Ministries set to miss deadline? Govt's 100-day programme faces uncertainty

The government's 100-day timetable is set to conclude by mid-September, yet very few departments are publicly updating their progress toward meeting their targets

By the end of this month, ministers from every central government department were expected to hold town hall meetings with employees to assess the operational readiness of the 100 Days Program. However, these meetings have not happened so far.

Even before the General Elections were announced in March this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked each department to prepare a list of 100 days programmes. The programmes for each were supposed to include a list of targets to achieve in the first three months of the new government. 

The programmes, meant to create a pace in the working of the government, without wasting any time in the ideation phase, seems to have stalled. The 100 days timetable is scheduled to be over by mid-September. But it is rare to see any department going to town over how near they are to complete their targets. Former finance secretary Ashok Chawla told Business Standard said he was not aware of the pace of work on the to do list, but pointed out that the eventual performance of the 100 day agenda depends on the “political will and determination of the political executive of the day”.

One of the reasons for the stalling could be the verdict of the elections. The NDA has come back with a muted majority in the elections. As a result, many of the plans had to be revisited. After the elections as the new ministers joined office, while each ministry announced they would pursue the projects as seen from the respective PIB releases, nothing has been heard since. 

The other reason is the massive change at the secretary level in the government of India which got over just after the Independence Day celebrations. A mail sent from the Business Standard to the government had not got any response till the time of filing this report. 

The impact of the elections was visible in the way each ministry and department has front loaded the jobs agenda, in these 100 days programmes. Prior to the elections, the general mandate for the ministries was based on a four-fold framework of economic growth, environmental sustainability, social progress and good governance. 

While lateral entry was not part of the 100 days agenda of the department of personnel and training (DoPT), civil service reform was a key part of the agenda. The department of personnel and training had decided to set yardsticks for the performance of the civil servants, a tricky terrain. This included good governance as a major milestone with a lot of emphasis on Mission Karmayogi to roll out new courses to train civil servants to be developed fast as new challenges emerged. Courses on AI and how to use tools like ChatGPT for answering queries were on the cards. 

DoPT will now be expected to revisit the entire agenda under its new secretary, Vivek Joshi who has joined this week. The Modi government has appointed a new cabinet secretary TV Somanathan, besides changing the secretaries of Home, Defence, External Affairs and also rejigging those in finance. On 16th August, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet appointed 18 new secretaries, as the term of the existing incumbents were over. Many of them, like the home secretary, were on extensions pending the general elections. Some like health, personnel and training were vacant. 

As the new officers took charge of their ministries and departments this week, their first order of priority shall be the completion of the 100 days agenda. But those agendas would have been set up by their predecessors. Since many of those items bind the ministries to subsequent longer term commitments, it might be difficult for the secretaries to rustle up enthusiasm to commit themselves to those. 

Chawla said, often without political backing the 100 day plan has in the past become like New Year resolutions “which are put on the back burner or forgotten once the immediate priorities take over”.