Does govt need most of its staff? Covid offered a rare chance to find out

The country has just about 418,00 central govt employees beyond rail, defence and home. Yet, core functions have been working smoothly, even as this feeble size isn't often put to use

It is a Monday morning in December 2020, past 10 a.m. Government employees across the country have already trooped in to their offices and are settling down to work. Or are they? The detailed dashboard set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) since 2015 to track the attendance on real time of employees, shows a flat graph. 

Quite against the general perception, the number of central government employees beyond rail, defence and home (both civilian) is just over 418,000 across the country. Yet even this feeble size is not often brought into use as the pandemic