After 2024 report card, ministers get ready for work on New Year's Day

This time, the New Year’s Eve in the government corridors was quieter than usual. Public events, which are typically organised to showcase achievements of the government on the last day of the year, were absent because of the seven-day national mourning for former prime minister Manmohan Singh. Instead, the action had shifted online with a rush of social media messages from the government, including from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  Ranging from manufacturing strides in India to wins in the Olympics arena, the multiple report cards of the government looked back at 2024 as a year of achievements. However, for some time on Tuesday, several government websites were down due to a power outage at a data centre of the National Informatics Centre Services, disrupting the work.      

Although the talk about the New Year agenda within the government was subdued on December 31, the day started with promise of work in 2025. There was an announcement of a Union Cabinet meeting on January 1, making it clear that ministers would have to be at work the morning of the new year. It’s the same for bureaucrats, who need to be around for any Cabinet related input. A senior official, who was out of town, said he was returning to New Delhi by the night of December 31. There was no other option, party or no party. In fact, the Narendra Modi government has regularly held Cabinet meetings on the first working day of the year.          

Many top ministers were at work on the New Year’s Eve. For instance, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman remained occupied with office meetings related to the Union Budget on the last day of 2024, a source said. She was also busy preparing for the Cabinet meeting on January 1, it is learnt. 

For Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, it was a day at office too, connecting with field officers especially those deployed at railway yards, involved in track management among others. Vaishnaw, along with senior management, discussed their feedback on existing systems and showcased the latest technology. Vaishnaw directed these field officers to make a list of what changes are necessary in the rail yards which the ministry "will make a mission to resolve in a year." 

Agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in a series of tweets, highlighted five things that the government has done for farmers in 2024: Launch of 109 climate-resistant seed varieties, approval to National Mission on Natural Farming, Digital Agriculture Mission, hike in minimum support price of 14 crops and approval for the National Mission on Edible Oils. In one of his tweets, he said: "Serving the farmers is like serving God for the Modi government."  With the efforts made by the government, the agriculture growth rate  is expected to rise to 4 per cent in 2025, from an estimated 3.5 per cent in 2024, said Chouhan, who was learnt to be in Tirupati on the New Year’s Eve. Chouhan chaired a review meeting on rural development work being done in Tamil Nadu during his New Year’s Eve outing. 

Among others, Pralhad Joshi, union minister for new and  renewable energy, spent the last day of 2024 visiting a unique solar agrovoltaic project in Nazafgarh. Such a project uses the same land simultaneously for solar power generation and farming. The site has a 2.5 megawatt of solar power project with a cultivation area used for farming of a variety of vegetables and fruits. 

The site is managed by India Agrivoltaics Alliance, an initiative of the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI).  

Shipping minister Sarbanda Sonowal is expected to fly to his native village Mulkgaon in Dibrugarh district on the first day of the coming year, which is his annual ritual. Possibly, after attending the Cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning. Last year also, Sonowal had visited old age homes in the village. This year he plans to meet the locals, discuss their issues and have local food with them, said officials.  

As another year ends and domestic crude oil production continues to slide, petroleum and natural gas ministry officials are brainstorming ways to incentivise oil exploration. The ministry is also set to begin discussions on a modified version of the policy on enhanced recovery (ER) and improved recovery (IR) for oil and gas, in the new year, they said. 

Getting the Oilfield (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill passed in Parliament remains a major focus of the ministry in 2025, officials said. A landmark reform in the sector, the bill aims to delink petroleum operations from mining, clarify the granting and extension of petroleum leases and create a new dispute resolution mechanism for the exploration and production sector. 

While it was passed in the Rajya Sabha in December, it has faced opposition from the Congress in the

lower house. 

In the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the  agenda for 2025 looked like an ongoing action plan.         For instance, rolling out nationwide 4G services remains a focus area. Missing multiple self-imposed deadlines over the past 3-years, the state owned telco is on target to meet the deadline of mid-2025, officials stressed on the last day of the year.  Preventing cross border frauds is also on the DoT agenda by ramping up intra-ministerial initiatives like the Digital Intelligence Unit. Topping it all will be the administrative allocation of satellite spectrum once the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India releases its recommendations. 

At the ministry of health and family welfare, December 31 was relaxed with no heavy duty meetings. Union Health Minister and BJP national president JP Nadda travelled to Haryana to attend a condolence meeting for former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala. Sources said that the ministry officials went about their work of tracking the ongoing projects including the 100-day TB elimination campaign. 

  (By: Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Shreya Jai, Dhruvaksh Saha, Harsh Kumar, Subhayan Chakraborty and Sanket Koul)