI scores over the GGI 2019 index scores. Analysis of scoring suggests that there is a marginal difference among the States in their composite governance scores. This indicates that overall governance in the States of India is moving in the positive direction.

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances has collaborated with the Government of Jammu & Kashmir to publish District Good Governance Index for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. The District Good Governance Index of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir is unique. The District Good Governance Index aimed to assess the state of Governance in all the 20 Districts of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. Region specific Governance Indicators were developed to assess the ground realities and meeting the aspirations of the people. The District Good Governance Index provides policy analysis on a wide range of indicators at a disaggregated level and enables critical policy interventions for improving governance models. The District Good Governance Index exercises enabled strengthening of the Directorate of Economics & Statistics through timely publication of datasets. The District Good Governance Index of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir was released by the Union Minister for Home Affairs and Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah ji on January 22, 2022.

The National e-Services Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) 2021

The NeSDA 2021 follows the long list of publications – GGI 2019 and GGI 2021, NeSDA 2019 and NeSDA 2021, DGGI in J&K, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, CSMOP 2019. As an input based index, NeSDA took 16 months of coordination effort with all States and select Central Ministries/ Departments. In assessment of State portals, Kerala remains a front runner and the progress made by Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh in NeSDA 2021 is commendable. In Service portals, Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Meghalaya has topped the rankings. All States/ UT’s have shown improvements in the promotion of integrated service portals and the number of services being offered on their State portals. India’s e- Governance policies have shown improvements and citizen satisfaction levels have risen. In many ways technology has succeeded in bringing government and citizens closer.

DARPG collaborates with States and Union Territories to ensure timely implementation of the recommendations of the National e-Services Delivery Assessment 2021 to ensure the all mandatory e-services are rolled out by States and Union Territories in a time bound manner. Further the DARPG coordinates with States and Union Territories to strengthen the State Portals and Service Portals to enhance the ease of living of citizens. The NeSDA 2021 report assessed 1400 e-Services across States and UT’s and reported that India’s e-Services had grown by 60 percent in the period 2019-2021. 69 percent of the mandatory e-services have been delivered by States/ UT’s in 2021 up from 48 percent in NeSDA 2019. 74 percent of the respondents of the nation wide Citizen Survey, are satisfied/ very satisfied with the e-services.

DARPG has commenced work on NeSDA 2023, the NeSDA – Way forward monthly reports are being published to depict India’s journey in e-Services.

Vision India@2047

DARPG is amongst the Ministries/ Departments of Government that is formulating its Vision India@2047. India has a time-tested administrative system with adherence to rules and established norms, an elaborate structure and procedures for carrying out functions of Nation Building and creation of an inclusive State. There are also empowered Commissions, statutory boards and autonomous societies where significant institutional capacities exist. The permanent civil service has contributed significantly to continuity and enabled evolution of institutions. The principle of subsidiarity has been followed to decentralize functions to State and Local Governments. The Union Government has primarily focused on core areas of defence, international relations, national security, education, health, infrastructure, social security and social justice, macroeconomic management and national policy making. Policy Analysis remains a critical function of the central secretariat given the imperative of providing high quality policy advise to the apex levels in government. The Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedures 2022 has been recast to provide for a detailed delegation to all functional levels to minimize delays in processing of receipts.

DARPG has commenced work on NeSDA 2023, the NeSDA – Way forward monthly reports are being published to depict India’s journey in e-Services.

Vision India@2047

DARPG is amongst the Ministries/ Departments of Government that is formulating its Vision India@2047. India has a time-tested administrative system with adherence to rules and established norms, an elaborate structure and procedures for carrying out functions of Nation Building and creation of an inclusive State. There are also empowered Commissions, statutory boards and autonomous societies where significant institutional capacities exist. The permanent civil service has contributed significantly to continuity and enabled evolution of institutions. The principle of subsidiarity has been followed to decentralize functions to State and Local Governments. The Union Government has primarily focused on core areas of defence, international relations, national security, education, health, infrastructure, social security and social justice, macroeconomic management and national policy making. Policy Analysis remains a critical function of the central secretariat given the imperative of providing high quality policy advise to the apex levels in government. The Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedures 2022 has been recast to provide for a detailed delegation to all functional levels to minimize delays in processing of receipts.

Consultation meetings with sector specialists were held to understand the retrospective literature we have and the futuristic governance plan. The consensus amongst the sector specialists was that technology will play a critical part in the futuristic governance models of India redefining citizen and government relations where technology is an enabler and citizen is the master. Governance would also be data driven in which evidence based futuristic indices for benchmarking governance would be drawn up. Further there was a lot of emphasis on the foundational and non-negotiable values of ethics and integrity – a quest for Naitik Bharat. The importance of incorporating management practices into 21st century governance was discussed, and one of the interesting proposals was to setup interactions between young-startup innovators from private sector entrepreneurs and young technology experts with young-innovators in government. Building digital institutions by use of blockchain, designing projects for innovations at district level were also discussed. An inclusive internet ecosystem with thousands of citizen-centric services using 6G technology with assured connectivity and speed is to be developed.

Chintan Shivir

The Chintan Shivir lays down a futuristic model of governance representing far reaching administrative reform in the Amrit Kaal period. In 2023, the Chintan Shivir as a concept has gained considerable momentum following deliberations in the Council of Ministers that every Ministry should conduct internal in-house deliberations to take a fresh look at their governance models. Infact the meetings of the Council of Ministers in which all Secretaries to Government of India also participate represents an administrative best practice where desiloization and free exchange of views has been possible. Team building exercises of similar nature in Ministries/ Departments breaking vertical silos are conceptualized as Chintan Shivirs with an average duration of 48-72 hours.

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had conducted its Chintan Shivir on 17-18 February 2023. The Hon’ble Prime Minister’s meeting with officials was the key highlight of the Chintan Shivir deliberations of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. The Hon’ble Prime Minister shared his vast experience in governance, urged officials that impersonal governance models need to find life through deep personal commitment. This could be achieved through personal interactions, spending time together to think about common good and seeking to find happiness in every job assigned. The corollary is that lack of commitment, inability to work in teams, inertia at work place results in institutional decay.

The Chintan Shivir of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, ideated on the theme “Improving Service Delivery”. This broad theme contained 2 subjects of the Departments headed by me – “Redressal of Public Grievances” of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and “Improving Pensioners Welfare” of the Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare. Deep commitment in the case of “Redressal of Public Grievances” necessitates a holistic merger of technology with citizen engagement. Such citizen engagement will necessitate all levels of the Department to study individual grievances and engage with citizens on a regular basis to find solutions. The

DARPG enlarged its 10-step reform of CPGRAMS to a 14-step reform to incorporate features of citizen connect. In the case of “Improving Pensioners Welfare” finding life in impersonal governance models necessitated evolving a 5-point reform plan of Pensioner welfare programs to rejuvenate/ restructure the Pre-Retirement Counselling Sessions”.

Translatig the Lessons of Chintan Shivir into Governance Models: Transforming Impersonal Models of Governance into Live/ Vibrant Models: I have witnessed institutions rise and fall with individuals. Higher institutional energy existed when the governance models were marked by workshops, working group meetings, webinars, conferences, symposia and publications. I have witnessed the Central Secretariat as an institution where vertical exchanges were the predominant means of communication and horizontal exchanges were only at senior levels of governance – the Ministers offices/ Secretary level/ JS level.

Improving Inter-Personal Relations in Vertical Organizations: Political leadership has the innate capacity to engage with vertical and horizontal organizations in a seamless manner. For bureaucracy to interact in vertical and horizontal organizational structures is more difficult. Senior Officers Meetings are the only areas where horizontal exchanges exist to a certain extent. Travel and conferences enable some bonding, but the chintan shivirs are a good way to improve and build horizontal relations. “What is not inspected is not done” said A.D.Gorwala in 1951 and introduced weekly Senior Officers Meetings in Central Secretariat. Horizontal linkages can enable a reduction in supervisory oversight. Further it can reduce organizational conflict and needless tensions at work.

Finding happiness in the work place: Swachhata Campaigns, Swachh Bharat Missions, Jal Jeevan Mission these are the new go-to areas of governance. PM has asked officers to find happiness in every job. Economic Ministries were the most happening for decades. Finding happiness at work place is a critical element of successful institutional leadership.

AI in Governance: Prime Minister has advised that AI in governance needs to be better understood, and benefits should be incorporated. Successful AI based models need to be created to enable government officials to handle big data with comprehensive analytics platforms.

Monthly Chintan Shivirs: The Prime Minister’s suggestion was to conduct monthly ideation sessions in which 4 books on HR could be selected and 4 officials identified for making a 2000- word synopsis and present the findings. Greater opportunities for expression for US/ DS rank officials should be provided. Accordingly, the DARPG has formulated a roadmap for monthly chintan shivirs in the Department wherein Under Secretaries would ideate on specific themes.

In my long career in the Central Secretariat spanning 20 years in Government of India covering 8 Ministries, the Chintan Shivir represented a milestone moment. A lot of responsibility and trust was reposed on each one of the participating officials in the Chintan Shivir to come up with substantive policy recommendations, reinvent and rediscover themselves and find the motivation to continue the outstanding work in Government.