Covid-19 pandemic has redefined India's governance models: Bureaucrat V Srinivas

The Covid-19 pandemic has redefined India's governance models and there has been a lot of focus on digital decision making in the central secretariat, senior bureaucrat V Srinivas has said.

Addressing a lecture, he said the district collectors who have stood at the frontend in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic have shown maturity and commitment well beyond their seniority, in ensuring that rural societies adopt to the new normal.

"The district collectors of India have thrived in taking forward technology for redressal of public grievances. The disposal of public grievances has reached an overwhelming 90 per cent in most states," said Srinivas, additional secretary in the Ministry of Personnel, Public grievances and Pensions and also the director general of National Centre for Good Governance.

He said the technology platforms in districts have developed significantly to ensure real time monitoring and high quality redressal of public grievances.

"In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has redefined India's governance models. Getting to live with the coronavirus has meant less contact governance, officials having to work in masks and gloves and adoption of work from home policies for nearly 60-75 percent workforce," Srinivas said, delivering 6th M L Mehta memorial oration online on "Good Governance Practices - The M L Mehta Legacy" on Monday.

Mehta superannuated as the chief secretary of Rajasthan on December 31, 1997. Srinivas served closely with Mehta in the years 1994-97.

Srinivas, a 1989 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, said there has been a lot of focus on digital decision making in the central secretariat with the virtual offices being enabled through e-office implementation, web-room meetings, file disposal on virtual private networks and work from home policies becoming more streamlined.

He said, ethics, morality and efficiency are the foundation on which the ethical superstructure is built, moral courage is needed to go beyond the charter of public duty.

"It is important that public service should be built on ethical behaviour and ethical benchmarks should be brought mainstream," the officer said.

Srinivas said, the 21st century governance of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is marked by competitive recruitment, stringent training norms, timely performance appraisal and constant evaluations.

"There is emphasis on performance management practices, open, transparent and accountable systems of service delivery. There is increased regulatory oversight by the Central Vigilance Commission, the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Central Bureau of Investigation. India's first Lokpal has been appointed and fully operationalised. The accountability levels in government today are far higher than they were ever in the past," he said.

Srinivas said, in 2020, Mission Karmayogi represents the government's landmark decision for appropriate training for augmentation of knowledge skills and efficiency.

"Built on the 6 pillars of policy framework, institutional framework, competency framework, digitallearning framework, electronic human resource management system and monitoring and evaluation framework, Mission Karmayogi seeks to transform the civil service HR management from rule based to role based and one of continuous learning," he said.

The training of civil servants at the various academies will be restructured to include the optimum use of the digital learning platform of iGOT (Integrated online training), he said.