2.

Public Interest Litigation: 17

TABLE OF CONTENT
3. Centralized Public Grievance Redress and
GOVERNANCE 3 Monitoring System (CPGRAMS): 17
Elements of Governance: 3 4. Central Vigilance Commission (CVC): 17
Stakeholders of Governance: 4 5. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG): 18
Dimensions of Governance in India 4 6. Public Accounts Committee: 18
a. Political Dimension of Governance and its key 7. Social Audit in Local Governments 18
components: 5
Right to Information Act 19
b. Legal & Judicial Dimension of Governance and
its key components: 5 Historical Background 19

c. Administrative Dimension of Governance and Objectives of the Act 19

its key components: 6 Reasons for Adoption of Information Act 19
d. Economic Dimension of Governance and its Features of the Act 19
key components: 6
What is Public Authority? 19
e. Social and Environmental Dimension of
Importance 20
Governance and its key components: 7
Challenges 20
Governance Issues in India 8
RTI vs. Legislations for Non Disclosure of
Good Governance 9
Information 21
Main Pillars of Good Governance 11
RTI vs Right to Privacy 21
Barriers to Good Governance 11
RTI vs OSA 21
Good Governance Initiatives in India 11
RTI and Political Parties 21
Good Governance Index: 12
Recent Amendments 22
The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG)
Other Issues 22
12
Conclusion 23
Minimum Government, Maximum Governance
Philosophy 12 E-Governance 24

Recommendations: 12 Objectives of E Governance 24

Transparency and Accountability 14 Features of E Governance: 25

Types/Forms of Transparency 14 Potential of e-governance in India: 26

Dimensions of Transparency 15 Evolution of E-Governance in India 26

What Is Accountability? 15 Challenges to E-Governance 27

Differences between Transparency & Digital India Initiatives 28

Accountability 15 Vision Areas 28
Transparency and Accountability - Importance 16 Various Initiatives under Digital India Initiatives 28
Initiatives To Enhance Transparency in India 16 e-Kranti: National e-Governance Plan 2.0 29
1. Right to Information (RTI) Act: 16 Thrust Areas of e-Kranti 29
2. Right to Public Services legislation: 16 Recommendations of 2nd ARC on e-Governance:
3. Citizen's Charter: 16 30

4. E-Governance: 17 Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) 30

5. E-Procurement: 17 Governance Of Media In India 32

Initiatives To Enhance Accountability In India 17 Mainstream Media: Role And Importance 32

1. Lokpal and Lokayukta 17 ISSUES PLAGUING MAINSTREAM MEDIA: 32

Educrat IAS Academy, 2nd floor, North Block, Park Plaza Building, 71, Park Street, Kolkata- 700016
 SOCIAL MEDIA 33 b. Civil Services After Independence: 46
Citizens Charter 35 Constitutional Provisions Related to Civil Services
What are Citizen Charters (CC)? 35 46

What are the Principles of Service Delivery? 35 The Role performed by Civil Services in
Democracy: 46
What About CC in India? 35
Civil Servant’s Accountability for Good
What are the Shortcomings of CC in India? 36 Governance: 47
What Reforms can be Brought to CC to Make Them Cadre Based Civil Service 48
Effective? 36
New Cadre Policy (2017) 49
What Should be the Way Forward? 37
Broader Issues with Civil Services in India 49
Sevottam Model 37
Issues with All India Services: 50
Benefits of Sevottam model: 38
Sarkaria Commission recommendations 50
Seven Steps for the implementation of the model:
38 Reforms Required in Civil Services 50

Quality management principles: 38 2nd ARC recommendations in this regard: 52

Social Audit 40 Transforming Work Culture 52

Types of Audit: 40 Depoliticization of Civil Services 54

Principles of Social Audit: 40 Lateral Entry into Civil Services 54

Significance of Social Audit: 41 Mid-Career Performance Appraisal 55

Need for Social Audit: 41 Compulsory Retirements 56

Limitations of Social Audit: 42 Specialist Approach vs Generalists Approach: 57

Social Audit – Indian Scenario: 42 Recent Initiatives by Government: 58

Social Audit Law: 44 Previous Year Questions 59

Evolution of Civil Services in India 45

a. Civil Services During British Raj (Pre-
Independence Era): 45

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GOVERNANCE
"Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of Government, must ask themselves two questions: ‘Do I
love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order
to choose the best path.’ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good." - Pope Francis

"Mere good governance is not enough; it has to be pro-people and pro-active. Good governance is putting people at
the center of development process." - Narendra Modi

If the people cannot trust their Government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their
common welfare - all else is lost. - BARACK OBAMA

Introduction

Governance is commonly defined as the exercise of power or authority by political leaders for the well-being of their
country’s citizens or subjects. It is the complex process whereby some sectors of the society wield power, and enact
and promulgate public policies which directly affect human and institutional interactions, and economic and social
development. A great deal about governance is the proper and effective utilization of resources.

Today, Governance includes three sectors: the public sector (state actors and institutions), the private sector
(households and companies), and the civil society (non-Governmental organizations). These three sectors are said
to work hand in hand in the process of governance.

In 1993, the World Bank defined Governance as the method through which power is exercised in the management
of a country’s political, economic and social resources for development.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 1997, defined governance as “the exercise of economic,
political and administrative authority to manage a country’s affairs at all levels. It comprises the mechanisms,
processes and institutions, through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet
their obligations and mediate their differences. ”

Elements of Governance:

Exercise of power and authority

 Process and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised, how Governments are selected, held
accountable, monitored, and replaced;
 A system of values, policies and institutions by which a society manages its economic, political and social affairs
through interactions within and among the state, civil society and private sector.
 The space where the state as well as economic and social actors interact to make decisions.
 The process whereby elements in society wield power and authority, and influence and enact policies and
decisions concerning public life, and economic and social development.

Government’s ability and capacity to effectively fulfil its mandate

 Capacity of Governments to manage resources efficiently and to formulate, implement, and enforce sound policies
and regulations;
 Government / state’s ability to serve the citizens by providing speedy justice, education, health care and
sanitation, social and physical infrastructure, law and order, and so.

For the first time, the Government of India outlined a governance approach to development in the National Human
Development Report 2001. Governance, in this approach, is viewed as involving a continuous interplay of three
elements, each representing a specific set of deliberate arrangements that include:

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 Institutions – adopted or created arrangements, both formal and informal, to bring about predictability, stability
and efficiency in managing the social, economic or political transactions in any society;
 The Delivery Mechanism – including the executive apparatus adopted or evolved by the institutions for
implementing the agenda and the objectives for which the said institutions have been created; and
 The Supportive and Subordinate Framework of Legislations, Rules, and Procedures ‐ formulated for delivering
and meeting the stated responsibilities of the concerned.

Stakeholders of Governance:
Typically, the stakeholders of governance at national level can be categorised into three broad categories – State,
Market and Civil Society.

The State includes the different organs of the Government (Legislature, Judiciary and Executive) and their
instrumentalities, independent accountability mechanisms. It also consists of different segments of actors (elected
representatives, political executive, bureaucracy/civil servants at different levels etc.)

The Market includes the private sector – organised as well as unorganised – that includes business firms ranging
from large corporate houses to small scale industries/ establishments.

The Civil Society is the most diverse and typically includes all groups not included in (1) or (2). It includes Non-
Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Voluntary Organizations (VOs), media organisations/ associations, trade
unions, religious groups, pressure groups.

Dimensions of Governance in India

 Political Dimension
 Legal & Judicial Dimension of Governance
 Administrative Dimension of Governance
 Economic Dimension of Governance
 Social and Environmental Dimension of Governance

Department of Administrative reforms and Public grievances (DARPG) in its report “State of Governance – A
framework of assessment” has broken down governance into five dimensions viz. political, legal & judicial,
administrative, economic and social & environmental dimensions.

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a. Political Dimension of Governance and its key components:
 Political dimension being the most essential aspect of governance looks at the quality of political contestation,
conduct of individuals and institutions representing the people, use and abuse of political authority,
decentralisation of powers and citizen’s faith in the political.

 It has four key components:

This is the doorway to democratic governance which establishes legitimacy and

accountability of the Government by enabling participation by the citizens. It
1. Exercise of franchise provides opportunity to the people to voice their concerns and issues and hold the
rulers accountable. To be meaningful, this process should be widely participative,
transparent, fair and healthily competitive.
While the process of electoral democracy provides an enabling environment to the
Profile and conduct of practice of democratic governance, it is the quality of the people’s representatives,
Political which determines effectiveness of accountability and participation in practice.
2. Representatives, Another key aspect of political governance pertains to the quality of functioning of
Political Parties and the political executive that has the duty of steering the Government. The functioning
the Political Executive of the Council of Ministers affects the nature of governance, both directly and
indirectly.
The role of the Legislature is critical to the way governance takes shape in any
Functioning of
3. particular State. The time spent on discussing appropriation grants and legislation is
Legislature
a clear indicator, for instance, of effectiveness of legislature.
Last but not the least is the quality of decentralised governance that has taken shape
Political in the State. This not only reflects the willingness of the State to comply with
4.
Decentralisation constitutional imperatives, but also is an important indicator of empowerment at
the grassroots level.

b. Legal & Judicial Dimension of Governance and its key components:

 This dimension seeks to measure whether the state’s exercise of power is within its boundaries. Also its ability
to effectively maintain law and order, safeguard human rights and enable access to & delivery of justice.
 It has four basic components:

This pertains to the basic function of the state – its raison d’etre – to ensure
Law & Order and Internal
1. that law and order prevails and citizens live in an environment wherein their
Security
lives and property are generally safe and secure.
This aspect relates to the ability of the state to protect the basic rights of the
2. Safeguarding of basic rights
citizen, particularly those of poor, women and weaker sections.
The police force is an important instrumentality of the state. Its role is to
Police Administration and
protect the innocent and punish the guilty. This is indeed the cutting edge of the
3. Citizen‐ friendliness of the
governance as an inept or / and corrupt police force would fail governance as
Police
nothing else does.
Lastly, under this dimension, a significant indicator of the quality of governance
Access to Justice and relates to the access to and delivery of justice which is reflected in its capacity
4.
Judicial Accountability

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 to provide timely justice, judicial efficiency, judicial accountability and citizen
perception.

c. Administrative Dimension of Governance and its key components:

 This dimension determines the ability of Government to deliver basic services to citizens by efficiently managing
the human and financial resources. It also includes performance of the State on vigilance and anti‐corruption
matters as well as responsiveness and transparency in
 It has following four components:

This component indicates the citizen‐centricity of Government agencies in

Citizen Interface and their day‐to‐day functioning viz. accessibility, responsiveness, quality of
1.
Engagement: grievance redressal /complaint handling, compliance with RTI Act
provisions, etc.
This aspect looks at how human resources in Government are managed with
particular focus on the profile of the staffing, recruitment process,
transparency in transfers and postings, training and skill building,
motivation levels among employees, performance appraisal, etc. A key
Managing Human, Financial
2. aspect of governance is effective financial management. This aspect
and other resources:
examines the quality of financial management in terms of expenditure
patterns, liabilities, outstanding loans and compliance to basic financial
accountability systems like audit etc. It also assesses use of IT in
governance.
The cutting edge of administrative governance is the timely delivery and
the quality of basic services such as primary healthcare services, primary
3. Basic Service Delivery: schooling, drinking water, sanitation facilities, public distribution system,
electricity, roads and transportation. For the majority of population, this
reflects governance – good or otherwise.
Lastly, this dimension also examines corruption (in terms of citizen
Corruption Perception, perception) and vigilance mechanisms and the willingness of the State to
4.
Vigilance & Enforcement: punish the defaulters, particularly those at the higher echelons of
administration.

d. Economic Dimension of Governance and its key components:

 The economic dimension pertains to the ability of the state to ensure macro-economic stability and create
conducive climate for economic activity to take place across different sectors of the economy. Economic
Governance is also reflected in the state’s ability to provide support to the primary sector.
 It has three basic components:

This aspect of economic governance relates to how the State has managed its
finances over the short to medium term. This is examined both in terms of
1. Fiscal Governance:
revenue mobilization indicators as well as indicators pertaining to expenditure
management.

Educrat IAS Academy, 2nd floor, North Block, Park Plaza Building, 71, Park Street, Kolkata- 700016 6
 This component pertains to those aspects of economic governance which affect
the way businesses operate within the State and includes general investment
2. Business Environment:
climate, legal aspects, procedural issues, infrastructure and manpower,
regulatory systems, etc.
As the primary sector is the backbone of the economy with very high dependence
on it among poorer sections of the population, the quality of governance is also
Support to the Primary
3. reflected in the State of the primary sector and how the State provides various
Sector:
services to support this sector through extension, input supply and marketing
linkages.

e. Social and Environmental Dimension of Governance and its key components:

 The social dimension pertains to the ability of the state to take care of the vulnerable sections of the society. It
also seeks to assess governance by examining the role and quality of the civil society.
 Environmental management as a separate component is also included due to its increasing importance in
governance.
 This dimension has three key components:

The changing emphasis of governance (both in expression and action) towards

Welfare of the Poor and the welfare of the poor and the marginalised is well recognised. The test of
1.
Vulnerable governance in that sense lies in the state of the poor and the vulnerable
segments such as the poor, women, children, minorities, etc.
It is not only important for the civil society to play a watchdog role in
governance, but also important for it to be a responsible actor. Hence this
facet of governance pertains to two basic aspects (a) the space and the role
that civil society gets to occupy in the governance process and (b) the quality
Role of Civil Society and and capacity of the civil society organizations to take up the role that they
2.
Media are expected of them. The mass media, both print and audio‐visual, wields a
lot of influence in shaping public opinion. More than civil society organizations,
it is important for the media to be a responsible actor in the governance
process while enacting its traditional role as an instrument of social change
and empowerment.
Lastly, this component seeks to examine governance from the perspective of
the state as the custodian of natural resources and its ability to regulate and
3. Environmental Management
manage natural resources for sustainable development.

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Governance Issues in India
India faces a range of various governance related issues in political, economic, administrative, social and legal
domain. Some factors attributable to poor governance are:

i. Political Issues:

 Criminalisation of Politics: In current Lok Sabha, 43% MPs are facing criminal cases while among them 29% are
facing heinous crimes.
 Misuse of political power: This has observed in various scams like Bofors scam, Commonwealth Games scam,
Coal scam, Spectrum scam.
 Decentralisation more in letter less in spirit: Though 73rd and 74th Amendment Act enacted only few states like
Kerala, West Bengal have taken steps to empower local bodies. In other states local bodies have no sufficient
powers.

ii. Legal and Judicial issues:

 Delayed justice, issue of under trials: Overall 3 crore cases are pending in Indian judiciary where 50000 are
pending in Supreme Court itself. In 1978, 54 per cent of India’s inmate population consisted of undertrials. 77%
prisoners are undertrials today (NCRB: Prison Statistics In India report)
 Lack of accountability in Judiciary: Judiciary as a whole is still out of RTI though there is little development in this
direction where Office of Chief Justice of India was brought under RTI in Subhash Agarwal case.
 Threat to life and personal security: Since enactment of RTI, 25 RTI activists have been killed in India. There is
little development in the field of witness protection.

iii. Administrative issues:

 Lack of sensitivity, transparency and accountability in the working of State machinery where bureaucracy still
strives to maintain secrecy, negligence towards vulnerable sections of the society.
 Bureaucratic Delays are still a common phenomenon where there is a direct interface between common people
and administration.
 Resistance to changes which promote transparency and accountability such low technology adoption, no
voluntary disclosure of information.
 Corruption: recently Transparency International released its report called Corruption Barometer in which it
stated that India is most corrupt country in South Asian (Rank 85).

iv. Economic issues:

 Poor management of economy like recession due to structural problems, stagnation in agriculture, less utilisation
of manufacturing potential.
 Persisting fiscal imbalances where fiscal slippage has become common phenomenon. Government has always
failed to meet the targets established under FRBM Act. Ad hoc and reactive export-import policies have resulted
into higher Current Account Deficit and persistent outflow of foreign money.
 Regional disparities have crept into every sector. Example- Green revolution benefited northern states but
eastern states are still dependent on subsistence agriculture. Western and South India is hub for manufacturing
and service sectors. Where eastern and north eastern states are still underdeveloped.

v. Social and Environmental issues:

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 Denial of basic services to a substantial proportion of the population.
 Marginalisation and exclusion of people on account of social, religious, caste and gender. Tribal people are always
on risk of exclusion due to their remote habitats.
 Existence of a significant number of voiceless poor with little opportunity for participation in governance; and
 Deterioration of physical environment, particularly in urban areas. Example- urban heat island, dumping of solid
waste, encroachment on rivers and wetlands.

Good Governance
Governance’ by itself is a neutral term while “Good
Governance” implies positive attributes and
values associated with the quality of governance.
Good governance is a dynamic concept and there
is much subjectivity involved in defining the
aspects of good governance.

The concept of good governance existed even

during the days of Chanakya. He had mentioned it
elaborately in Arthashastra. Citizens centric
administration lies on the foundation of good
governance. Good governance is made up of the following 8 attributes.

 Accountable
 Transparent
 Responsive
 Participatory
 Consensus Oriented
 Follows Rule of Law
 Effective and efficient
 Equitable and Inclusive.

In the 1992 report entitled “Governance and Development”, the World Bank set out its definition of Good Governance.
It defined Good Governance as “the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic
and social resources for development”.

o It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices
of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making.
o It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society.

Good governance is understood through its eight indicators or characteristics:

Participatory:

o Good governance essentially requires participation of different sectors of the society . The management
of highly complex societies and of their ever growing needs requires a participatory form of governance
by diffusing power.
o The move for decentralization is a response to this as it widens the base of participation and allows
local Government units to exercise Governmental powers directly within their respective districts.
o This means freedom of association and expression and an organized civil society should go hand in hand.

Rule of Law:

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o Democracy is essentially the rule of law. It is through the law that people express their will and exercise
their sovereignty.
 Effective and Efficient:
o Good governance requires that the institutions, processes, and actors could deliver and meet the
necessities of the society in a way that available resources are utilized well. That the different actors
meet the needs of the society means that there is effective

Transparent:

o Transparency, as an indicator of good governance, means that people are open to information regarding
decision-making process and the implementation of the same.

Responsive :

o Responsiveness means that institutions and processes serve all stakeholders in a timely and appropriate
manner.

Equitable and Inclusive:

o Equity and inclusiveness means that all the members of the society, especially the most vulnerable ones
or the grassroots level, must be taken into consideration in policy-making.

Consensus Oriented:

o Governance is consensus oriented when decisions are made after taking into consideration the different
viewpoints of the actors of the society. Mechanisms for conflict resolution must be in place because
inevitably conflict that will arise from competing interests of the actors.

Accountability:

o Accountability means answerability or responsibility for one’s action. It is based on the principle that
every person or group is responsible for their actions most especially when t heir acts affect public
interest.

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Main Pillars of Good Governance
Good governance aims at providing public services effectively, efficiently, and equitably to the citizens. Good
governance aims at providing an environment in which all citizens irrespective of caste, class, and gender can develop
to their full potential.
 Ethos (of service to the citizens)
 Ethics (Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency)
 Equity (Treating all citizens alike with empathy for weaker sections)
 Efficiency (Speedy and effective delivery of service without harassment and using ICT increasingly).

Barriers to Good Governance

There are many barriers to good governance as per the 12th Report of 2nd ARC. They are mentioned below.
 Attitudinal Problems of Civil Servants – As per the 2nd ARC report Civil Servants have become inflexible,
self-perpetuating, and inward-looking.
 Lack of Accountability – Very rarely disciplinary actions are initiated against delinquent officers. There
is no performance evaluation structure.
 Red Tapism – Bureaucracies have to adhere to rules and procedures which are important for good
governance, however sometimes these rules and procedures are ill-conceived and cumbersome and
they do not serve the very purpose of their existence.
 Low Levels of Awareness of the Rights and Duties of Citizens – Awareness of rights and duties would
ensure that officials and other citizens discharge duties effectively and honestly.
 Ineffective Implementation of Laws and Rules – We have a large number of laws to protect the rights of
the citizens and vulnerable sections of society, but the weak implementation of these laws erodes the
faith of the citizens in the Government machinery.

“Good” governance promotes gender equality, sustains the environment, enables citizens to exercise personal
freedoms, and provides tools to reduce poverty, deprivation, fear, and violence. The UN views good governance as
participatory, transparent and accountable. It encompasses state institutions and their operations and includes
private sector and civil society organizations.

Good governance is significant in public institutions to conduct and manage public affairs and resources to guarantee
human rights free of abuse and corruption, and with due regard for the rule of law.

Good governance is thus, a function of installation of positive virtues of administration and elimination of vices of
dysfunctionalities. It makes the Government work effective, credible and legitimate in administrative system and
citizen-friendly, value caring and people-sharing.

Good Governance Initiatives in India

 India has to make big leaps to improve its governance records. Multiple steps have been taken in this regard. For
example, the two biggest initiatives which have been taken in India for empowering common man and effective
functioning of governance include Right to Information Act and E-governance

Good governance initiatives can be summarised as following:

o Decentralisation and People’s Participation – 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendment Act
o Developing programs for weaker sections and backward areas
o Financial management (FRBM) and budget sanctity
o Simplification of procedures and processes – Single window system and online approvals
o Citizen’s Charters
o Sevottam model
o Redress of Citizen’s Grievances – Lokpal and Lokayukta

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o E-Governance and use of ICT tools
o Public service morale & anti‐corruption measures
o Transparency and Accountability measures:
o Right to Information
o Social Audits

Good Governance Index:

 The purpose behind developing a comprehensive index is to create a tool which can be used uniformly across
states and eventually district level to assess status of governance and impact of various interventions taken up
by central and state Governments.
 The index is developed by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. The index takes into
consideration following sectors:

The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG)

 The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) is an autonomous institute under the aegis of Department of
Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India. Its head office is at New Delhi and branch
office at Mussoorie.
 The NCGG has been set up to assist in bringing about governance reforms through studies, training, knowledge
sharing and promotion of good governance.
 It seeks to carry out policy relevant research and prepare case studies; curate training courses for civil servants
from India and other developing countries; provide a platform for sharing of existing knowledge and pro-actively
seek out and develop ideas for their implementation in the Government, both at the National & International
level.
 The National Centre for Good Governance traces its origin to the National Institute of Administrative Research
(NIAR). NIAR was set up in 1995 by the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), the
Government of India’s apex training Institution for higher civil services.
 During its 19 years of existence it provided research and training support to the Academy in areas of public
administration. NIAR was subsequently rechristened with an expanded mandate, as National Centre for Good
Governance, which was inaugurated on February 24th, 2014.

Minimum Government, Maximum Governance Philosophy

 It focuses on citizen friendly and accountable
 Simplification of procedures, identification and repeal of obsolete/archaic laws/rules, leveraging technology to
bring in transparency in public interface and a robust public grievance redress system.
 On these lines, Digital India has helped Ministry of Panchayati Raj move to 100% e-office.
 Ease of Doing Business also focuses on ease of governance. The emphasis has been on simplification and
rationalisation of the existing rules and introduction of information technology to make governance more efficient.
 mygov@nic.in is citizen centric platforms to empower people to connect with the Government and contribute
towards good governance.
 PMO website also seeks expert advice from the people, thoughts and ideas on various topics that concern
everyone.

Recommendations:
 Infusion of ethics into politics so that the political elite can demonstrate integrity and in still faith among
subordinates about their fairness and impartiality:
o The 2nd ARC has advocated for the cordial and hassle-free relations between Citizens and Personnel so as to
create favourable opinion towards Public Services.
o 2nd ARC has suggested that Character Building is the most essential part of the Training of civil servants both at
induction level and in-service level.

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o Healthy relation between the politicians and bureaucrats is also very crucial.
 Simplifying the Government
 Ensuring High Standards of Conduct among the top Personnel
 Bringing in Stability of tenure and guarantee against arbitrary punishment.
 The institutional arrangements like “whistle blowing”, should also be put in place to curb corrupt practices.
 To enhance accountability, effective Implementation of Citizens Charters’ for monitoring service delivery and
also effective enforcement of Right to Information Act.
 Civil Services Board:
o The question of appointments, transfers and placements is not to be left to the discretion of the politicians or
administrative bosses but be entrusted to independent and autonomous boards constituted (under the
Constitution) on the lines of
 Technical and Managerial Competence –
o Technical and managerial competence of civil servants
o This may be less of a constraint than it used to be, as access to education has improved, but rapid changes require
ongoing development of skills.

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Transparency and Accountability
“Information is the currency of democracy” – Thomas Jefferson

"While transparency reduces corruption, good governance goes beyond transparency in achieving openness.
Openness means involving the stakeholders in decision-making process. Transparency is the right to information while
openness is the right to participation." ~ Narendra Modi

What is Transparency?

The term ‘transparency’ refers to the ‘increased flow of timely and reliable information, which is accessible to all the
relevant stakeholders’. In other words, transparency is the dissemination of regular and accurate information. It is
about making decisions and actions visible and about sharing and disclosing the necessary information to the
stakeholders involved.

Transparency in Governance

Transparency in governance is the idea that the people have a right to know, what their Government is doing, and
the Government has an obligation to provide that information. It means that the criteria, process and systems of
decision-making are openly known to all in a public manner.

For example, the selection of beneficiaries for any Government scheme such as ‘Skill India Mission’ would be based
on explicitly known and publicly communicated criteria; it will also be known as to who will apply these criteria, when
and how? And, what benefits would accrue to those families and individuals who fit these criteria? When will these
benefits accrue, at what costs or mutual obligations?

Thus, transparency is about shedding light on rules, plans, processes and actions. It is about knowing why, how,
what, and how much. It ensures that public officials, civil servants, managers, board members and businessmen act
visibly and understandably, and report on their activities and it means that the general public can hold them to
account. A transparent Government is one that provides accurate information about itself, its operations, and the
country as a whole, or permits that information to be collected and made available. It upholds the idea of non-secrecy
and openness of information in administration.

Concept and Fundamentals of Transparency

 Transparency is sometimes more narrowly defined as ‘the release of information which is relevant for
evaluating institutions’, however, transparency includes not only making information available and
accessible to stakeholders, but also that laws and regulations are administered and implemented in an
impartial and predictable manner.
 Transparency implies a proactive effort to make information accessible to citizens. It is about publishing
information and inviting people in, to use the information in creative ways.
 An organization’s transparency can be measured by the ‘depth of access it allows’, the depth of knowledge
about processes it is willing to reveal, and the attention to citizen response it provides.
 Transparency is one indicator of a Government that is citizen-focused and service-oriented. The more
transparent an organization is, the more it is willing to allow citizens to monitor its performance and to
participate in its policy processes, the more is the transparency in governance.

Types/Forms of Transparency
There are two forms of transparency, i.e., agent controlled and non-agent controlled transparency.

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  The release of Government information by Governments can be seen as a typical instance of an agent
controlled transparency, while
 the use of that information by external factors, such as media, NGOs or citizens is non-agent controlled.
 The objective of governance shall be the emphasis not only on the provision of information, but also the ability
of external actors to demand and gain access to the information not provided routinely by political and
administrative institutions, i.e. both agent-controlled and non-agent controlled transparency, but importantly,
non-agent controlled transparency.

Dimensions of Transparency
 Government Openness/Access to Information: Government openness is defined as the quantum of information
that the Government releases, i.e., the extent to which Governments publish information electronically or makes
it available otherwise, as well as the extent to which the citizens can demand and receive information not
published proactively.
 Publicity of Information: There are principally two different types of information displays- Clear and Opaque.
While, ‘opaque’ refers to the type of information which does not reveal how institutions actually behave in
practice, in terms of how they make their decisions or the results of their actions, clear displays on the other hand
refer to the access information on institutional performance, official responsibilities and flow of public money.
Clear transparency, thereby sheds light on institutional behaviour, which permits individuals to exercise greater
control over the delivery of services; they need to be explicit in terms of ‘who does what and who gets what’.
 Protection to Whistle-blowers: Whistle-blowing is one of the fundamental conditions upon which disclosure of
abuses of power rests. It is often defined as ‘the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of
illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that
may be able to effect action’. Whistle-blower protection allows individuals to disclose information despite their
individual connection to, and vulnerability to retaliation from those in power. It is the Government measures
aimed at protecting whistle-blowers from sanctions, incentives for people to do so and more proactive laws aimed
at changing organizational culture, as well as providing a conducive environment for competition and press
freedom that determines the nature and scope of transparency in a country.

What Is Accountability?

 Accountability, unlike transparency, which emphasises openness, can be seen as a sort of acknowledgment.
 It can be simply stated as having to explain one's actions or judgments.
 An individual or organisation must account for its actions, accept responsibility and publish the outcomes in a
transparent way.
 It explains and justifies what has been done, what is being done now, and what is planned.
 Accountability is generally achieved by adherence to organisational rules and regulations, compliance with laws,
adherence to professional codes of conduct, and responsiveness to all major stakeholders.
 In today's globalisation context, there are several stakeholders, including the market, civil society, people, and
the media, and the engagement of everyone in the governance process complicates accountability.

Differences between Transparency & Accountability

Criteria Transparency Accountability

Definition Conducting activities or performing Being responsible for one’s actions and having the ability to
actions openly and clearly. provide sound reasoning for actions.
Focus Openness and clarity Acknowledgment and being responsible for one’s actions.

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Transparency and Accountability - Importance

 It is important that the Government functions transparently and is held accountable for its choices and actions.
 Expansion of Government’s role and activities: For socio-economic transformation and rapid development. The
new policies addressed human concerns such as the development of women, children, the physically
handicapped, marginalised groups, and so on.
o All of this resulted in the growth of Government agencies with overlapping functional boundaries.
o In such a case, the need for accountability and openness was felt in order to keep track of how various departments
were operating.
 To check the powers and duties: The permanent executive became both the creator and the administrator of
laws. Hence, the executive's powers were expanded.
o As a result, accountability and transparency were vital to check the executive's powers and duties.
 Participatory governance: It can help to increase confidence and the effect of programmes.
 Transparency and accountability in governance may lead to significant changes in work culture, resulting in more
concern for society.
 Information: Accountability and transparency provide a new method of giving real-time information through an
online dashboard. This not only answers people's issues, but it also improves service quality.
 The link between the Government and the people may be improved, and citizens can feel more connected.
 A two-way information channel will be established to better understand what consumers desire. "Listen, inquire,
act, interact, and inform" are concepts.

Initiatives To Enhance Transparency in India

Right to Information Act, Right to Public Service Legislation, Citizens Charters, e-Governance, and e-procurement
are some of India's major initiatives to improve transparency.

1. Right to Information (RTI) Act:

 It is an act of the Indian Parliament that establishes the laws and procedures for citizens' access to information. It
took the place of the previous Freedom of Information Act of 2002.
 Under the RTI Act, any Indian citizen may seek information from a "public authority" (a Government entity or
"state instrumentality"), which is supposed to respond promptly or within thirty days.
 The information must be delivered within 48 hours if the matter involves a petitioner's life or liberty. The RTI
Bill was passed by the Parliament of India on 15 June 2005 and came into force with effect from 12 October 2005.

2. Right to Public Services legislation:

 It consists of statutory laws that ensure timely delivery of services for a variety of Government services provided
to citizens, as well as a system for disciplining errant public servants who fail to provide the service required by
the statute.

3. Citizen's Charter:

 A Citizens' Charter represents the commitment of the Organisation towards standard, quality, and time frame
of service delivery, grievance redress mechanism, transparency, and accountability.
 In its attempts to create a more responsive and citizen-friendly administration, the Ministry of Personnel, Public
Grievances and Pensions Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances coordinates the efforts to
formulate and operationalize Citizens' Charters.

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4. E-Governance:

 It is defined as the use of information and communication technology (ICT) at all levels of Government to provide
citizens with services, interact with businesses, and communicate and exchange information between different
Government departments in a timely, efficient, and transparent manner.

5. E-Procurement:

 Central Public Procurement Portal is a robust and secured platform offering full transparency in public
procurement for the Government of India, most States, and Local Governments across India.

Initiatives To Enhance Accountability In India

1. Lokpal and Lokayukta

 In the Republic of India, a Lokpal is an anti-corruption authority or ombudsman agency that represents the public
interest.
 Lokayukta, is appointed by and for each of India's State Governments.
 Lokpal has jurisdiction over the central Government to investigate charges of corruption against its public officials
and other corruption-related matters.
 Lokayukta comes into action in a state after the state legislature passes the Lokayukta Act and a person with a
good reputation is nominated for the position.
 Following Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal agitation in 2011, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act was enacted with revisions
in parliament in 2013. Pinaki Chandra Ghose is the current Lokpal Chairperson.

2. Public Interest Litigation:

 Justice P. N. Bhagwati introduced public interest litigation (PIL) as a means of securing public interest and
demonstrating the availability of justice to socially disadvantaged parties.

3. Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS):

 Public Problems Redressal is one of the hallmark efforts for governance reform launched by the Indian central
Government by addressing the grievances of the general public.
 The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances established CPGRAMS in June 2007.
 Any citizen of India can use the public grievance process to bring their problems, grievances, or requests to the
attention of national and state Government Ministries and Departments.

4. Central Vigilance Commission (CVC):

 The Central Vigilance Commission is the apex vigilance institution, independent of any executive authority,
charged with overseeing all vigilance activity under the Central Government and advising various authorities in
Central Government organisations on vigilance planning, execution, review, and reform.
 Vigilance entails taking clean and timely administrative action to improve staff efficiency and effectiveness, as
well as the organisation's overall efficiency and effectiveness, as a lack of Vigilance leads to waste, losses, and
economic deterioration.

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5. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG):

 The CAG is a constitutionally mandated person tasked with keeping an eye on the Government's finances and
operations.
 He/she is critical in making the Government more transparent and responsible to both the legislature and civil
society.
 The CAG audits the finances of the federal and state Governments, as well as entities that are owned or funded
by the Government.
 The CAG evaluates the performance of various Government agencies, enterprises, pieces of legislation, and even
welfare programs like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

6. Public Accounts Committee:

 The Public Accounts Body is a committee of selected members of Parliament established by the Indian Parliament
to audit the Government's revenue and expenditure.
 They ensure that Parliament has control over the executive, based on the fundamental idea that Parliament
represents the people's will.

7. Social Audit in Local Governments

 A social audit, in the context of Government schemes, is an accountability mechanism that measures, assesses,
and identifies gaps in service delivery, as well as pledges to fix those gaps, with the direct participation of intended
beneficiaries.

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Right to Information Act

Historical Background
 The Right to Information gained power when Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948
providing everyone the right to seek, receive, information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.

 The International Covenant on Civil and Political rights 1966 states that everyone shall have the right to freedom
of expression, the freedom to seek and impart information and ideas of all kinds.

 According to Thomas Jefferson “Information is the currency of democracy,” and critical to the emergence and
development of a vibrant civil society. However, with a view to set out a practical regime for the citizens to
secure information as a matter of right, the Indian Parliament enacted the Right to Information Act, 2005.

 Genesis of RTI law started in 1986, through judgement of Supreme Court in Mr. Kulwal v/s Jaipur Municipal
Corporation case, in which it directed that freedom of speech and expression provided under Article 19 of the
Constitution clearly implies Right to Information, as without information the freedom of speech and expression
cannot be fully used by the citizens.

Objectives of the Act

 To empower the citizens
 To promote transparency and accountability
 To contain corruption and
 To enhance people’s participation in democratic process.

Reasons for Adoption of Information Act

 Corruption and scandal
 International pressure and activist
 Modernization and the information society

Features of the Act

 Section 1(2): It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

 Section- 2 (f): "Information" means any material in any form, including Records, Documents, Memos, e-mails,
Opinions, Advices, Press releases, Circulars, Orders, Logbooks, Contracts, Reports, Papers, Samples, Models,
Data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed
by a Public Authority under any other law for the time being in force.

 Section- 2(j) : "Right to Information" means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by
or under the control of any public authority and includes the right to:

o Inspection of work, documents, records;

o Taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records;
o Taking certified samples of material;
o Obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode
or through printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in any other device.

What is Public Authority?

"Public authority" means any authority or body or institution of self-Government established or constituted—
 by or under the Constitution;

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 by any other law made by Parliament/State Legislature.
 by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any—
o body owned, controlled or substantially financed;
o Non-Government organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the
appropriate Government.
 Section 4 of the RTI Act requires suo motu disclosure of information by each public authority. However, such
disclosures have remained less than satisfactory.
 Section 8 (1) mentions exemptions against furnishing information under RTI Act.
 Section 8 (2) provides for disclosure of information exempted under Official Secrets Act, 1923 if larger public
interest is served.
 The Act also provides for appointment of Information Commissioners at Central and State level. Public
authorities have designated some of its officers as Public Information Officer. They are responsible to give
information to a person who seeks information under the RTI Act.
 Time period: In normal course, information to an applicant is to be supplied within 30 days from the receipt of
application by the public authority.
o If information sought concerns the life or liberty of a person, it shall be supplied within 48 hours.

o In case the application is sent through the Assistant Public Information Officer or it is sent to a wrong
public authority, five days shall be added to the period of thirty days or 48 hours, as the case may be.

Importance
 The RTI Act, 2005 did not create a new bureaucracy for implementing the law. Instead, it tasked and mandated
officials in every office to change their attitude and duty from one of secrecy to one of sharing and openness.
o It carefully and deliberately empowered the Information Commission to be the highest authority in the
country with the mandate to order any office in the country to provide information as per the provisions of
the Act. And it empowered the Commission to fine any official who did not follow the mandate.
 Right to information has been seen as the key to strengthening participatory democracy and ushering in people
centred governance.
 Access to information can empower the poor and the weaker sections of society to demand and get information
about public policies and actions, thereby leading to their welfare. It showed an early promise by exposing
wrongdoings at high places, such as in the organisation of the Commonwealth Games, and the allocation of 2G
spectrum and coal blocks.
 Right to information opens up Government’s records to public scrutiny, thereby arming citizens with a vital tool
to inform them about what the Government does and how effectively, thus making the Government more
accountable.
 Improves decision making by public authority by removing unnecessary secrecy.

Challenges
 Different types of information is sought which has no public interest and sometimes can be used to misuse the
law and harass the public authorities. For example-
a. Asking for desperate and voluminous information.
b. To attain publicity by filing RTI
c. RTI filed as vindictive tool to harass or pressurize the public authority
 Because of the illiteracy and unawareness among the majority of population in the country, the RTI cannot be
exercised.
 Though RTI’s aim is not to create a grievance redressal mechanism, the notices from Information Commissions
often spur the public authorities to redress grievances.

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RTI vs. Legislations for Non Disclosure of Information
 Some provisions of Indian Evidence Act (Sections 123, 124, and 162) provide to hold the disclosure of
documents.
 Under these provisions, head of department may refuse to provide information on affairs of state and only
swearing that it is a state secret will entitle not to disclose the information.
 In a similar manner no public officer shall be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official
confidence.
 The Atomic Energy Act, 1912 provides that it shall be an offence to disclose information restricted by the
Central Government.
 The Central Civil Services Act provides a Government servant not to communicate or part with any official
documents except in accordance with a general or special order of Government.
 The Official Secrets Act, 1923 provides that any Government official can mark a document as confidential so
as to prevent its publication.

RTI vs Right to Privacy

 Conceptually, RTI and the right to privacy are both complementary as well as in conflict to each other.
 While RTI increases access to information, the right to privacy protects it instead.
 At the same time they both function, as citizen rights safeguarding liberty, against state’s overreach.
 When the question of harmonising the contradicting rights arises, it should give justice to the larger public interest
advance the public morality.

RTI vs OSA
The OSA was enacted in 1923 by the British to keep certain kinds of information confidential, including, but not always
limited to, information involving the affairs of state, diplomacy, national security, espionage, and other state secrets.
 Whenever there is a conflict between the two laws, the provisions of the RTI Act override those of the OSA.
 Section 22 of the RTI Act states that its provisions will have effect notwithstanding anything that is inconsistent
with them in the OSA.
 Similarly, under Section 8(2) of the RTI Act, a public authority may allow access to information covered under
the OSA, “if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interest”.

RTI and Political Parties

Why activists want political parties to be brought under RTI?

 To contain corruption
 Huge donations from corporates which lead to favouritism or crony capitalism
 Illegal foreign contribution
 The leader of the opposition is statutorily mandated to be part of the select committees to choose Chairperson
for CIC, Lokpal, CBI Director and CVC
 Various members of the opposition are also part of various parliamentary committees
 They enjoy multiple benefits like concessional office spaces, free airtime on DD & AIR from Government

Stand of Political Parties

 PP’s are not public authorities, hence cannot be brought under RTI Act.
 Disclosed information can be misused.
 Can disclose financial information under the IT Act.

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Recent Amendments

 The RTI amendment Bill 2013 removes political parties from the ambit of the definition of public authorities
and hence from the purview of the RTI Act.
 The draft provision 2017 which provides for closure of case in case of death of applicant can lead to more attacks
on the lives of whistle-blowers.
 The proposed RTI Amendment Act 2018 is aimed at giving the Centre the power to fix the tenures and salaries
of state and central information commissioners, which are statutorily protected under the RTI Act. The move
will dilute the autonomy and independence of CIC.
 The Act proposes to replace the fixed 5 year tenure to as much prescribed by Government.

Other Issues
 Information commissioners do not have adequate authorities to enforce the RTI Act.
 In case of award of compensation to activist by public authority as ordered by commission, compliance cannot
be secured.
 Poor record-keeping practices
 Lack of adequate infrastructure and staff for running information commissions
 Dilution of supplementary laws like the whistle-blowers protection Act.
 RTI is crippled by rising backlog: Seventeen years after the Right to Information (RTI) Act, came into force, there
has nearly 3.15 lakh pending complaints or appeals with 26 information commissions across India.
According to a report by Satark Nagrik Sangathan, the backlog of appeals or complaints is steadily increasing in
commissions every year.
 Most Commissions are functioning at reduced capacity: nine out of 29 information commissions (31%) in the
country were functioning without a chief information commissioner.
 Vacant PIOs posts: As per the report by Transparency International, one-fourth (42 of the total 165) information
commissioner posts are vacant.
 Lack of transparency: 20 out of 29 ICs (69%) have not published their annual report for 2020-21.
 Killing of RTI activists: Since the implementation of the RTI Act, On average, there have been about 28 RTI
activists who have been threatened, attacked, or killed annually.

Way forward:
 Mechanism for online filing: ICs in collaboration with appropriate governments should put in place a mechanism
for online filing of RTI applications, along the lines of the web portal set up by the central government.
 Balancing with Privacy Right: This right is enshrined within the spirit of Article 21 of the Constitution. The right
to information must be balanced with the right to privacy within the framework of law.
 Open Data Policy: Government institutions should put all disclosable information on their respective websites.
By this, the petitioners may immediately access whatever information they need.
 The Public Information Commissioners must be given adequate training to be cooperative enough towards the
Information seekers. External agencies must be appointed to train the officers within and beyond the Act.
 Performance Audit: It has been proposed by the Comptroller and Auditor on the implementation of the Right
to Information Act.
 Law commission recommendation: The commission is in 275th report recommended that owing to the
monopolistic character of BCCI coupled with its functions and ‘substantial financing’ from appropriate
governments over the years, it can, within the existing legal framework, be termed to be a ‘public authority’ and
be brought within the purview of the RTI Act.

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Conclusion

 The Right to Information Act was made to achieve social justice, transparency and to make accountable
Government but this act has not achieved its full objectives due to some impediments created due to systematic
failures.
 As observed by Delhi High Court that misuse of the RTI Act has to be appropriately dealt with; otherwise the
public would lose faith and confidence in this "sunshine Act".
 It is well recognized that right to information is necessary, but not sufficient, to improve governance. A lot more
needs to be done to usher in accountability in governance, including protection of whistle-blowers,
decentralization of power and fusion of authority with accountability at all levels.
 This law provides us a priceless opportunity to redesign the processes of governance, particularly at the grass
roots level where the citizens’ interface is maximum.

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E-Governance
“The beauty of e-governance is that a few keystrokes can bring smiles on a million faces.” — Narendra Modi

Definition:

A new paradigm shift has been developed in the field of governance by the application of ICT in the processes of
governing called Electronic-Governance or E-Governance.

E-governance raises the transparency, accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness and inclusiveness in the
governing process in terms of reliable access to the information within Government, between Government, national,
state, municipal, and local level Governments, citizens, and businesses and empowers business through access and
use of information

E-governance is not just about Government websites or e-mail or financial transactions. “It will change how citizens
relate to Government as much as it changes how citizens relate to each other”. It also refers to the utilization of IT
in the country’s democratic processes itself such as the election.

Objectives of E Governance
The objectives of e governance are as follows-
 One of the basic objectives of e-governance is to make every information of the Government available
to all in the public interest.
 One of its goals is to create a cooperative structure between the Government and the people and to
seek help and advice from the people, to make the Government aware of the problems of the people.
 To increase and encourage people’s participation in the governance process.
 E-Governance improves the country’s information and communication technology and electronic
media, with the aim of strengthening the country’s economy by keeping Governments, people and
businesses in tune with the modern world.
 One of its main objectives is to establish transparency and accountability in the governance process.
 To reduce Government spending on information and services.

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Features of E Governance:
It has been proven from the concept of e-governance that it is a powerful means of public service in the present era.
Some of its features can be found by observing the functioning of e-governance.

 De bureaucratization: Due to e-governance, the gap between the people and the Government in all the
services of the Government is narrowing and the dependence of the people on the bureaucracy is also
greatly reduced.
 E-Services: Its main feature is the provision of services through the Internet. As a result, we get G2C,
G2B, G2E, etc. services.
 International Services: Through e-governance, all the essential services can be delivered to the citizens
who are living outside of their country for job purposes or any other reasons.
 It enhances the right to express to the citizens. Using the means of e-governance anyone can share their
views with the Government on any bill or act or decision taken by the Government.
 Economic Development: With the introduction of e-governance, various information like import-export,
registration of companies, investment situations, etc. are available through the internet . As a result,
time is saved, procrastination decreases, and economic dynamism increases.
 Reduce inequality: Using e-governance tools everyone can gather information and empower themselves.
In this globalized world, knowledge is power, and means of e -governance empower us by providing
relevant information at minimal cost, effort, and time.

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Potential of e-governance in India:

 Increased effectiveness and efficiency: Improved Government services in terms of accomplishing the
Government purpose and functioning.
 Better services: E-Government can provide quick and timely services to stakeholders.
 Transparency by dissemination and publication of information on the web: This provides easy access to
information and subsequently makes the system publicly accountable. Also as the web enables the free
flow of information, it can be easily accessed by all without any discrimination.
 Accessible anytime and anywhere: As e-Government services are provided through web-enabled
technology they can be accessed anytime and anywhere.
 User-centred ICT enabled services: The services are primarily intended for the use of citizens, businesses,
and the Government itself.
 Reduced cost and time: As the services are provided through internet they are effective in terms of time
and cost.
 Economic Development: The deployment of ICTs reduces the transaction costs, which makes services
cheaper. For example, rural areas suffer on account of lack of information regarding markets, products,
agriculture, health, education, weather, etc. and if all this could be accessed online would lead to better
and more opportunities and thereby prosperity in these areas.
 Social Development: The access to information empowers the citizens. The informed citizenry can
participate and voice their concerns, which can be accommodated in the programme/ project
formulation, implementation, monitoring and service delivery . Web-enabled participation will counter
the discriminatory factors affecting our societal behaviour.
 Reduced bureaucracy: E-Government minimizes hierarchy of authority for availing any Government
services
 Automation of Administrative Processes: A truly e-governed system would require minimal human
intervention and would rather be system driven.
 Enhanced communication and coordination between Government organizations: An automated
services can be accessed by different organizations coordination and further communication became
relative
 Paper Work Reduction: An immediate impact of automation would be on the paperwork. Paperwork is
reduced to a greater extent with communication being enabled via electronic route and storage and
retrieval of information in the electronic form. All this has led to the emergence of less paper office.
 Quality of Services: ICT helps Governments to deliver services to citizens with greater accountability
responsiveness and sensitivity. Quality of services improves, as now the people are able to, get services
efficiently and instantaneously.
 Elimination of Hierarchy: ICT has reduced procedural delays caused by hierarchical processes in the
organisation. Through Intranet and LAN, it has become possible to send information and data across
various levels in the organisation at the same time.
 Change in Administrative Culture: Bureaucratic structures have been plagued by characteristics aptly
described by Victor Thompson as ‘bureau-pathology’. From the days of New Public Administration,
efforts have been made to find ways to deal with the pathological or dysfunctional aspects of art.
 Strategic Information System: Changing organisational environment and increasing competitiveness
have put pressures on the performance of the functionaries. Information regarding all aspects nee ds to
be made available to the management at every point to make routine as well as strategic decisions.

Evolution of E-Governance in India

 Department of Electronics: The establishment of the Department of Electronics in 1970 was the first
major step towards e-governance in India as it brought ‘information’ and its communication to focus.

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 National Informatics Centre (NIC): established in 1977, launched the District Information System
program to computerize all district offices in the country
 NICNET – National Informatics Centre: The main thrust for e-governance was provided by the launching
of NICNET in 1987 – the national satellite-based computer network.

The Indian experience demonstrates that the onset of e-Governance proceeded through the following phases:

 Computerisation: In the first phase, with the availability of personal computers, a large number of
Government offices got equipped with computers. The use of computers began with word processing,
quickly followed by data processing.
 Networking: In this phase, some units of a few Government organizations got connected through a hub
leading to sharing of information and flow of data between different Government entities.
 On-line presence: With increasing internet connectivity, a need was felt for maintaining a presence on
the web. This resulted in maintenance of websites by Government departments and other entities.
Generally, these web-pages/web-sites contained information about the organizational structure, contact
details, reports and publications, objectives and vision statements of the respective Government entities.
 On-line interactivity: A natural consequence of on-line presence was opening up of communication
channels between Government entities and the citizens, civil society organizations etc. The main aim at
this stage was to minimize the scope of personal interface with Government entities by providing
downloadable Forms, Instructions, Acts, and Rules etc. In some cases, this has already led to on-line
submission of Forms. Most citizen-Government transactions have the potential of being put on e-
Governance mode.

Challenges to E-Governance

 Different Language: India is a country where people with different cultures and different religions live.
The diversity of people in context of language is a huge challenge for implem enting e-Governance
projects as e-Governance applications are written in English language.
 Low Literacy: Literacy level of India is very low which is a huge obstacle in implementation of e -
Governance projects. Illiterate people are not able to access the e-Governance applications; hence the
projects do not get much success.
 User friendliness of Government websites: Users of e-Governance applications are often non-expert
users who may not be able to use the applications in a right manner.
 Services are not accessible easily: Even if the users of Internet are growing but still there is a major part
of Indian population which is not able to access e-Governance activities for variety of reasons.
 Population: Population of India is probably the biggest challenge in implementing e-Governance projects.
 Lack of integrated services: Most of the e-governance services which are offered by the state or central
Government are not integrated.
 Cost: In developing countries like India, cost is one of the most important obsta cles in the path of
implementation of e-Governance where major part of the population is living below poverty line.
 Privacy and Security: A critical obstacle in implementing e-Governance is the privacy and security of an
individual’s personal data that he/she provides to obtain Government services.

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Digital India Initiatives
 It is an umbrella program to prepare India for a knowledge-based transformation.
 It weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single comprehensive vision so that each of them
is seen as part of a larger goal.
 It has been launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity).

Vision Areas

 Digital infrastructure as Utility to Every Citizen

 Governance and services on demand
 Digital empowerment of citizens

Various Initiatives under Digital India Initiatives

a. MyGov: It aims to establish a link between Government and Citizens towards meeting the goal of good
governance. It encourages citizens as well as people abroad to participate in various activities i.e. 'Do', 'Discuss',
'Poll', 'Talk', ‘Blog’, etc.

Educrat IAS Academy, 2nd floor, North Block, Park Plaza Building, 71, Park Street, Kolkata- 700016 28
b. DigiLocker: It serves as a platform to enable citizens to securely store and share their documents with service
providers who can directly access them electronically.
c. e-Hospital-Online Registration Framework (ORF): It is an initiative to facilitate the patients to take online OPD
appointments with Government hospitals. This framework also covers patient care, laboratory services and
medical record management.
d. National Scholarships Portal (NSP): It provides a centralized platform for application and disbursement of
scholarship to students under any scholarship scheme.
e. DARPAN: It is an online tool that can be used to monitor and analyse the implementation of critical and high
priority projects of the State. It facilitates presentation of real time data on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
of selected schemes/projects to the senior functionaries of the State Government as well as district
administration.
f. PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation): It has been aimed at starting a culture of Pro-
Active Governance and Timely Implementation. It is also a robust system for bringing e-transparency and e-
accountability with real-time presence and exchange among the key stakeholders. It was launched in 2015.
g. Common Services Centres 2.0 (CSC 2.0): It is being implemented to develop and provide support to the use of
information technology in rural areas of the country. The CSCs are Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) enabled kiosks with broadband connectivity to provide various Governments, private and social services
at the doorstep of the citizen.
h. Mobile Seva: It provides Government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets.
i. Jeevan Pramaan: It is an Aadhaar based Biometric Authentication System for Pensioners. The system provides
authenticity to Digital Life Certificate without the necessity of the pensioner being present in person before his/
her Pension Dispensing Authority (PDA).
j. National Centre of Geo-informatics (NCoG): Under this project, Geographic Information System (GIS) platform
for sharing, collaboration, location based analytics and decision support system for Departments has been
developed.
k. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP): It takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country,
integrating them into a collective vision and a shared cause. It comprises of 31 Mission Mode Projects, approved
in 2006, but later it was integrated into Digital India Program.

e-Kranti: National e-Governance Plan 2.0

 It is an essential pillar of the Digital India initiative.
 It was approved in 2015 with the vision of “Transforming e-Governance for Transforming Governance”.
 There are 44 Mission Mode Projects under e-Kranti, which are at various stages of implementation.

Thrust Areas of e-Kranti

 e-Education: All schools will be connected to broadband. Free WiFi will be provided in all secondary and higher
secondary schools (coverage would be around 250,000 schools).
o PMGDISHA: Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan aims to make six crore people in rural India
digitally literate.
o SWAYAM: It includes Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) for leveraging e-Education. It provides for
a platform that facilitates hosting of all the courses, taught in classrooms from Class 9 till post-graduation to
be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time.
 e-Healthcare: e-Healthcare would cover online medical consultation, online medical records, online medicine
supply, pan-India exchange for patient information, etc.
 Farmers: This would facilitate farmers to get real-time price information, online ordering of inputs and online
cash, loan, and relief payment with mobile banking.
 Security: Mobile-based emergency services and disaster-related services would be provided to citizens on a real-
time basis so as to take precautionary measures well in time and minimize loss of lives and properties.

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 Financial Inclusion: Financial inclusion shall be strengthened using mobile banking, Micro-ATM program, and
CSCs/ Post Offices.
 Justice: Interoperable Criminal Justice System shall be strengthened by leveraging several related applications,
i.e. e-Courts, e-Police, e-Jails, and e-Prosecution.
 Planning: National GIS Mission Mode Project would be implemented to facilitate GIS-based decision making for
project planning, conceptualization, design, and development.
 Cyber Security: National Cyber Security Co-ordination Centre has been set up to ensure a safe and secure cyber-
space within the country.

Recommendations of 2nd ARC on e-Governance:

Building a congenial environment is a sine qua non for successful implementation of e-Governance initiatives. This
should be achieved by
 Creating and displaying a will to change within the Government
 Providing political support at the highest level
 Incentivizing e-Governance and overcoming the resistance to change within Government
 Creating awareness in the public with a view to generating a demand for change.

Identification of e-Governance Projects and Prioritisation

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has defined four stages of e-Government
Projects, each one more demanding than the next. These are:
 Information: Putting information on web-sites
 Interaction: Allowing citizens to enquire about services, procedures etc. and filling up forms and
submitting them online
 Transaction: Allowing payments online
 Transformation: A mix of all the above and allowing the citizen to participate in governance through ICT.

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)

The basic idea behind such re-engineering is to avail of the opportunity provided by ICT in transforming
Governmental processes and not just in modifying them.
 For every function a Government organisation performs and every service or information it is required
to provide, there should be a step-by-step analysis of each process to ensure its rationality and
simplicity.
 Such analysis should incorporate the viewpoints of all stakeholders, while maintaining the citizen-
centricity of the exercise.

Capacity Building and Creating Awareness

The success of an e-Governance project would depend on building human capacities in terms of necessary
knowledge and skills to conceptualize, initiate, implement and sustain e-Governance initiatives across Government
as also on the ultimate use by citizens of the facilities created.
 Capacity building efforts must attend to both the organizational capacity building as also the professional
and skills upgradation of individuals associated with the implementation of e -Governance projects.
 Each Government organization must conduct a capacity assessment which should form the basis for
training their personnel.
 A network of training institutions needs to be created in the States with the Administrative Training
Institutes at the apex.

Implementation

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 Breaking up entire e-Governance projects into components/ activities
 Planning each activity in detail
 Allocating resources, both human and financial
 Commencement of activities as per the plan and continuous tracking
 Need-based mid-course correction

Monitoring and Evaluation

 Monitoring of e-Governance projects should be done by the implementing organization during implementation in
the manner in which project monitoring is done for large infrastructure projects.
 Evaluation of success or failure of e-Governance projects may be done by independent agencies on the basis of
parameters fixed beforehand.

Protecting Critical Information Infrastructure Assets

 There is need to develop a critical information infrastructure assets protection strategy.

 This should be supplemented with improved analysis and w arning capabilities as well as improved
information sharing on threats and vulnerabilities.

Conclusion:

Thus, e-Governance has led to better access to information and quality services for citizens; Simplicity, efficiency
and accountability in the Government and expanded reach of governance. In the light of wide range of e-Governance
initiatives that have been carried out in India with varying degrees of success as well as the diversity of conditions in
the country, the report recognizes that e-Governance projects have to be designed for specific contexts and
environments

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, has visualized e-Governance in the Indian context to mean: “A
transparent, smart e-Governance with seamless access, secure and authentic flow of information crossing the
interdepartmental barrier and providing a fair and unbiased service to the citizen.”

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GOVERNANCE OF MEDIA IN INDIA
MAINSTREAM MEDIA: ROLE AND IMPORTANCE

 Historical significance: Promotion of national consciousness in the freedom struggle.

 Protection of democracy: Media has played a significant role in protection of democracy from threats such as
national emergency (1975-77).
 Accountability of government: Media fixes accountability of the government by raising issues of national and
local importance, exposing scams and corruption etc. e.g. 2G scandal.
 Watchdog of public interest: Media is the watchdog of public interest in democracy as the fourth pillar of
democracy.
 Voice to voiceless: Media ensures participation of the vulnerable sections in society by highlighting their issues,
e.g. Hathras incident, issues of transgender community etc.
 Public information: Media helps in spread of information to the public, e.g. critical role of media during COVID-
19 pandemic in spreading information about the virus.
 Success stories: Media highlights success stories from different walks of life, e.g. ISRO’s achievements etc.
 Platform for public debates: Media is an important platform for public debates over various issues plaguing the
country

ISSUES PLAGUING MAINSTREAM MEDIA:

 Sensationalization: Media suffers from the issue of sensationalization and ‘breaking news' phenomena.
 Media trial: Media trial is a serious issue that prejudices criminal proceedings.
 Political biases: Media lacks political independence as almost every news media is affiliated with any particular
political ideology.
 Short span: Coverage of any issue is generally limited to the short span when a particular incident occurs and
rarely followed up.
 Corporate influence: The media is also dependent on the corporate houses for their funding with stakes of
corporate houses in media. This influences their independent functioning.
 Legitimacy: Indian media is losing its credibility and trust among the people because of the above issues.
 Glorification of criminals: While highlighting the issues, media houses many times glorify the criminals and their
lifestyle.
 Insensitivity: The media also suffers from insensitivity in coverage of critical issues such as the Mumbai terror
attack.
 Privacy concerns: Sting operations by media houses violate the privacy of individuals.
 Sexual harassment: There have been several complaints of harassment of female journalists by powerful people
in the media.

STEPS TAKEN:

 Press Council of India: Established under PCI Act, 1978 to preserve the freedom of the press and maintain and
improve the standards of newspapers and news agencies in India.
 News Broadcasters Association: It has been established as a self-regulatory body for news channels. It has
devised a Code of Ethics to regulate television content.
 Broadcasting Content Complaint Council: A complaint relating to objectionable TV content or fake news can be
filed to the BCCC if a broadcaster incites communal hatred, encourages violence against women or child abuse,
and airs content having gory scenes of violence.
 Indian Broadcast Federation: It looks into the complaints against content aired by 24x7 channels.

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 Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995: It regulates the content and operation of cable networks in
the country through Program and Advertisement Codes.
 Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act, 2013: The act has been enacted to prevent sexual harassment with
establishment of internal complaints committee.

WAY FORWARD:

 Independent assessment: There is a need to establish a genuinely independent and transparent system for
assessing circulation and ratings of media.
 Disclosure: Introduce internal systems for disclosing potential conflicts of interest, deal with complaints and
have mandatory disclosure of ownership or relationship conflicts at the end of each print article or visual
program.
 Paid news: Paid news should be tackled with effective guidelines that define what constitutes paid political news
and naming and shaming of media houses involved.
 Provide diverse perspectives: The media should strive to represent diverse voices and perspectives to ensure
that all viewpoints are heard and considered.
 Coverage of online harassment: Journalists should not only be protected in the physical world but also on social
media platforms with effective regulation of social media platforms.
 Media literacy: Media literacy programs can help viewers understand how media works, how to distinguish
between reliable and unreliable sources and how to engage in informed public discourse.
 Legal protection: Journalists should be protected against attacks and intimidation from various sources through
legislation.
 Adherence to media ethics: Media should stick to core principles of journalisms such as truth and accuracy,
fairness, independence etc.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media can be defined as any web or mobile based platform that enables an individual or agency to
communicate interactively and enables the exchange of user generated content. Social media has become
synonymous with social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. In 2022, on average there are about 470.1
million active social media users in India on a monthly basis

POSITIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA:

 Government and citizens: Social media has enabled two-way communication between the government and
citizens, e.g. use of Twitter by ministers during COVID-19 etc.
 Increased democratic potential: Social media has increased the democratic potential with people expressing
their opinions and lodging protests over social media, e.g. use of social media in the Arab Spring.
 Women empowerment: Social media has empowered women by providing them a platform to raise their
concerns and issues, e.g. MeToo campaign etc.
 Global connect: Social media has connected people to the world more extensively and people are much more
aware about global events, cultures etc.
 Interest groups: It has enabled creation of special interest groups and provided support to everyone and
anyone in the society.
 Reconnect: It has enabled people to locate long-lost relatives and united them at the time of disasters.
 Brand and consumers: Social media is an important marketing place for businesses today with an opportunity
to provide information, connect with people etc.
 Countering hegemony: It provided an alternate source of Knowledge in a world where mainstream media has
come under severe public criticism for fake news and propaganda.

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NEED FOR REGULATION:

 Exponential increase: Social media platforms have increased exponentially in recent times, especially among
digitally illiterate sections of society.
 Fixing responsibility: Social media platforms claim to promote freedom of speech but they are not willing to take
responsibility for misuse of their platforms.
 Threat to democracy: Social media platforms have been used for promotion of misinformation during elections
which threaten free and fair elections, E.g. 2016 US elections.
 Social media trolls: Social media trolls are quite active with targeted attacks. There have been many complaints
of cyber bullying, online stalking and harassment of women.
 Invasion of privacy: Social media platforms have been allegedly compromising the privacy of users and there is a
need to protect personalized data of users. E.g. Cambridge analytica case.
 Fake news: Social media platforms have become the source and promoter of fake news, E.g. fake news over
child kidnapping etc.
 Terror promotion: Social media platforms have been used by terror organizations for radicalisation,
recruitment and training of their cadre.
 Fake trends: Many groups with their vested interest promote fake trends on social media, E.g. fake trends by
Pakistan’s ISI against cricketer Arshdeep Singh.
 Hate speech: Social media platforms have been used for promotion of hate speech and rumors which have led
to riots, E.g. Delhi riots of 2020.

STEPS TAKEN:

In order to regulate social media, Government has notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and
Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 that provide for:

 Due diligence to be followed by social media intermediaries.

 Grievance redressal: Grievance redressal officer to acknowledge complaint within 24 hours and resolve within
15 days.
 Online safety of users: Ensure online safety and dignity of users, especially women users and remove or disable
access within 24 hours of receipt of complaints of obscene material.
 Significant social media intermediaries: Additional diligence to be followed by significant social media
intermediaries: o Appoint Chief Compliance Officer for compliance of Act and Rules. o Appoint Nodal Contact
Person for 24x7 coordination with law enforcement agencies. o Appoint Resident Grievance Officer for grievance
redressal mechanism. o Publish a monthly compliance report. o Provide for identification of the first originator
of the information.
 Provide for a voluntary user verification mechanism.
 Giving users an opportunity to be heard.
 Removal of unlawful information based on the order of the court, appropriate government or its agencies.

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Citizens Charter
What are Citizen Charters (CC)?

 About: A Citizen Charter is a document which represents a systematic effort to focus on the commitment of
the Organisation towards its Citizens in respects of Standard of Services, Information, Choice and Consultation,
Non-discrimination and Accessibility, Grievance Redress, Courtesy and Value for Money.

o This also includes expectations of the Organisation from the Citizen for fulfilling the commitment of the
Organisation.
o A CC emphasizes on citizens as customers by ensuring that public services are responsive to the citizens they
serve.
o It comprises of the Vision and Mission Statement of the organization, stating the outcomes desired and the
broad strategy to achieve these goals and outcomes.
o A Citizen’s Charter is not legally enforceable and, therefore, is non-justiciable.

 Origin: The concept was first articulated and implemented in the United Kingdom by the Conservative
Government of John Major in 1991 as a national Programme with a simple aim:

o To continuously improve the quality of public services for the people of the country so that these services
respond to the needs and wishes of the users.

 Nodal Department: The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) of the Ministry
of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, to provide a more responsive and citizen-
friendly governance, coordinates the efforts to formulate and operationalise Citizens' Charters.

o The Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill,
2011 (Citizens Charter) was introduced to create a mechanism to ensure timely delivery of goods and services
to citizens.

What are the Principles of Service Delivery?

The concept of Citizens' Charter enshrines the trust between the service provider and its users. Six principles of the
Citizens Charter movement as originally framed, were:
 Quality - improving the quality of services
 Choice - for the users wherever possible
 Standards - specifying what to expect within a time frame
 Value - for the taxpayers’ money
 Accountability - of the service provider (individual
as well as Organization)
 Transparency - in rules, procedures, schemes and
grievance redressal
 Participative- Consult and involve

What About CC in India?

 The DARPG initiated the task of coordinating,

formulating and operationalising Citizens'
Charters.
 Guidelines for formulating the Charters as well as a
list of do's and don'ts are communicated to various
Government departments/organisations to enable
them to bring out focused and effective charters.

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 The Charters are expected to incorporate the following elements:
 Vision and Mission Statement
 Details of business transacted by the organisation
 Details of clients
 Details of services provided to each client group
 Details of grievance redress mechanism and how to access it
 Expectations from the clients

What are the Shortcomings of CC in India?

 Devoid of Participative Mechanisms: In a majority of cases, CC is not formulated through a consultative process
with cutting edge staff who will finally implement it.
 Poor Design and Content: There is a lack of meaningful and succinct CC and absence of critical information that
end-users need to hold agencies accountable.
 Lack of Public Awareness: Only a small percentage of end-users are aware of the commitments made in the CC
since effective efforts of communicating and educating the public about the standards of delivery promise have
not been undertaken.
 Charters are Rarely Updated: Making it a one-time exercise, frozen in time.
 No Proper Consultation: End-users, civil society organizations and NGOs are not consulted when CCs are
drafted. Since a CC’s primary purpose is to make public service delivery more citizen-centric, consultation with
stakeholders is a must.
 Measurable Standards of Delivery are Rarely Defined: Making it difficult to assess whether the desired level of
service has been achieved or not.
 Lack of Interest: Little interest is shown by the organizations in adhering to their CC since there is no citizen
friendly mechanism to compensate the citizen if the organization defaults.
 Uniformity in CC: Tendency to have a uniform CC for all offices under the parent organization. CCs have still not
been adopted by all Ministries/Departments. This overlooks local issues.

What Reforms can be Brought to CC to Make Them Effective?

 One Size Does Not Fit All: Formulation of CC should be a decentralized activity with the head office providing
only broad guidelines.
 Wide Consultation Process: CC be formulated after extensive consultations within the organization followed by
a meaningful dialogue with civil society.
 Firm Commitments to be Made: CC must be precise and make firm commitments of service delivery standards
to the citizens/consumers in quantifiable terms wherever possible.
 Redressal Mechanism in Case of Default: Clearly lay down the relief which the organization is bound to provide
if it has defaulted on the promised standards of delivery.
 Periodic Evaluation of CC: Preferably through an external agency.
 Hold Officers Accountable for Results: Fix specific responsibility in cases where there is a default in adhering to
the CC.
 Include Civil Society in the Process: To assist in improvement in the contents of the Charter, its adherence as
well as educating the citizens about the importance of this vital mechanism.

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What Should be the Way Forward?

 A Citizens’ Charter cannot be an end in itself, it is rather a means to an end - a tool to ensure that the citizen is
always at the heart of any service delivery mechanism.
 Drawing from best practice models such as the Sevottam Model (a Service Delivery Excellence Model) can help
CC in becoming more citizen centric.

Sevottam Model
 Sevottam is a generic framework for achieving excellence in public service delivery. It comprises of 3 modules
namely:
o Citizen’s Charter
o Grievance Redressal Mechanism
o Capability Building for Service Delivery
 The first component of the model requires effective charter implementation thereby opening up a channel for
receiving citizens’ inputs into the way in which organizations determine service delivery requirements.
 The second component of the model, ‘Public Grievance Redress’ requires a good grievance redress system
operating in a manner that leaves the citizen more satisfied with how the organization responds to
complaints/grievances, irrespective of the final decision.
 The third component ‘Excellence in Service Delivery’, postulates that an organization can have an excellent
performance in service delivery only if it is managing the key ingredients for good service delivery well and
building its own capacity to continuously improve delivery.

Sevottam Model

Basics and Background:

 Sevottam is an assessment – improvement model that has been developed with the objective of improving the
quality of public service delivery in the country.
 Sevottam Model is a model proposed by 2nd ARC (Administrative Reforms Commission) for public Service
Delivery.

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 The model was conceived by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry
of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in 2006.
 The word “Sevottam” is a combination of two Hindi words: Seva (Service) and Uttam (Excellent). It
means “Service Excellence”, emphasizing the idea of “Service”.
 It symbolises the change in mindset within the Government, from administration and control to service and
enablement. The model was suggested by the 2nd ARC in its 12th report Citizen Centric Administration.

Benefits of Sevottam model:

 The framework enables implementing organisations to undertake a systematic, credible and authenticated self-
assessment (or ‘gap analysis’) for citizen-centric service delivery. Using this analysis, practical solutions are
gradually and systematically incorporated into the organisation’s day-to-day routine thereby ensuring sustainable
results.

There are four broad ways in which the Sevottam model can be used:
 As a self – assessment tool by organisations already motivated to improve service delivery
 As a requirement standard
 As a benchmark assessment process to be established
 As a rating model to recognise and reward organisations that are doing commendable work in service delivery.

Seven Steps for the implementation of the model:

 Define services and identify services
 Set standards and norms for each service
 Develop capability to meet the set standards
 Perform to achieve the standards
 Monitor the performance against the set standards
 Evaluate impact through an independent mechanism

Continuous improvement based on monitoring and evaluation.

 Initially, Sevottam framework was undertaken from April 2009 to June 2010 in ten Departments of the
Government having large public interface. These are, Department of Post, CBEC, CBDT, Railways, Passport office,
Pensions, Food Processing, Corporate Affairs, Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools and EPFO.
 Later, Sevottam has been launched as a certification scheme which provides for the award of the Sevottam
symbol of excellence to public service organisations that implement and are able to show compliance to a set of
management system requirements that have been specified in a specially created standard document. This
standard, known as IS 15700:2005, was developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS based on the objectives
of Sevottam.
 The standard takes into account unique conditions of service delivery by Public service organisations in India and
the sectoral and regional variations in service delivery standards. It offers a systematic way to identify
weaknesses in specific areas and rectify them through systemic changes and process reengineering. India is
among the first countries in the world to have a Quality Standard for public service delivery.

Quality management principles:

Sevottam model prescribes seven principles to maintain quality-

 Customer focus
 Leadership
 Engagement of people
 Process approach

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 Improvement
 Evidence based decision making
 Relationship management.

Time bound delivery of goods and services – The Law in Making:

 To ensure Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services, “the Right of Citizens for Time-bound
Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011”, was introduced in the Lok Sabha in
2011, but it lapsed with the term of the last House.
 The need of the hour is to identify delivery of services as a matter of right and bring legal provision for time
bound delivery of services.

Highlights of “the Right of Citizens for Time-bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances
Bill, 2011”:
o Every public authority was required to publish a Citizens Charter within six months of the commencement of the
Act.
o A citizen may file a complaint regarding any grievance related to:
a) citizens charter;
b) functioning of a public authority; or
c) violation of a law, policy or scheme.
 The Bill required all public authorities to appoint officers to redress grievances.
 Grievances were to be redressed within 30 working days.
 The Bill also provided for the appointment of Central and State Public Grievance Redressal Commissions.
 A penalty of up to Rs 50,000 to be levied upon the responsible officer or the Grievance Redressal Officer for failure
to render services.

Some other states have also brought legislation to guarantee the right to public services delivery, but a Central law is
required to provide an overarching framework across the country.

Conclusion:

Sevottam is a continuing journey to revamp and refurbish our public service delivery systems to a level of excellence
desired by the citizens. It incorporates e-governance solutions, process re-engineering, capability building of public
servants and partnership with social groups to achieve transparency and accountability in the delivery systems
and make the good governance a reality.

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SOCIAL AUDIT
Meaning of Social Audit?

 Social Audit is a process in which details of the resources, both financial and non-financial, is used by public
agencies for development initiatives and is shared with the people often through public platforms.
 It includes in-depth scrutiny and analysis of the working of an entity in which the public is involved vis-à-vis
its social relevance.

Types of Audit:
Financial Audit Operational Audit Social Audit

Establishing standards of operation, Social Audit provides an assessment

measuring performance against of the impact of a department’s
Directed towards recording,
standards, examining and analysing non-financial objectives through
processing, summarising and
deviations, taking corrective actions systematic and regular monitoring on
reporting of financial data.
and reappraising standards based on the basis of the views of its
experience are the main focus. stakeholders.

Origin of social audit in India:

 In India, the initiative of conducting social audits was taken by Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO),
Jamshedpur in the year 1979.
 Social audit serves as an instrument for the measurement of social accountability of an organization. It
gained significance after the 73rd amendment of the constitution relating to Panchayat Raj institutions.
 The approach paper to the 9thFYP (2002-07) emphasised upon social audit for effective functioning of Panchayat
Raj institutions (PRIs) and empowered Gram Sabhas to conduct SAs in addition to its other functions.
 National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 provides for regular “Social Audits” so as to ensure transparency
and accountability in the scheme.

Principles of Social Audit:

Eight specific key principles have been identified from Social Auditing practices around the world:

 Multi-Perspective/Polyvocal: Reflect the views of all the stakeholders.

 Comprehensive: Report on all aspects of the organisation’s work and performance.
 Participatory: Encourage participation of stakeholders and sharing of their values.
 Multidirectional: Stakeholders share and give feedback on multiple aspects.
 Regular: Produce social accounts on a regular basis so that the concept and the practice become embedded in the
culture of the organisation covering all the activities.
 Comparative: Provide a means whereby the organisation can compare its performance against benchmarks and
other organisations’ performance.
 Verified: Social accounts are audited by a suitably experienced person or agency with no vested interest in the
organisation.
 Disclosed: Audited accounts are disclosed to stakeholders and the wider community in the interests of
accountability and transparency.

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Social Audit Cycle:

1. Identify Indicators of Performance

2. Collect Data – Both Quantitative and Qualitative
3. Evaluate Data – Internal and External Comparision
4. Publish Social Audits Reports
5. Define Values and Objectives of the organisation

Significance of Social Audit:

The main reason for the push for social audit is the huge disconnect between what people want and what people
get. As soon as social audit kicks in, it exercises its
control over the policy developers and
implementers in the following manner:

 Reduces corruption: SA uncovers irregularities

and malpractices in the public sector and
maintains oversight on Government
functioning, thus reducing leakages and
corruption.
 Monitoring and feedback: It monitors social
and ethical impact of an organisation’s
performance and provides feedback on the
work.
 Accountability and transparency: SA ensures
accountability and transparency in working of local Government bodies and reduces trust gap between people
and local Governments.
 Participative and democratic: SA promotes participation of people in implementation of programmes and makes
people more forthcoming for social development activities.
 Strengthens the Gram Sabha: SA gives voice and influencing power to the Gram Sabha, the lynchpin of rural
governance structure.
 Generates demand: Serves as the basis for framing the management’s policies by raising demands in a socially
responsible and accountable manner by highlighting the real problems.
 Improves professionalism: SA boosts professionalism in public bodies by forcing Panchayats to keep proper
records and accounts of the spending made against the grants received from the Government and other sources.
 Collective platform: SA provides a collective platform such as a social audit Gram Sabha, for people to express
their common needs, resulting into social cohesion.

Need for Social Audit:

 Collective Platform
 Curbs Corruption
 Generates Demand
 Professionalism
 Accountability and Transparency
 Strengthens Gram Sabha
 Monitoring and Feedback
 Participative & Democratic

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Limitations of Social Audit:
 The scope of social audits is highly localised and covers only certain selected aspects.
 Social audits are often sporadic and ad hoc.
 Monitoring is informal and unprocessed.
 The findings of social audit cannot be generalised over the entire population.
 Individual programs present their own unique challenges. For example literacy program for adults require data
on migration.
 Several problems require a package of programme to be implemented simultaneously. For example, rural health
requires convergence between water supply, education, sanitation, nutrition etc. Social audit may therefore need
a more holistic approach.
 Absence of trained auditors.
 Lack of action on audit reports and findings.

Way Forward:
 For empowerment of the Demand System, investment in education and awareness of Public/ Gram Sabha
members is required.
 Institutional capacity need be increased at PRI, Block, and DRDA level, in terms of information Storage and
distribution mechanism
 Support may be provided to committed and competent NGOs to play the catalytic role including conducting Social
Audit.
 Media need be more Rural and Development focussed
 Recognise and Reward the members who have contributed to the process of strengthening Demand System and
improved service delivery
 Develop an Institutional Framework for, organising PRI Accounting Audit and Social Audits and putting them on
the Internet.
 Promoting proactive disclosure of information to facilitate social audits.

Social Audit – Indian Scenario:

 In India, the initiative of conducting social audits was taken by Tata Steel or Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited
(TISCO), Jamshedpur in the year 1979.
 Social audit gained significance after the 73rd amendment. The approach paper to the 9thFYP (2002-
07) emphasised upon social audit for effective functioning of Panchayat Raj institutions (PRIs) and
empowered Gram Sabhas to conduct SAs in addition to its other functions.
 National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 provides for regular “Social Audits” so as to ensure
transparency and accountability in the scheme.
 The State Government shall identify or establish, under the NREGS, an independent organisation, Social Audit Unit
(SAU), at the state level, to facilitate conduct of social audit by Gram Sabhas.

Social Audit and MGNREGA: Issues/challenges with social audits

 Rules not followed: In many states Social Audit Units (SAUs) don’t seek record from Gram Panchayats regarding
execution of works and expenditure (CAG report), social audit reports are either not prepared or not made
available to Gram Sabha in local languages.
 Not institutionalised: Government has not mandated institutionalisation of SA thus making auditors vulnerable
to implementing agencies, who face resistance and intimidation and find it difficult to even access primary records
for verification.

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 Apathy of implementing agency: The implementing agency requests for postponement of social audit, fails to
provide documents on time, does not send independent observers for the Gram Sabha, and fails to take action on
the findings of the social audit.
 Lack of stringent penalty: Flouting of SA principles and norms does not attract any penalty or legal proceeding
which makes SA a toothless exercise.
 Lack of awareness: Lack of awareness among Gram Sabha members and their rights on social audit
 Absence of a well-conceived information system: Government agencies rely on hazy and incomplete system of
referring to Government accounts and Government methods of reporting to track progress of scheme due to
which it becomes difficult for auditor to take stock, speed up, slow down or apply corrective measures.
 No incentive to participate: Lack of interest in people about the village activities due to their livelihood reasons.
 SAUs lack independence:
o Some SAUs have to obtain sanction from the project implementation agency before spending funds.
o Many states don’t follow the open process specified in the standards for the appointment of the SAU’s director.
o Several SAUs do not have adequate staff to cover all the panchayats even once a year.

Social Audit – Way Forward:

 Providing more finances to SAUs: In 2012, MoRD had recommended 1 per cent of the expenses under MGNREGS
for SA, which got reduced to 0.5 per cent later.
 Director and staff selection: The selection of Directors of SAUs should be free of political control and the selection
process should be strictly followed.
 Resource Hub on Social Audit: A resource hub should be constituted under the National Institute of Rural
Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR) to provide assistance to State Governments and SAUs on
parameters like training support, monitoring and evaluation, action research, documentation and certification of
trainers etc.
 Support of implementing agencies: Rules must be framed so that implementation agencies are mandated to play
a supportive role in the social audit process and take prompt action on the findings.
 Legally sanctioned outcomes: Outcomes of social audit must have legal sanction and state Governments should
enact specific rules for this.
 Increased frequency: Social audits must be conducted in every Gram Panchayat once in every 6 months.
 Using Management Information System (MIS): Usage of MIS to track details of schemes at all levels to streamline
the life-cycle of programme planning, implementation and feedback.
 Punitive action against non-compliance: State Government should promptly fix responsibility as well as take
action against errant officials in SAUs and other ground level auditors.
 Monitoring of SA: MoRD should monitor the response (or the lack of it) by the implementing agency to the social
audit findings; a quarterly meeting should be held between SAU, implementing agencies and MoRD officials to
monitor the action-taken reports.
 Displaying Information of Notice Board: Gram Sabha should demand from the Panchayat, display of all the
information, on Panchayat notice board from time to time, about the works being carried out or planned in near
future.
 Knowledge dissemination through regular meetings: Meetings of Gram Sabha should be held regularly and
members/villagers must be educated about their role in social audit process through these meetings by
Programme Officers.
 Civil society participation: People including students from different universities should be encouraged to
participate as Village Resource Persons. Example, Jharkhand has instituted a formal mechanism by inviting
prominent civil society representatives to be part of the SA panel.
 Role of media: Media should also take responsibility to reach to the rural areas and spread the awareness through
their designed programmes focusing on the issues of the rural concerns especially Gram Sabhas and their powers
of social audit.
 Refurbishing social audit process by:

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 Convening the Gram Sabha at a neutral place and not in the village of the head of the panchayat.
 Meeting to be chaired by an elderly member who is not a part of Panchayat.
 Putting the resolutions and decisions to voting.
 Video recording of the meeting and uploading the Social Audit Reports (SAUs) on Government website in local
languages.

Social Audit Law:

 Meghalaya became the first state in India to operationalise a social audit law – ‘The Meghalaya
Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017’.
 Important Features of the Act:
 A Social Audit Facilitator will be appointed to conduct the audit directly with the people who will present findings
to the Gram Sabha, which will further add inputs and the result will finally go to the auditors.
 A Social Audit Council (SAC) has been established as a panel to review Government programmes during the
course of their implementation.
 The Act provides a list of programmes, schemes and projects to be audited.

Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency, an autonomous body

insulated from Government interference, was set up in Andhra Pradesh. The state of
Andhra Pradesh has become a role model for all the other states as far as implementation
of SA is concerned.
 The main aim of the SSAAT is to uphold the concept of eternal vigilance by the
people, facilitated by social activists and Government acting in conjunction.
 It aims at empowerment of the rural population covered by welfare schemes such
as MGNREGS and minimisation of leakage and wastage of public funds.
Andhra Pradesh:
 Public vigilance, verification of the various stages of implementation and ‘Social
Audit Forums-Public Hearings’ are important components of the social audit process
followed by SSAAT.
 Public hearings are heard by juries with PRI and CSO members.
 An advisory for action to be taken on specific irregularities has been formulated for
the guidance of the jury members.
 Hearings are held at the Panchayat, Block, District and State levels.
Jharkhand:
 Special and test audits are done
 A cultural workshop for IEC activities was conducted and songs in eight different
languages have been prepared.

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 Evolution of Civil Services in India

The Indian civil service system is one of the oldest administrative systems in the world. In India, it had its origin in the
Mauryan period.
 Kautilya’s Arthashastra lays down the following principles:
a. selection and promotion of the civil servants,
b. the conditions of loyalty for appointment to the civil service,
c. the methods of their performance evaluation
d. the code of conduct to be followed by them.

 During the medieval period (1000-1600 AD), Akbar the Great founded and nurtured the civil service. His civil
service had welfare and a regulatory orientation.
 In medieval India, the Mughals set up their own civil service systems which centred on the management of land
revenue, administration of Government factories and establishment of the patrimonial state.

a. Civil Services During British Raj (Pre-Independence Era):

 The British civil service came on the Indian scene after the takeover of the East India Company in the 1860s.
 Initially the British civil service was a part of a police state, with the major task being that of carrying out law and
order functions. It was separated as the different provinces had different civil services.
 During the period of Warren Hastings, the institution of the collector was created in 1772.
 Lord Cornwallis is known as the father of civil services in India. He reformed and organised civil services. He
separated revenue administration from judicial administration. The collector was made head of revenue
administration of the district.
 Charter Act of 1853 provided for open competition to civil services. But the Indian Civil Service was divided into
covenant and non-covenant with Indians being restricted to non-covenant posts of lower bureaucracy only.
 In 1854, on the recommendations Macaulay’s report, Civil Services Commission was set up to recruit civil
servants. Initially examination was conducted only in London with minimum and maximum age being 18 and 23
years respectively.
 Satyendranath Tagore became first Indian to become a civil servant in 1864.
 Aitchinson Commission (1886) recommended the division of services into three groups – Imperial, Provincial and
Subordinate.
 The recruiting and controlling authority of Imperial services was the ‘Secretary of State’ and for provincial services,
it was states.
 The British Government setup Indian Civil Service in 1911, primarily with the objective of strengthening British
administration.
 From 1922 onwards, examination was conducted in India as well. First in Allahabad and then in Delhi with setting
up of Federal Public Service Commission.
 The Government of India Act 1919 divided the Imperial Services into All India Services and Central Services. The
central services were concerned with matters under the direct control of the Central Government.
 This Act also provided for the establishment of Public Services Commission in India. But it was established in
1926 after recommendations of Lee Commission.
 Further, the Government of India Act, 1935 envisaged a Public Service Commission for the Federation and a
Provincial Public Service Commission for each Province or group of Provinces.
 The Indian civil service was set apart from other imperial services for manning top civil posts under a rigid hierarchy
of a bureaucratic system which Lloyd George termed as the “Steel Frame” of the British Raj.

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b. Civil Services After Independence:
 In 1947, free-India inherited the Indian Civil Service (ICS). After prolonged consideration, its Constituent Assembly
decided to continue to run the Indian Administration with the help of the Indian Civil Service.
 After independence the Indian Civil Service was reorganised as a two-tier system. The central Government
controlled the All-India Services (AIS), namely, the Indian Administrative Service (lAS), the Indian Foreign Service
(IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the central services which were classified as Group A, B, C, and D
services. The selections to the All India Services and Group A and B services are conducted by the Union Public
Service Commission (UPSC).
 The All–India Services (AIS) are a unique feature of federal polity. It is the view of any constitutional experts that
the Constitution though federal form is unitary in substance.
 The AIS scheme is a part of this general plan of making the Centre strong in the overall constitutional
arrangements.

 In 1864, Imperial Forest Department was set up. Imperial Forest Service was constituted
in 1867. From 1867 to 1885, the officers appointed to Imperial Forest Service were
trained in France and Germany.
 In 1920, it was decided that further recruitment to the Imperial Forest Service would be
made by direct recruitment in England and India and by promotion from the provincial
service in India.
Forest Services
 With the inauguration of the Constitution of India in January 26, 1950, the Federal Public
Service Commission came to be known as the Union Public Service Commission under
Article 315.

Constitutional Provisions Related to Civil Services

 As per Articles 53 and 154, the executive power of the Union and the States vests in the President or Governor
directly or through officers’ subordinate to him. These officers constitute the permanent civil service and are
governed by Part XIV of the Constitution (Services under the Union and States (Article 308- 323)).
 Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules: The manner in which the officers are required to help the
President or Governor to exercise his/her executive functions is governed by these Rules.
 Article 309: Powers of Parliament and state legislatures – It empowers the Parliament and the State legislature
regulate the recruitment, and conditions of service of persons appointed, to public services and posts in
connection with the affairs of the Union or of any State respectively.
 Article 310: Doctrine of Pleasure – Every person of Defence service, Civil Service and All India Service holding any
post connected with the above services holds office during the pleasure of the President or Governor of the State.
 Article 311: Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank.
 Article 311 – Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the Union or a
State.
 Article 312 – All India Services.
 Article 323A: Administrative Tribunals

The Role performed by Civil Services in Democracy:

 Basis of Government: All nations, irrespective of their system of Government, require some sort of administrative
machinery for implementing policies.
 An instrument for implementing Laws and Policies: Civil services are responsible for implementing the laws and
policies of Government.
 Participation in policy formulation: Civil servants participate in policy making by giving advice to ministers and
providing them the necessary information.

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 Provides continuity: Civil services carry on the governance when Governments change due to elections or
otherwise.
 Role in socio- economic development: The developing nations are struggling to achieve modernisation of society
and economic development and realize welfare goals. These objectives have placed challenging tasks on public
administration such as formulation of economic plans and their successful implementation to economic growth
and social change.
 Developing a sense of nationhood: Several divisive forces such as communal and ethnic conflicts, caste feuds
and regional rivalries often threaten the national unity. In order to develop a sense of nationhood among the
people of these countries, the civil servants have to resolve the sub-national and sub- cultural differences among
the people.
 Facilitating democracy: The civil servants play a vital role in maintaining the democratic ideals by assisting their
political heads (Ministers) in policy-making function and in implementing the policies made.
 Calamities and crisis: Natural calamities such as earthquakes, floods, droughts and cyclones have also enhanced
the importance of civil services
 Administrative adjudication: This is a quasi- judicial function performed by the civil service. The civil servants
settle disputes between the citizens and the state.

Civil Servant’s Accountability for Good Governance:

 The civil servants have always played a pivotal role in ensuring continuity and change in administration.
However, they are dictated by the rules and procedures which are formulated taking their advice into account.
 It is the ‘rule of law’ rather than the ‘rule of man’ that is often blamed for widespread abuse of power and
corruption among Government officials.
 The explosion of media in the recent past has opened civil servants to external scrutiny and called for transparent
accountability mechanisms in terms of outcomes and results not processes.
 The issues of accountability of civil servants in service delivery have come to the forefront in all dialogues
regarding civil service reforms. The credibility of civil service lies in the conspicuous improvement of tangible
services to the people, especially at the cutting edge.
 Conceptually, the civil servants are accountable to the minister in charge of the department, but in practice, the
accountability is vague and of a generalised nature.
 Since there is no system of ex ante specification of accountability the relationship between the minister and the
civil servants is only issue-sensitive.
 The civil servants deal with the minister as the issues present themselves. The accountability relationship can be
anything from all-pervasive to minimalistic and it is left to the incumbent minister to interpret it in a manner that
is most convenient to him.

General Issues and Challenges:

 Shortfall in personnel: Overall shortage of personnel, especially in mid-level and higher level services as
highlighted by the Baswan Committee Report (2016) leads to delay in service, burden on existing staff, etc.
 Rule-Book Bureaucracy: Due to rule book bureaucracy, some civil servants have developed the attitude
‘bureaucratic behaviour’, which evokes issues like red-tapism, the complication of procedures, and the
maladapted responses of ‘bureaucratic’ organisations to the needs of the people.
 Undue political interference: This interference sometimes leads to issues like corruption, arbitrary transfers of
honest civil servants. Also this led to substantial inefficiency where the vital positions are not held by the best
officers and ultimately this can lead to institutional decline.
 Lack of specialized skills among bureaucrats: In decisions regarding promotion and staffing, general competency
is valued. However, lack of specialised skills can make them redundant in a fast changing world.
 Detachment from the public: This leads to a gap in policy formulation and implementation, especially regarding
welfare activities, if bureaucrats are unaware of the ground reality.

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 Increased corruption: High level of corruption in bureaucracy is associated with low levels of investment and
growth.
 Lack of transparency and accountability: This can result in discretionary decisions by officers for their personal
benefits.
 Resistance to change: Bureaucracy has often been criticized for its resistance to change towards adopting
technology and decentralization of governance.

Cadre Based Civil Service

 Cadre literally means a small group of trained people who form basic unit of a military, political or business
organisation.
 In All India Services, once selected, candidates are assigned cadres based on their preferences, merit and
availability of positions.
 In India, each state is a cadre with some exceptions like AGMUT and DANICS. These are joint state cadres with
multiple states.

Need of Cadre system in civil Service

 Key administrative and police positions in state Governments are designated as ‘cadre posts’ signifying that they
may only be held by IAS/IPS.
 This is deliberate features of All India Service to promote quality, impartiality, integrity and All India outlook.

Issues with Cadre based Civil Services

Civil Services in India has been constitutionally designed in way that it maintains all India character and ‘outsiders’ are
posted in state cadre. ‘Outsiders’ to state cadre would ensure a higher level of objectivity and neutrality in a system
which was likely to face enormous regional and local pressure. But in the 1980s and 90s, partisanship, local
considerations and nepotism crept into the system.

 Permanency of cadres: It results in inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the working of civil services. It diminishes
the all India character and limits the officers’ concern to local issues.
 Provincialization: According to ‘Public Institutions in India – Performance and Design by Mehta and Kapoor’
there is a feeling that IAS officers are ‘all India’ in name only. As the proportions of officers who genuinely
alternate between state and central Government has declined.
 Adoption of best practices: Provincialization of civil services reduces capacity of the civil services to adopt and
disseminate good practices of other cadres.
 Collusion with local politicians: For the want of preferred and plum postings, the officers collude with local
politicians and officers.
 Specialized Positions: According to 2nd ARC, cadre based civil services has limited the recruitment of persons with
specialized knowledge at important positions through lateral entry.
 Large variation: There are large variations in the size of IAS cadres with respect to total state populations. As a
result, the IAS cadre in UP is 40% smaller than it should be while in Sikkim it is 15 % more than it should be, based
on population alone.
 Central Deputation: According to ‘Public Institutions in India – Performance and Design by Mehta and Kapoor’
many small states have much better representation in central ministries and departments than their larger peers.
 Reluctance to ‘de-cadre’ positions: Due to changing social and economic conditions some posts diminished in
importance. But they were rarely ‘de-cadred’. For ex – In many states, the post of Land Settlement Officer is still
en-cadred, decades after overwhelming majority of land tenure/land revenue settlement work was completed.

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New Cadre Policy (2017)
In the new policy, aimed at “national integration”, divides the 26 states into 5 zonal cadres.
a. Zone-I – AGMUT, Jammu, and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana
b. Zone-II – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha
c. Zone-III – Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
d. Zone-IV – West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam-Meghalaya. Manipur, Tripura
e. Zone-V – Telangana. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala
 Candidates have to give cadre choices in descending order of preference from among the various zones.
Candidates can only select one state/cadre from a zone as their first choice.
 Their next choice has to be from a different zone. It is only after selecting first choice in all the zones, one can
select the second state/cadre from the first zone.
 Earlier the candidates used to choose their home state as their first choice and neighbouring states as their
subsequent preferences.

Way Ahead

 The New Cadre Policy (2017) looks to resolve these issues. The new policy is aimed at ensuring ‘national
integration’ in the country’s top bureaucracy.
 The new policy will seek to ensure that officers from Bihar, for instance, will get to work in southern and north-
eastern states, which may not be their preferred cadres.
 All India Services officers are supposed to have varied experience which can be earned if they work in different
states.
 Lateral Entry: Also, the recent move by the Government to directly recruit experts for specialised position is a
welcome move.
 Reduction in size of cadres: The proliferation of inconsequential posts is a proximate cause of both demoralisation
and the ability to use transfer as a penalty. Therefore, the size of cadres should be reduced after periodic reviews.

Broader Issues with Civil Services in India

Weberian Model of Bureaucracy and Related Issues:

India inherited Weberian model of bureaucracy from the British. The Indian civil service system is rank-based and
does not follow the tenets of the position based civil services. This has led to the absence of a specialised civil service
system in India. Thus, main issues associated with civil services in India can be summarized as:

 Problems of All India Services

 Absence of accountability
 Out-dated laws, rules and procedures
 High degree of centralization
 Poor work culture and Lack of professionalism
 Politicization of services and political Interference
 Negative power of abuse of authority and Corruption
 Generalist civil servants in globalized world

All these issues create a conflict between civil services and democracy in following ways:
 Rigid organization structures and cumbersome procedures.
 Elitist, authoritarian, conservative outlook.
 Men in bureaucracy fulfil segmental roles over which they have no control. Consequently, they have little or no
opportunity to exercise individual judgment.
 The requirement that a bureaucrat should follow the principles of consistency and regularity automatically limits
his capacity to adapt to changing circumstances.

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 The general rules which may take for overall efficiency produce inefficiency and injustice in individual cases.
 Civil services’ difficulty to cope with uncertainty and change is a key limit on its efficiency.

Issues with All India Services:

 Relevance of AIS years after independence: The framers of the Constitution provided for the AIS because of the
serious problems of politico-administrative management and instability then faced by the country. However, the
Union and the State Governments have since acquired adequate political, administrative and managerial
experience.
 Indian Police Service (IPS): As all key positions in the State police are held by members of IPS, the State
Government’s responsibility in regard to public order has got whittled down.
 Against Federalism: It is argued that winding up AIS and separate civil services of state and centre would bring the
working of these Governments closer to a federal system.
 The unity and integrity of the country and national integration should rest on more durable factors, like economic
prosperity, strong elective institutions, etc., and not on an administrative apparatus, like the AIS.
 Authority –Responsibility Gap: AIS officers tend to think that they are under the disciplinary control of the Union
Government and not the State Government. A few State Governments have emphasised that an AIS officer should
be under the full disciplinary control of ‘the State Government under which he is serving.
 Cadre allocation Policy: The policy of the Union to induct at least 50% outsiders in each State cadre of an AIS
implies that these outsiders are more amenable to the control of the Union Government than the insiders. This
approach accentuates hostility between the AIS and the State Services as well as between the former and the
political leadership in a State. States perceive this to be a clever ploy of the union Government to gain control over
state Government.
 Son of soil theory: Outsiders are vaguely aware about language, ethos, profile of the state which they are posted.
 AIS under Union List: AIS are joint responsibility of centre and state, yet it is under Union list (Entry 70).

Sarkaria Commission recommendations

 The AIS are as much necessary today as they were when the Constitution was framed.
 The AIS should be further strengthened and greater emphasis laid on the role expected to be played by them.
This can be achieved through well-planned improvements in selection, training, deployment, development and
promotion policies and methods.
 Greater specialisation in one or more areas of public administration.
 Every AIS officer, whether be is a direct recruit or a promoted officer, should be required to put in a minimum
period under the Union Government and, for this purpose, the minimum number of spells of Union deputation
should be laid down for direct recruits and promoted officers, separately.
 The Union Government may persuade the State Governments to agree to the constitution of the Indian Service
of Engineers, the Indian Medical and Health Service and an AIS for Education.

Reforms Required in Civil Services

The important areas of civil services reforms and the recommendations of 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission
(2nd ARC) and some other committees in these areas are as follows:

Bringing Accountability in Public Services

The traditional measures of accountability that rely upon line or top-down measures do not necessarily provide a
good guide to the accountability culture as a whole. Thus, multi-dimensionality of accountability means both multiple
measure and new mandates is the need of the hour.

The 2nd ARC recommended the following in this regard:

Educrat IAS Academy, 2nd floor, North Block, Park Plaza Building, 71, Park Street, Kolkata- 700016 50
 A system of two intensive reviews – one on completion of 14 years of service, and another on completion of 20
years of service – should be established for all Government servants.
 The first review at 14 years would primarily serve the purpose of intimating to the public servant about his/her
strengths and shortcomings for his/ her future advancement.
 The second review at 20 years would mainly serve to assess the fitness of the officer for his/her further
continuation in Government service.
 The services of public servants, who are found to be unfit after the second review at 20 years, should be
discontinued.
 A provision regarding this should be made in the proposed Civil Services Law.
 For new appointments it should be expressly provided that the period of employment shall be for 20 years.

Emphasize Performance

 The present promotion system in civil service is based on time-scale and is coupled by its security of tenure.
 These elements in our civil service are making the dynamic civil servants complacent and many of the promotions
are based upon the patronage system.
 A Government servant’s promotion, career advancement and continuance in service should be linked to his actual
performance on the job and the dead wood should be weeded out.
 The promotions should be merit based and the respective authorities have to benchmark the best practices and
evaluate the performance of the civil servants both qualitatively and quantitatively with a variety of
parameters.
 Performance Related Incentive Scheme: The Sixth Pay Commission recommended introduction of a new
performance based pecuniary benefit, over and above regular salary, for the Government employees. It is based
on the principle of differential reward for differential performance.

2nd ARC recommendations on Performance Management system:

 Making appraisal more consultative and transparent – performance appraisal systems for all Services should be
modified on the lines of the recently introduced PAR for the All India Services.
 Performance appraisal should be year round: provisions for detailed work-plan and a mid-year review should be
introduced for all Services
 Guidelines need to be formulated for assigning numerical rating
 Government should expand the scope of the present performance appraisal system of its employees to a
comprehensive performance management system (PMS).
 The PMS should be designed within the overall strategic framework appropriate to the particular
ministry/department/organisation.

Competition and Specialist Knowledge for Senior Level Appointments

 The task of policy making in Government is complex and needs specialist knowledge of the subject.
 Under the existing system, the most senior level appointments in the Central secretariat as well as top field level
posts are made from amongst the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers who are generalists.
 The First Administrative Reforms Commission, far back in 1969, had emphasized the need for specialization by
civil servants as a pre-qualification for holding senior level posts. It suggested that all the Services should have
an opportunity to enter middle and senior level management levels in Central Secretariat and selection should be
made by holding mid-career competitive examination, which should include interview, to be conducted by UPSC.
 The Surendra Nath Committee (2003) and Hota Committee (2004) had also emphasized domain knowledge and
merit as the basis for appointment to the posts of Joint Secretary and above.

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2nd ARC recommendations in this regard:
 The 2nd ARC identified 12 domains in which officers should specialize such as general administration, urban
development, security, rural Development etc. It has recommended that domain should be assigned to all the
officers of the All India Services and Central Civil Services on completion of 13 years of service and vacancies at
the level of Deputy Secretary/ Director should be filled only after matching the domain competence of the officer
for the job.
 The Commission has suggested introduction of competition for senior positions in the Senior Administrative Grade
and above (Joint Secretary level) by opening these positions to all the Services.
 For Higher Administrative Grade posts (Additional Secretary and above) recruitment for some of the posts could
be done from open market.
 It has further suggested constitution of a statutory Central Civil Services Authority which should deal with matters
of assignment of domain, preparing panel for posting of officers at different levels, fixing tenures and determining
which posts should be advertised for lateral entry.

Effective Disciplinary Regime

 Presently, the provisions of discipline rules are so cumbersome that it becomes very difficult to take action against
a delinquent employee for insubordination and misbehaviour.
 Thus, once appointed, it is almost impossible to remove or demote an employee. This results in poor work culture
and all-round inefficiency.

2nd ARC recommendations in this regard:

 The 2nd ARC has observed that legal protection given has created a climate of excessive security without fear of
penalty for incompetence and wrong doing.
 In the proposed Civil Services law, the minimum statutory disciplinary and dismissal procedures required to
satisfy the criteria of natural justice should be spelt out leaving the details of the procedure to be followed to the
respective Government departments.
 The present oral inquiry process should be converted into a disciplinary meeting or interview to be conducted
by a superior officer in a summary manner without the trappings and procedures borrowed from court trials.
 No penalty of removal and dismissal should be imposed, except by an Authority, which is at least three levels
above the post which the Government servant is holding.
 No penalty may be imposed, unless an inquiry is conducted and the accused Government servant has been given
an opportunity of being heard.
 The two-stage consultation with the CVC in cases involving a vigilance angle should be done away with and only
the second stage advice after completion of the disciplinary process should be obtained.
 Consultation with the UPSC should be mandatory only in cases leading to the proposed dismissal of Government
servants and all other types of disciplinary cases should be exempted from the UPSC’s purview.

Transforming Work Culture

Most Government departments suffer from poor work culture and low productivity. In order to provide cost-
effective efficient services, following measures can be taken:

 The multi-level hierarchical structure should be reduced and an officer oriented system with level jumping be
introduced to speed up decision making.
 Government offices should be modernized with provision of computer and other gadgets and a conducive work
environment should be created.

Educrat IAS Academy, 2nd floor, North Block, Park Plaza Building, 71, Park Street, Kolkata- 700016 52
 Officers need to be motivated and empowered by giving them more responsibility and decision-making authority.
 There is a need to create a lean, thin and efficient Government machinery by modernising procedures and work
methodology and abolishing the ‘babu’ culture in the Government offices.

Streamline Rules and Procedures

 A large number of rules and procedures relating to citizen’s day to day interface with Government in matters such
as issue of passport, registration of property, sanction for construction of dwelling unit, licence for starting a
business, inspection of factories, are outdated and dysfunctional and give opportunity to public servants to delay
and harass.
 These rules should be updated, simplified and discretionary power of public servants be eliminated.
 A good part of efficiency of a Government office depends on personnel, financial and procurement management
systems. The rules relating to personnel management are outdated and rigid and give no flexibility to departments
to adapt to local conditions resulting in inefficiency.
 The budgetary and procurement rules should be changed, giving sufficient flexibility to departments to be able
to use their judgement to secure the best value for money.

Privatization and Contracting Out

 In an era of liberalization, there is economic logic to privatize those state owned enterprises which are either
running in loss or in the tertiary sector of the economy such as hotel, tourism, engineering and textile sector,
where they cannot compete with private sector and are a big drain on national resources.
 There is a strong case for privatization of services like municipal street cleaning, garbage collection, power
distribution, city transport etc.
 Experience has shown that increasing use of competition in the delivery of public services, including competition
between public and private sector providers has improved cost effectiveness and service quality.

Adoption of IT and E-Governance

 The revolution in information technology has brought into focus its adoption for good governance.
 E-governance can reduce distances to nothing, linking remote villages to Government offices in the cities, can
reduce staff, cut costs, check leaks in the governing system, and can make the citizen-Government interaction
smooth, without queues and the tyranny of clerks.
 But it must be remembered that e-governance is only a tool for good governance. It cannot succeed independent
or responsive officers and it has to be owned by the political leadership.

Stability of Tenure

 There is a genuine problem being faced by officers, especially in the case of All India Services serving in the state
Governments, relating to their tenures.
 There is usually a reshuffling of officers with change in Government and in certain states the average tenure of
DM and SP has now come to less than a year only. Such a rapid turnover of officers adversely affects delivery and
quality of services provided to the common man.
 The ever present threat of transfer also affects the morale of the officers and their capacity to stand up to
undesirable local pressures

In this context Hota committee on civil services reform suggested the following:

 A fixed tenure of at least three years for an officer of the higher civil service along with annual performance
targets.
 A Civil Services Act has to be enacted to make the Civil Services Board / Establishment Board both in the states
and in the Government of India statutory in character.

Educrat IAS Academy, 2nd floor, North Block, Park Plaza Building, 71, Park Street, Kolkata- 700016 53
 If a Chief Minister does not agree with the recommendations of the Civil Services Board/Establishment Board, he
will have to record his reasons in writing.
 An officer transferred before his normal tenure even under orders of the Chief Minister can present the matter
before a three-member Ombudsman.
 In all such premature transfers the Ombudsman shall send a report to the Governor of the state, who shall cause
it to be laid in an Annual Report before the State Legislature.

Depoliticization of Civil Services

Following are the recommendations of 2nd ARC on relations between political executive and civil servants:

 There is a need to safeguard the political neutrality and impartiality of the civil services.
 The onus for this lies equally on the political executive and the civil services.
 This aspect should be included in the Code of Ethics for Ministers as well as the Code of Conduct for Public
Servants.
 While examining the definition of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, the “abuse of
authority unduly favouring or harming someone” and “obstruction of justice” should be classified as an offence
under the Act.

It is essential to lay down certain norms for recruitment in Government to avoid complaints of favouritism, nepotism,
corruption and abuse of power. These norms are:

 Well-defined procedure for recruitment to all Government jobs.

 Wide publicity and open competition for recruitment to all posts.
 Minimisation, if not elimination, of discretion in the recruitment process.
 Selection primarily on the basis of written examination or on the basis of performance in existing
public/board/university examination with minimum weight to interview.

To insulate the bureaucracy from political interference and to put an end to frequent transfers of civil servants by
political bosses, the Supreme Court in 2013 issued a series of directions to insulate civil servants from political
influence. Following are the directions issued by the Supreme Court in T.S.R. Subramanian and others vs. Union of
India:

 Officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), other All India Services and other civil servants were not bound
to follow oral directives, since they “undermine credibility”. All actions must be taken by them on the basis of
written communication.
 Establishment of a Civil Services Board (CSB), headed by the Cabinet Secretary at the national level and chief
secretaries at the state level, to recommend transfers and postings of All India Services (IAS, IFS and IPS) officers.
Their views could be overruled by the political executive, but by recording reasons only.
 Parliament to enact a Civil Services Act under Article 309 of the Constitution setting up a CSB
 There should be fixed minimum tenure.
 Group ‘B’ officers would be transferred by heads of departments (HoDs).
 No interference of ministers, other than the chief minister, in transfers or postings of civil servants.

Lateral Entry into Civil Services

 Lateral entry into civil services refers to induction of eligible candidates into bureaucracy by bypassing the
regular mode at a higher level of its hierarchical structure.
 In June 2018, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued notification inviting applications for 10
senior level positions at the joint secretary level in the Departments of Economic Affairs, Revenue, Commerce and
Highways among others.

Educrat IAS Academy, 2nd floor, North Block, Park Plaza Building, 71, Park Street, Kolkata- 700016 54
 The eligibility criteria include:
a. “Individuals working at comparable levels in Private Sector Companies, Consultancy Organisations,
International/Multinational Organisations with a minimum of 15 years’ experience”
b. Besides those working in central public sector undertakings, autonomous bodies, statutory organisations, research
bodies and universities

Need for lateral entry

 Shortage of Officers
 Specialists and domain experts
 Burden to Exchequer
 Incentives to innovations and out of the box thinking
 To induce Competition

Issues With Lateral Entry

 Bypassing UPSC: UPSC is a constitutional body and has retained legitimacy and credibility of selection process over
the years. Some experts opine that lateral entry is unconstitutional in nature.
 Not a Panacea: It is also argued that it is a piecemeal effort to deal with a systemic problem. Bureaucracy needs
major overhauling.
 Offers not lucrative enough: Most of the times, the terms of recruitments are not rewarding enough to attract
best of talents. Even the recent lateral entry initiative would recruit professionals for only 3 years with
remuneration not competitive with private sector.
 Open door to privatization: Some civil servants believe that it would open the floodgates to privatisation. And
eventually Government would lose its socialist and welfare characteristics.
 Transparency is recruitment: Government should ensure that the recruits remain independent of “fissiparous
tendencies”. The sanctity of the selection procedure should remain for the services to stay insulated from the
Government of the day.

Way Ahead

 2nd ARC recommended an institutionalized, transparent process for lateral entry at both the Central and state
levels. But pushback from bureaucrats, serving and retired, and the sheer institutional inertia of civil services that
have existed largely unchanged for decades have prevented progress.
 Also the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs headed by Shashi Tharoor has urged the
Government to facilitate the entry of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) into foreign service in order to expand the
country’s diplomatic corps.
 In addition to lateral entry, the method of civil service training also needs to be revamped.

Mid-Career Performance Appraisal

 Mid-career Performance appraisal is meant to be a joint exercise between the Government servant reported
upon and the Reporting Officer particularly after every fixed period for taking note on performance.
 While fixing the targets, priority should be assigned item-wise, taking into consideration the nature and the area
of work.

Importance of Mid-Career Performance appraisal

 It’ll update the knowledge and efficiency in work base of the participant in the rapidly changing environment.
 Will help to develop competencies for changes in the job profile, as would happen when a promotion takes place.
 Can also serve as a medium for enhancing formal qualifications, thereby creating greater confidence in an officer.
 Good hardworking civil servants will get rewarded
 Clear performance standard shall be fixed.

Educrat IAS Academy, 2nd floor, North Block, Park Plaza Building, 71, Park Street, Kolkata- 700016 55
 Reduction in political interference due to fixed targets and continuous reports of performance of civil servants.
 It would compel bureaucrats to put more diligence to score a better review.
 Induce professionalism in the departments.
 Weeding out of the inefficient lot would make place for better candidates.

Compulsory Retirements
Positives of Compulsory retirements:
 Deterrence for non-performing officials.
 It may induce culture among officials of hard work and efficiency.
 Inertia among bureaucrats to start new work or take risk will be reduced
 Provide motivation to bureaucrats

Negative effects of Compulsory retirements:

 May be misused as a political tool against honest officers.
 Although ministers and bureaucrats work hand in hand but this may give former greater control on latter
sometimes detrimental to officers efficiency.

Conclusion:
Compulsory retirement is a desirable approach as the efficacy of a system is determined by the set of incentives facing
people who exercise power. As bureaucrats continue to wield enormous power, a guaranteed job provides the wrong
incentives. Hence the mid-term appraisal and compulsory retirement might be the much needed bureaucratic
reforms in India.

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 Specialist Approach vs Generalists Approach:

Adopting Specialist Approach:

 In a developing economy specialists should be right at the top in the line authority rather than in a staff-cell
attached to the generalist line authority. The advantage is the Government would become less bureaucratic, more
programme-oriented and committed.
 The generalist administrator usually does not develop a sustained interest in any particular field of activity. Even
in exceptional cases when he does develop such an interest, this becomes infructuous because by the time he has
learnt the job he is transferred to some other job.
 The management and the administration (such as that of PSUs) should be well- trained in the know-how of the
enterprises that they manage. The emphasis should shift from mere theoretical, bureaucratic control to a self-
contained knowledgeable set-up.
 It is said that generalists are prisoners of rules, regulations and precedents and there is too much stress on
continuity, caution, and red tape.
 Understanding amongst experts (i.e. people with similar domain expertise) is better and it may result in conducive
work environment and better policy.

Adopting Generalists Approach:

 Generalists Administration is politics in action. As one rises up the hierarchy, there is less hands-on job and more
management of resources. It vests in a bureaucrat a successively larger responsibility for enforcing the general
point of view of the Government.
 Top management job requires a general understanding. It requires a view of the whole.
 Most specialists usually employ an esoteric language to convey their ideas. In administration it leads to difficulty
in communication between the non-expert minister and the highly specialized expert secretaries.

Civil services thus require a mix of both generalists and specialists. However, the current stranglehold of career
bureaucracy has prevented willing and able experts from outside the system to join the Government. Even in ministries
as complex as finance, academic economists have been confined to that of advisory roles rather than executive roles
in most cases. Creating a specialist system of bureaucracy would mean ending of monopoly at the top with the
introduction of lateral entries, ending of ageism as younger people will get to hold higher positions. These changes
will improve performance management and bring rationalist bureaucracy, as demanded by the 21st century.

Civil Service Neutrality

 Unfortunately, the concept of civil service neutrality no longer holds good. Changes in Governments particularly
at the state level often lead to wholesale transfer of civil servants.
 Political neutrality is no longer the accepted norm with many civil servants getting identified, rightly or wrongly,
with a particular political dispensation.
 There is a perception that officers have to cultivate and seek patronage from politicians for obtaining suitable
positions even in the Union Government. As a result, the civil services in public perception are often seen as
increasingly politicized.
 The political neutrality and impartiality of the civil services needs to be preserved. The onus for this lies equally
on the political executive and civil servants.
 Ministers must uphold the political impartiality of the civil service and not ask the civil servants to act in any way
which would conflict with the duties and responsibilities of the civil servant.
 In a nutshell arbitrary and illegal interference by ministers or MPs or MLAs in the work delegated to the
bureaucracy is neither desirable nor beneficial for an efficient Government.

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Criticality of relationship between Civil Servant and Political Executive

 In a democracy, power vests with the people. This power is exercised through its elected representatives who
have the mandate to govern them for a specific period.
 The civil services by virtue of its knowledge, experience and understanding of public affairs assist the elected
representatives in formulating policy and are responsible for implementing these policies.
 Therefore, a healthy working relationship between Ministers and civil servants is critical for good governance.
 Once a law is framed or rules and regulations are approved, they apply to everyone, whether a member of the
political executive or of the permanent civil service.
 A civil servant is required to implement the orders of Government without bias, with honesty and without fear or
favour.

Recent Initiatives by Government:

360 Degree Appraisal:

 A 360 degree system of appraisal has been passed by the Government for empanelment of senior level officers in
the Government of India. This system involves a multi-source feedback from various stakeholders in the
Government such as seniors, peers and juniors.
 The empanelment process also takes into account the overall service record of the individual, the vigilance status
and the suitability of the officers concerned.
 The Government first introduced this system in April 2015 as a supplement to the existing Annual Confidential
Report (ACR) system.

Karmayogi Yojana:

 Karmayogi Yojana’ or the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB), in a bid to transform
status-quoist and rule-obsessed civil servants working in silos into “experts”.

iGOT:

 The iGOT (Integrated Government Online Training Programme) developed by Department of Personnel and
Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, was launched.
 To provide a broad training eco-system creating synergies across various premier training institutes of the
country and to cater the training needs which can encompass all the officials in the entire hierarchy of Central and
State Governments.

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Previous Year Questions
1. Has digital illiteracy, particularly in rural areas, coupled with lack of Information and 2021
Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility hindered socio-economic development? Examine with
justification. (250 words)

2. “Recent amendments to the Right to Information Act will have profound impact on the autonomy 2020
and independence of the Information Commission”. Discuss.

3. “The emergence of Fourth Industrial Revolution (Digital Revolution) has initiated e-Governance as 2020
an integral part of Government”. Discuss

4. “Institutional quality is a crucial driver of economic performance”. In this context suggest reforms 2020
in Civil Service for strengthening democracy

5. Implementation of information and Communication Technology (ICT) based Projects / Programmes 2019
usually suffers in terms of certain vital factors. Identify these factors, and suggest measures for their
effective implementation. (10m 150 words)

6. E-Governance is not only about utilization of the power of new technology, but also much about 2018
critical importance of the ‘use value’ of information Explain.

7. Citizens’ Charter is an ideal instrument of organizational transparency and accountability, but. it 2018
has its own limitations. Identify the limitations and suggest measures for greater effectiveness or the
Citizens Charter.

8. Discuss the role of Public Accounts Committee in establishing accountability of the Government to 2017
the people.

9. Initially Civil Services in India were designed to achieve the goals of neutrality and effectiveness, 2017
which seems to be lacking in the present context. Do you agree with the view that drastic reforms are
required in Civil Services. Comment

10. “Effectiveness of the Government system at various levels and people’s participation in the 2016
governance system are inter-dependent.” Discuss their relationship with each other in context of
India.

11. In the integrity index of Transparency International, India stands very low. Discuss briefly the legal, 2016
political, economic, social and cultural factors that have caused the decline of public morality in India.

12. “Traditional bureaucratic structure and culture have hampered the process of socio-economic 2016
development in India.”

13. In the light of the Satyam Scandal (2009), discuss the changes brought in corporate governance 2015
to ensure transparency, accountability.

Educrat IAS Academy, 2nd floor, North Block, Park Plaza Building, 71, Park Street, Kolkata- 700016 59
14. “If amendment bill to the Whistleblowers Act, 2011 tabled in the Parliament is passed, there may 2015
be no one left to protect.” Critically evaluate.

15. Has the Cadre based Civil Services Organisation been the cause of slow change in India? Critically 2014
examine

16. Though Citizen’s charters have been formulated by many public service delivery organization s, 2013
there is no corresponding improvement in the level of citizens’ satisfaction and quality of services
being provided. Analyze.

17. ‘A national Lokpal, however strong it may be, cannot resolve the problems of immorality in public 2013
affairs’. Discuss.

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