Human touch, efficiency & innovation: PM Modi's mantra for governance

Narendra Modi's new mantra for governance is Human touch and an efficient turnaround. Three weeks back, PM Modi met additional secretary and joint secretary level officials and urged them to work towards improving the processes of governance. He said a human touch was essential for developing team spirit, which can deliver better collective results. In lieu of that, Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha has written to secretaries of all ministries with 39 actionable points to “expeditiously” act on and give a status report to the Cabinet Secretary.

Here's what the directive observed

— Central Secretariat has lost field focus

— Officers need to mandatorily spend 5-6 days working rigorously

— Officers need to reach out to everyone in the team — break the habit of working in silos

— There is a need for communication between seniors and juniors.

Apart from this, the Cabinet secretary has asked all departments to keep aside 1% of their budget for innovation. In order to motivate the officers, government would establish an award for innovation for the various departments.

Office memorandum and Orders

According to The Economics Times, Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha said, "Instead of multiple orders on the same subject, each department should undertake an annual validation of all OMs on the same subject".

Reducing timelines

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier said that the speed of decision-making is critical — officers should constantly endeavour to reduce delays in processes. P K Sinha's directives include this observation.

During an interaction with the IAS officers, PM Modi highlighted that the current positive global environment is in favour of India. He asked officers to work with clear objectives towards creating a New India by 2022, in line with his ‘Sankalp se Siddhi’ plan announced on Independence Day.

In view of patchy work in some state governments, the prime minister urged them to work efficiently towards to process of improving governance at every level. In past addresses, Modi has always highlighted the need to work in unison for creating a new India.

"A human touch is essential for developing team spirit, which can deliver better collective results," Modi said.