I would like to begin with some lines from my favorite poet, Robert Frost. He says,
“I will be saying this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference”
When I was in St. Stephen’s College in the 1960s, the best of every class joined the civil services. Because we wanted to serve the country, and we believed the civil services was the only way to do it. I had finished my Bachelors and Masters in Physics with top positions in the University rankings. I was President of the St. Stephen’s College Union. There was no question in mind, and of others, that I must go to the civil services. The only problem was that I was too young to sit for the exam, so I had to pause for a year. In that pause, another path, not usually taken, emerged. I was invited by the directors of Tata Sons to consider joining the Tata Administrative Services immediately. They said they understood my need to serve the country. And they showed me how Tatas had served India by creating industries, and jobs, in many sectors in very difficult conditions. So I took a path that my peers in College had not taken.
I am an oddball. Many senior civil servants, when they retire, join the private sector in various capacities. I have done the reverse. I have joined the Government after 45 years in the private sector in India and abroad.
When I was invited to this panel, I was told that, as an outsider to the civil services and a relative newcomer to the Government too, I would provide value to this meeting if I was candid, like the child who said that the Emperor was not wearing any clothes. Therefore I want to make three candid observations.
The first is that, while a process of change in the civil services has been underway, it has not at all kept pace with the pace of change in the environment.
The world changes. Species evolve. Institutions also evolve. The Key question is: is the pace at which species and institutions change keeping up with the pace at which the environment is changing. If the pace of change of an institution is slower than the pace at which the environment is changing, the gap between the institution and its environment can become too large for the institution to remain effective.
While preparing the 12th Five Year Plan, the PC undertook the widest consultations with citizens and stakeholders it has ever undertaken. Over 950 civil society organizations participated. Dozens of chambers of business. Many think tanks. State governments were consulted, as were ministries in the center. . We even used social media to supplement the face-to-face consultations. I, personally, on many occasions interacted with IAS officers and other civil servants. In Mussoorie. In large ‘strategy’ sessions in the RFD process.
The PC used a systematic process of systems’ analysis and scenario planning to synthesize the many points-of-view in this wide and inclusive consultation. Thus emerged insights into the critical forces shaping India today. As well as three scenarios of the future of India depending on the trajectory of these forces and our abilities to channel them.
The central force affecting the present and future of the system is the increasing lack of confidence and mistrust of citizens in institutions of the Establishment. These include political parties. These include business corporations. And they include the civil services including the IAS. This lack of trust is playing out in protests of many sorts which, in turn seem to be paralyzing the abilities of these institutions to perform. To break out of this vicious cycle, leaders of institutions must reform their institutions much faster.
Three scenarios of India have emerged. One is to continue Muddling Along. However, the systems analysis reveals that this is very fragile scenario. If we do not make fundamental changes in our institutions rapidly, another scenario, of the situation Falling Apart is possible. Fortunately, a third scenario is also plausible, if we make the institutional and process reforms it requires. This is the scenario, The Flotilla Advances, whereby it achieves faster, more inclusive and more sustainable growth.
The spread and deepening of ideas of democracy. The demand for human rights, going beyond merely the right to vote. The proliferation of interest groups, fuelled also by 24X7 instant communications. Demands for devolution to the states and local bodies. The spread of entrepreneurship and private enterprise. All these are making our world, a world of many independent boats. It is no longer possible to control this flotilla with a high command. And attempts to shut up protest and control communications will fail.
My second observation is that institutions that have been structured on the notion of vertical relationships in the system are out of synch with these times. Institutions in which their leaders seek to derive their authority from their superior positions in hierarchy, from their ability to win support by giving largess through budgets, or to punish by their power of the law, are like King Canute, asking the ocean to roll back.
We can no longer complain that we must work in coalitions. We can no longer complain that the power is in the states. We can no longer complain that there are too many pesky NGOs. We can no longer complain that the media seems to be out of control.
What our institutions of governance and their leaders need today are abilities to shape coalitions of stakeholders who will move together towards the outcomes the whole system needs. This is the essence of the scenario of India, The Flotilla Advances. The subject of our discussion today is Civil Services Fit for the Future. I would say that these are critical abilities required for Civil Services Fit for the Present.
Our civil services must reorient themselves from the paradigm of vertical leadership and control, on which the Iron Frame set up by the British was based, to a paradigm of horizontal leadership. Processes for consensus-building must be learned. Within Government, subjects must not be split into silos. Decision-making through up-and-down movements of files bound in red tape is too fragmented and too slow for a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected and changing too rapidly for the pace of file movements to cope up with it.
In my 4 years with the Planning Commission, I have been invited into many discussions with civil servants about the state of the civil services. I have read the excellent recommendations of the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission, particularly its reports, numbers 10 and 13, on the reform of the civil services and the structure of government. These reports have been summarized well in the paper that has been circulated for this panel discussion.
This brings me to my third candid observation. Sometimes improvement in the condition of the body by self treatment is too slow. Stronger medicine or surgery is also required, for which one should put oneself in professional hands. Thus institutions too must get outside professional help to make the changes they need. Trying to manage change in the orientation of an organization and to overhaul its HR systems by oneself, no matter how smart one is otherwise, does not work when the gap between the organization and what its environment demands of it has become very large.
I believe the ability of the civil services to overhaul themselves through internally managed programs is not sufficient for the changes the country needs.
Let me say in conclusion that the glass of the civil services is more than half full. They are playing an excellent role in the development of India, and in challenging circumstances. I did not mention all that because I was asked to focus on what has yet to be done and has now become imperative.