Change from being a regulator to an enabler: PM to bureaucrats

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked the government servants to change their role from being a regulator to an enabling entity to turn the challenges into opportunities.
In an over 90-minute pep-talk to bureaucrats on the occasion of 'Civil Services Day', he said now, very often, people perceive that the private sector offers better services than the government.
The prime minister said that with the alternatives now being available in several areas, the responsibilities of the government officers have increased, not in terms of scope of work, but in terms of the challenge.
Modi said that the sooner the attitude of government servants can change from a regulator to an enabler, the faster this challenge of competition will become an opportunity.

"It will be good if you change your working style and way of thinking. If you come out of the role of being a regulator and act as an enabling entity, then challenges would convert into opportunities," he said.
The prime minister said conditions prevailing today are quite different from about two decades ago, and would evolve much further over the next few years.

Elaborating on this, he said that earlier, the government was almost the sole provider of goods and services, which left a lot of scope for ignoring one's shortcomings.
Addressing the civil servants, Modi said that while the absence of the government in a sphere of activity should be perceptible, its presence in a sphere of activity should not become a burden.

He asked the civil servants to strive towards such arrangements.
The prime minister urged the senior officers to ensure that experience does not become a burden that stifles innovation of the younger officers.
Modi said that anonymity is one of the greatest strengths of the civil services.