Principles and Practices of Good Governance
V. Srinivas
The fourth Sushasan Saptah (Good Governance Week) is being observed from December 19-25, 2024. This year, the Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore campaign continued to be an integral part of the Good Governance Week. Reflecting on the ethos of Amrit Kaal, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had earlier remarked: "In this
decade of Amrit Kaal, we will give priority to Next Generation Reforms. We will ensure that all facilities like service delivery reach citizens up to the last mile; it should reach the last person seamlessly, without hesitation or any kind of difficulty. For the overall development of the country, unnecessary interference by the Government and Government processes in the lives of the people has to be ended."
The week-long initiative witnessed numerous impactful events and programmes aimed at promoting transparency, efficiency, and citizen-centric governance. By integrating advanced technologies and innovative practices, the Government reinforced its commitment to building a governance ecosystem that ensures inclusivity and last-mile delivery. The Good Governance Week successfully underscored the nation's ongoing strides towards a more empowered and connected society.
The Prime Minister, in his historic third term, has laid down an ambitious and results-oriented agenda for Good Governance, which envisages each Ministry and Department to formulate initiatives and ideas for implementation as part of "Panch Pran" (five resolutions) announced in the Independence Day address of the Prime Minister on August 15, 2022. The Panch Pran of Amrit Kaal represent the vision of our Nation's Good Governance Principles and Practices - the goal of a developed India, to remove any trace of colonial mindset, take pride in our roots and unity and sense of duty among citizens. The Prime Minister asked the Nation to focus attention on the Panch Pran for the coming 25 years, while empowering citizens and reaching the last mile as the priorities for Viksit Bharat @ 2047 when the Nation celebrates 100 years of independence.
An agenda of "Maximum Governance - Minimum Government" envisages a digitally empowered citizen and a digitally transformed institution. Bringing Government and Citizens closer using technology is important for ease of living and ease of doing business. Accordingly, the Government seeks to effect qualitative improvements in the grievance redressal systems to make them more sensitive, accessible and meaningful. A whole-of-government approach is to be adopted in formulating and implementing policies and schemes, and concerted steps are proposed to be taken for India to become the 3rd largest economy in the world. This will necessitate upskilling, and the Government has said suitable incentives will be provided for encouraging officers to take full advantage of the capacity-building courses and modules available on the iGOT Karmayogi portal. Further, governance models need periodic monitoring of quality assessments by developing effective metrics to foster a competitive spirit amongst States and Districts to encourage them to adopt reforms in different areas of governance, particularly in respect of statutory clearances and approvals. Another major area of action is the development of comprehensive action plans for implementing the concept of women-led development.
Social justice is at the heart of policy-making, and the Government has worked to provide equitable opportunities to everyone. The saturation approach of priority sector schemes has defined the goal of the Government's all-round, all-pervasive and all-inclusive development model. The important priority sector schemes where the saturation approach has been adopted include the Har Ghar Jal Yojana, PM Awas Yojana, Mission Indradhanush, PM Ujjwala Yojana, PM Jan Arogya Yojana, PM SVANidhi, PM Matru Vandana Yojana, PM Vishvakarma Yojana, PM Mudra Yojana, PM Poshan Yojana and Kisan Credit Cards Scheme. The vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas has been the overarching national development goal.
Presently, CPGRAMS is the world's largest citizen interface platform. The CPGRAMS has been adopted and implemented across all Central Ministries/ Departments, attached, subordinate and autonomous bodies. By integrating advanced technologies, supporting multiple languages and providing comprehensive tracking and feedback mechanisms, CPGRAMS ensures that citizens' grievances are addressed promptly and effectively, contributing to improved governance and public service delivery. In 2023, the initiatives of the Intelligent Grievance Monitoring System, the CPGRAMS mobile app, training and capacity building using Sevottam have resulted in increased volume of resolution, enhanced public trust, accountability, efficiency, inclusivity and accessibility.
In October 2024, the Prime Minister unveiled the Karmayogi Competency Framework while asking civil servants to keep themselves abreast of the latest technological developments so as to meet the rising standards. Mission Karmayogi envisions a future-ready civil service that needs to keep itself abreast of artificial intelligence and information processing, presenting challenges and opportunities. The goal is to create human resources that will become the driving force of our Nation's development to help us achieve Viksit Bharat by 2047. The Government of India's new paradigm in capacity building, Mission Karmayogi, seeks to improve efficiency in bureaucracy and develop a people-centric approach in governance rooted in Indian civilisational ethos.
The Mission Karmayogi encapsulates three transitions - transition from Karmachari to Karmayogi, workplace transformation, and a shift from rule-based to role-based civil servant. The Karmayogi competency model seeks identification and assessment of skill needs in civil service, enhancing the focus on behavioural and functional capacity-building needs, enhancing role-based capacity building, and empowering officials to take charge of their professio-nal journey. It drives standardisation, harmonisation, and shared learning in capacity-building practices and demand-driven capacity building. A Karmayogi will be able to inculcate the virtues and strive towards the vision by attaining competencies.
Special Campaigns represent the vision of Prime Minister Modi for institutionalising swachhata and reducing pendency in Government, for changing old practices, weeding out old files and papers in Government offices, better utilisation of free space, improving sanitisation protocols, and above all, adopting technology. Special Campaigns are implemented to focus on digitisation, efficient management of office spaces, enhancement of office premises, environmentally friendly practices, inclusivity, sanitation protocols, and mechanisms for waste disposal. This effort for "Ek Kadam Swachhata Ki Ore" in institutions of Government has enabled a new way of thinking in the country- that office spaces can be aesthetically beautiful, clutter-free, and conducive to an enhanced work environment.
The Special Campaign for Institutionalising Swachhata and Reducing Pendency in Government has been implemented from October 2-31 every year since 2021. The Government has decided to implement the Special Campaign for the next five years, adopting a saturation approach to cover all field offices, focussing on public-centric ministries, overseas missions and posts, banks, and public sector undertakings. The Special Campaign focusses on swachhata in office spaces and targeted reductions in MPs' references, Parliamentary assurances, PMO references, inter-ministerial references, state Government references, public grievances, and records management practices. This is monitored through a single digital platform. Between 2021 and 2024, the Special Campaign covered 1.15 million offices, 13.14 million files were weeded out, 64.3 million square feet of space was freed, and Rs. 2,364 crores of revenue were earned. These Special Campaigns represent a whole-of-Government approach and have brought significant reductions in pendency. Consistent monitoring has enabled increasing efficiency in Government.
Through the nation-wide campaign Sushasan Saptah, conducted from December 19-24, 2024, the Government sought to make the ecosystem more transparent and faster by simplifying procedures and processes at every level. Through various citizen-centric initiatives, including redressal of public grievances and disposal of service delivery applications, the Government sought to expand the outreach of service delivery mechanisms and make them more effective. The emphasis was on projecting the immense potential of technology to bring citizens and Government closer, as a powerful tool to empower citizens as well as a medium to optimise transparency and accountability in day-to-day functioning. During the Prashasan Gaon ki Ore Campaign, District Collectors organised special camps/events at Tehsil Headquarters/Panchayat Samitis to resolve public grievances for improved service delivery. The Campaign was monitored centrally on a real-time basis through a dashboard created for this purpose on the Prashasan Gaon ki Ore Portal. The Good Governance Week events also included a series of workshops on good governance to formulate visions for Districts@100 and present district-level innovations.
Pensioners form an important constituent of India's society. The Government's major schemes for improving pensioners' welfare envisaged the timely sanction of pensions on the BHAVISHYA portal, timely payment of pensions, timely redressal of pensioner grievances, and digital empowerment of pensioners through the Jeevan Praman App (Digital Life Certificate). ANUBHAV awards were instituted for recording the administrative memoirs of individual officers. An important administrative reform for pensioners was the Pension Adalat, which was introduced to resolve chronic grievances of Central Government Pensioners. The objective was to provide on-the-spot resolution of unresolved grievances in the CPENGRAMS Portal. Between 2017 and 2024, over 18,000 cases were redressed in Pension Adalats.
It is also pertinent to mention that the Government pursued digital empowerment of pensioners as a stated policy objective. The nation-wide Digital Life Certificate campaigns held in 2022, 2023, and 2024 significantly enhanced the digital empowerment of pensioners, with nearly 45 million pensioners availing the benefits of Jeevan Praman across the three DLC Campaigns. Face authentication was introduced in November 2021, and more than 30 percent of the DLCs were submitted using face authentication in 2024. Technology adoption by pensioners has been a significant success.
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 gained considerable momentum following deliberations in the Council of Ministers. It was decided that every Ministry should conduct internal, in-house deliberations to take a fresh look at their governance models. In fact, the meetings of the Council of Ministers, in which all Secretaries to the Government of India also participated, represented an administrative best practice where desiloisation and free exchange of views were possible. Team-building exercises of a similar nature in Ministries/Departments, breaking vertical silos, were conceptualised as Chintan Shivirs with an average duration of 48-72 hours.
The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions conducted its Chintan Shivir on 17-18 February 2023. The Prime Minister's meeting with officials was the key highlight of the deliberations. Prime Minister Modi shared his vast experience in governance and urged officials to ensure that impersonal governance models find life through deep personal commitment. This could be achieved through personal interactions, spending time together to think about the common good, and seeking happiness in every job assigned.
The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, in collaboration with the International Institute of Administrative Sciences, will host the IIAS-DARPG Conference from February 10-14, 2025, in New Delhi. The conference will be attended by representatives from IIAS member countries and will witness intense discussions on the theme "Bringing Government and Citizens Closer."
The DARPG has entered into bilateral collaborations with the Governments of Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Portugal, France, the United Kingdom, The Gambia, and Cambodia to exchange best practices in public policy and governance. These bilateral engagements are sustained through regular meetings of Joint Working Groups and webinars on issues of common interest.
Furthermore, the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) has emerged as one of India's largest capacity-building institutions for international civil servants. The NCGG has scaled up its international capacity-building programmes from five programmes per year in 2018-19 for one country to 47 programmes per year in 2024-25 for 34 countries. Seventy-four Capacity-Building Programmes have been conducted for 2,700 Bangladesh Civil Service officers, 34 programmes for 1,050 Maldives Civil Service Officers, five programmes for 200 Sri Lanka Administrative Service Officers, seven programmes for 280 Cambodia Civil Service Officers, and five programmes for 200 The Gambia Civil Service Officers.
The vast gamut of work undertaken in ushering in the technology revolution in governance from 2019-2024 has enabled millions of Indians to reap the benefits of transparency in governance, faster timelines for disposal, and quality decision-making. It can be said that the imposing 182-metre Statue of Unity of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel provides inspiration for the Nation's relentless commitment to excellence in the Amrit Kaal Period. Come, let us join together to celebrate Good Governance Day 2024 in a befitting manner.
(The author is an IAS officer of the 1989 batch who presently serves as Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, and Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare. Feedback can be sent to feedback.employmentews@ gmail.com).
Views expressed are personal.