On this occasion of the seventh Civil Services Day I warmly greet all members of our
civil services. This annual event provides our civil services an opportunity to reaffirm
their collective commitment to serve our country and our people to the best of their
ability. It is also an occasion for the civil servants to introspect and reflect on their role
and performance, and how these can be made more effective, more meaningful.
I have seen the three themes for today's deliberations. They all cover issues that are
important for the country and of immediate relevance to the functioning of our civil
servants. I am sure that you will have productive discussions during the course of the day.
But I also believe that the significance of today’s event lies equally in sending out a
message that we are all determined to make our civil services more competent, more
professional, and alive to the requirements of the twenty first century and capable of
facilitating rapid social and economic progress in our country.
I have always believed that there is no dearth of talent in our civil services. Many of our
civil servants would rank among the best in the world. They have done excellent work.
They have delivered results in the face of adversity. Several civil servants have been
shining examples of probity and integrity, working selflessly for the public good. Indeed,
we have just been introduced to the work of some outstanding civil servants. I
congratulate today’s award winners and wish them even more success in the future.
As I said earlier, the Civil Services Day should also be an occasion for introspection.
Even as we celebrate our successes, we should also be honest in admitting our failures
and our deficiencies. I would like to take today's opportunity to flag some issues about the
civil services which I believe agitate the public mind.
There is a growing perception, right or wrong, that the moral fiber of our civil servants
and public servants in general, is not as strong as it used to be some decades back and that
our civil servants are now more likely to succumb to extraneous pressures in their work.
These perceptions might be exaggerated but I do think that there is a grain of truth in
them.
The decisions that the civil servants take must be fair and objective in nature, based on
sound evidence and deep analysis and designed to serve the best interests of our country.
Their judgment and advice should not be affected by the nature and color of the political
leadership. If this does not happen, the impartiality and fairness of the decision making
processes in public administration would get compromised and the quality of our output
would be sub-optimal. I think, therefore, this is a vigil that the civil servants must
maintain constantly. I also believe that there is a growing perception in the public that
over the years the attributes of objectivity in work has been diluted. I leave it to the civil
servants to ponder to what extent this perception is true and what they can collectively do
to remove it from the public mind.
This brings me to yet another issue that I would like to flag today. We live in times of
great change. Our society and our economy are undergoing rapid transformation. Every
day we are exposed to new technology and to new ways of doing things. Not only this,
technology has made the world smaller and best practices now get disseminated much
faster than ever before. We should therefore ask ourselves the question whether, in our
ways of doing things, we are keeping pace with the changes taking place all around us. I
think it is generally felt that the civil services have somewhat lagged behind in this area. I
am aware that it is not very easy to change systems, procedures and processes in the
public sector. But this should be taken as a challenge and our civil servants should
redouble their efforts to adopt more modern methods and practices.
In my last Civil Services Day address on April 21, 2011 I had outlined the measures that
our government had taken or was contemplating to tackle the menace of corruption in
public life. I believe that since then we have made substantial progress towards
strengthening the legislative framework and revamping our administrative practices to
enable us to fight corruption better. Even as our government moves forward in these
efforts, which I don't want to list in detail today, it should be our endeavor that there is no
witch hunting in the name of fighting corruption. It is our government's commitment to
put in place a system and create an environment in which our civil servants are
encouraged to be decisive, and no one is harassed for bonafide mistakes of errors of
judgment. We stand committed to protecting honest and well meaning civil servants who
might have made genuine errors in their work. And I sincerely hope that these intentions
of our government are shared by the state governments too.
On their part, the civil servants in our country should fight the tendency of not taking
decisions because of the fear that things might go wrong and they might be penalised for
that. We cannot have a bureaucracy which is hundred percent risk averse. In fact we
should encourage boldness in decision making, provided that the decisions are well
considered and as per the law of the land. A civil servant who does not take decisions
might always be safe, but at the end of the day he or she would have contributed nothing
to our society and to our country.
Let me also very briefly comment on the topics that will be deliberated upon today. The
first theme "Security for the Marginalized: Vision for a Caring India" particularly relevant
to all of us in the context of our commitment and efforts towards inclusion towards the
integration of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and religious minorities in the national
mainstream. As we enter the Twelfth Plan period we should redouble our efforts for
building a society and country in which the fruits of development are shared by each and
every citizen. Our growth would not have much meaning if we fail in building a truly
inclusive society and country. Indeed, without inclusion, social and economic, the very
sustainability of our growth processes comes under question. The other two themes relate
to making our civil services corruption free and more transparent and accountable, and
also to enable them to improve service delivery to our citizens. These issues are of
abiding relevance to all of us. I once again wish you very productive discussions on all
these issues.
Let me end by stating that we have full faith in our civil services. They have served our
country well. Our civil servants have made a very substantial contribution to our country's
progress. I congratulate them for their achievements. I wish them all the best for the
future. But I also hope that they would constantly endeavor to improve, upgrade and
modernize the systems and processes they adopt and operate in the best interests of our
country.
civil services. This annual event provides our civil services an opportunity to reaffirm
their collective commitment to serve our country and our people to the best of their
ability. It is also an occasion for the civil servants to introspect and reflect on their role
and performance, and how these can be made more effective, more meaningful.
I have seen the three themes for today's deliberations. They all cover issues that are
important for the country and of immediate relevance to the functioning of our civil
servants. I am sure that you will have productive discussions during the course of the day.
But I also believe that the significance of today’s event lies equally in sending out a
message that we are all determined to make our civil services more competent, more
professional, and alive to the requirements of the twenty first century and capable of
facilitating rapid social and economic progress in our country.
I have always believed that there is no dearth of talent in our civil services. Many of our
civil servants would rank among the best in the world. They have done excellent work.
They have delivered results in the face of adversity. Several civil servants have been
shining examples of probity and integrity, working selflessly for the public good. Indeed,
we have just been introduced to the work of some outstanding civil servants. I
congratulate today’s award winners and wish them even more success in the future.
As I said earlier, the Civil Services Day should also be an occasion for introspection.
Even as we celebrate our successes, we should also be honest in admitting our failures
and our deficiencies. I would like to take today's opportunity to flag some issues about the
civil services which I believe agitate the public mind.
There is a growing perception, right or wrong, that the moral fiber of our civil servants
and public servants in general, is not as strong as it used to be some decades back and that
our civil servants are now more likely to succumb to extraneous pressures in their work.
These perceptions might be exaggerated but I do think that there is a grain of truth in
them.
The decisions that the civil servants take must be fair and objective in nature, based on
sound evidence and deep analysis and designed to serve the best interests of our country.
Their judgment and advice should not be affected by the nature and color of the political
leadership. If this does not happen, the impartiality and fairness of the decision making
processes in public administration would get compromised and the quality of our output
would be sub-optimal. I think, therefore, this is a vigil that the civil servants must
maintain constantly. I also believe that there is a growing perception in the public that
over the years the attributes of objectivity in work has been diluted. I leave it to the civil
servants to ponder to what extent this perception is true and what they can collectively do
to remove it from the public mind.
This brings me to yet another issue that I would like to flag today. We live in times of
great change. Our society and our economy are undergoing rapid transformation. Every
day we are exposed to new technology and to new ways of doing things. Not only this,
technology has made the world smaller and best practices now get disseminated much
faster than ever before. We should therefore ask ourselves the question whether, in our
ways of doing things, we are keeping pace with the changes taking place all around us. I
think it is generally felt that the civil services have somewhat lagged behind in this area. I
am aware that it is not very easy to change systems, procedures and processes in the
public sector. But this should be taken as a challenge and our civil servants should
redouble their efforts to adopt more modern methods and practices.
In my last Civil Services Day address on April 21, 2011 I had outlined the measures that
our government had taken or was contemplating to tackle the menace of corruption in
public life. I believe that since then we have made substantial progress towards
strengthening the legislative framework and revamping our administrative practices to
enable us to fight corruption better. Even as our government moves forward in these
efforts, which I don't want to list in detail today, it should be our endeavor that there is no
witch hunting in the name of fighting corruption. It is our government's commitment to
put in place a system and create an environment in which our civil servants are
encouraged to be decisive, and no one is harassed for bonafide mistakes of errors of
judgment. We stand committed to protecting honest and well meaning civil servants who
might have made genuine errors in their work. And I sincerely hope that these intentions
of our government are shared by the state governments too.
On their part, the civil servants in our country should fight the tendency of not taking
decisions because of the fear that things might go wrong and they might be penalised for
that. We cannot have a bureaucracy which is hundred percent risk averse. In fact we
should encourage boldness in decision making, provided that the decisions are well
considered and as per the law of the land. A civil servant who does not take decisions
might always be safe, but at the end of the day he or she would have contributed nothing
to our society and to our country.
Let me also very briefly comment on the topics that will be deliberated upon today. The
first theme "Security for the Marginalized: Vision for a Caring India" particularly relevant
to all of us in the context of our commitment and efforts towards inclusion towards the
integration of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and religious minorities in the national
mainstream. As we enter the Twelfth Plan period we should redouble our efforts for
building a society and country in which the fruits of development are shared by each and
every citizen. Our growth would not have much meaning if we fail in building a truly
inclusive society and country. Indeed, without inclusion, social and economic, the very
sustainability of our growth processes comes under question. The other two themes relate
to making our civil services corruption free and more transparent and accountable, and
also to enable them to improve service delivery to our citizens. These issues are of
abiding relevance to all of us. I once again wish you very productive discussions on all
these issues.
Let me end by stating that we have full faith in our civil services. They have served our
country well. Our civil servants have made a very substantial contribution to our country's
progress. I congratulate them for their achievements. I wish them all the best for the
future. But I also hope that they would constantly endeavor to improve, upgrade and
modernize the systems and processes they adopt and operate in the best interests of our
country.
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