How to Improve Efficiency of Governments in India?

Bikash Choudhury



Problems:

1. In our opinion our administration is designed at the time of "British Administration" for their own requirement to perpetuate their dominion in India and even after over 60 years of independence, we have not changed much to align the administration to suit the requirement of free India.Therefore, time and again we come across serious setbacks that soil the image of our country.[ General feeling is that, govt. employees consider ordinary citizens with contempt that Britishers used to do]

2.Our I.A.S probationers join service with lot of enthusiasm and Idealism;but, over period of time under the wheel of system they loose drive, initiative and innovation in administration.

3.The main problem in Central & State Administration is the large no of Jr. level employees(bottom of pyramid) loose a sense of identity, recognition after joining govt. service, i.e., a very large organization. They are not consulted in important matters of State in spite of having knowledge and skill after working on the subject for long time. (They are condemned to repetitive work for life in current system-----huge loss of human resources.

4.Central & State Govt. being very large organization and does not have a proactive HRD organization & system to use the human resources at optimum efficiency as private sector does(Though the two sectors Job Content can't be compared one to one)

5. In my opinion, Govt. sector work at 55-65% of their efficiency which can be considerably improved with appropriate intervention in HR practices.

Solution:

1. Central & State Govt. immediately need a very competent HRD organisation to convert its Human resources into highly productive assets for the country. Hypothesis: Every 5% improvement in Govt. efficiency would add 0.5% growth in GDP.

2. Jr. employees can be allowed to/or have the freedom to suggest any Ideas that would have bearing on administration, policy and execution. (Repetitive work does not facilitate innovation and kill enthusiasm)

3. Senior and Mid level I.A.S /I.P.S/ & other central services officers must be offered refresher training with contents that would inspire a sense of history of country, Philosophy of life and spiritual base of our country to make them Leaders of Men with interest to leave behind a vibrant legacy with their work in Govt.

4. Inter Ministerial co-ordination has always been a very difficult task involving inflated Ego between departments. One solution of this could be: Each Ministry/Department/ and Govt. office the No 2 position could be vested with responsibility for proactive co-ordination between Ministry/Department/and Govt. offices that should put inter ministerial work in auto pilot mode as their performance could be monitored/measured and appropriate rewards given in time.

5.With growing complexity of administration, at senior level Govt. can start a 'Officers exchange program' with private sector to develop necessary business skill in administration.