Narendra Modi did something that had never been done before. He got the Secretaries to discuss various issues in informal settings. He had correctly diagnosed that the Ministries existed in silos, which needed to be broken. It worked. Secretaries got together and found solutions to many vexed issues that confronted the government. All the Secretaries to the Government were constituted into around ten Groups and were assigned subjects to work upon. This entailed several informal and formal meetings amongst the Secretaries, who perhaps never got together to discuss issues apart from those relating to their respective Departments. Modi was keen on breaking these silos. He was keen on getting these senior officers together to discuss some significant issues that beset the country in an informal setting. He succeeded substantially. These informal Groups of Secretaries made presentations before the PM in the presence of all Cabinet colleagues. There was positive energy all around. The presentations were followed by elaborate discussions wherein even the Cabinet Ministers asked questions, as did other Secretaries from different groups. An action plan was drawn up consequent to these discussions. Many suggestions even got incorporated in the Annual Budget. There was a purpose behind this exercise, and the purpose seemed to have been served.
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Modi was aware that infrastructure was the key to the country’s development. Hence, he personally reviewed such Ministries’ performance handling the infrastructure sector. Thus, Ministries such as Road and Surface Transport, Railways, Power, Telecom etc., came up for review. Coal was also one of the Ministries, but more often than not, it was passed over. These meetings were held periodically. The presentation on the progress made was usually made by Planning Commission (later NITI). Over time, PMs dissatisfaction with the progress kept growing as, except the Road and Surface Transport, most of the Ministries were not keeping pace.
More often than not, at the receiving end was the Telecom Ministry. The idea of review at the highest level was a brilliant one. However, it was gradually emerging that everyone wanted to expedite the progress with no one having a clue why the progress was lagging. As there was hardly any discussion on the substantive nature and cause of the problem, the problem remained where it was. Over time, one could discern more and more frustration on account of slow progress in most sectors. One classic example was UDAY (Ujjwala DISCOM Assurance Yojana) that was supposed to revive the Distribution Companies (DISCOMS). It was announced with much fanfare but finally made little impact in improving the health of DISCOMS or the power sector as the sector continued to languish.
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‘Pragati’ was another brilliant idea of the Prime Minister. He held meetings periodically to review the progress of large infrastructure projects with the concerned Secretaries of the related Ministries and the Chief Secretaries of the states where projects were stuck. It worked, at least in the beginning. Not many coal projects were considered, but I attended all the meetings. I discovered that several clearances were granted a few days before the meeting, and projects got moving. This happened at meeting after meeting, and the PM looked happy. Subsequently, he rightly started questioning why it should require a Prime Minister to hold a meeting to get the clearances. This was not going to be sustainable as the fundamental issues were neither being understood nor being addressed. ‘Pragati’ could have easily been used as a tool to analyse the problems so that systemic corrections could be brought about in the processes rather than addressing a specific issue. This perhaps was not done.
Also Read: Narendra Modi – the driving force
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The coal mess had been cleared. Coal blocks had been auctioned transparently. Coal production had reached record levels, and no power plant was critical for want of coal. I was shifted to School Education as Secretary in November 2016. My meetings with the Prime Minister became few and far between. However, whenever I did have the occasion to meet him, he inquired about how I was using technology to improve the functioning of the Department. He was apparently impressed at the manner in which I had used technology in the Ministry of Coal to carry out the Coal Block auctions transparently and how I had eliminated files and papers to usher in transparency and accountability.
Despite what was happening around him, he was still all ears for suggestions. I distinctly recall a discussion on organizing ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ (where he was scheduled to interact with school children directly to allay their fears about the upcoming exams). There were not very many officers around. As the formal discussion on the programme got over, the discussion somehow veered around to Aadhar (the unique identification number) that had run into some problems in the courts. As I had some idea about the issue, I suggested that the privacy of Aadhar related data could easily be maintained if a unique dummy number could be created and used as a unique id. He immediately caught on to the idea. The Prime Minister of India was prepared to listen and grasp the concepts.
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It was all so wonderful to begin with. Did it change thereafter? The concluding article on Modi deals with this aspect.
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