Mission Karmayogi: Reimagining the civil servant
- Civil services have remained at the epicentre of all govt activities in India, both as agents of policymaking & the executive hand that delivers and implements those policies.
- Amrit Mahotsav is the appropriate time for the civil services to pause, reflect and strategize on the approaches needed to shape its future.
Factors shaping people centric governance
- Rise of information and communication technology
- People are becoming more interconnected globally.
- India's citizens are actively making claims on the state and feel empowered to shape how it affects their lives.
- Politicians
- Recognise the importance of delivering on campaign promises of better health, education and social benefits.
- Development of new technologies
- Opening up possibilities for governance
- The state needs to leverage them to deliver the greatest good for the largest number.
Concept of ‘Partnership State’
- In it, the private sector, civil society and citizen volunteer groups join together to address the issues of the society.
- Requirements:
- A new mindset
- An evolving skill set - collaboration, adaptiveness, credit sharing, persuasion, and conflict resolution
- A nuanced and practical understanding of disruptive innovations, digital arenas, big data management and emerging technologies.
Mission Karmayogi
- National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB).
- Encapsulates three transitions:
- A change in the mindset of govemment officials from considering themselves karmacharis to becoming karmayogis.
- A change in the workplace from assigning individual responsibility for performance, to diagnosing the constraints to a civilservant's performance and remediating them.
- Moving the public HR management system and the corresponding capacity building apparatus from being rule-based to role-based.
- Institutional framework:
- Prime Minister's Human Resource Council
- Cabinet Secretariat coordination unit
- Capacity Building Commission (CBC)
- SPV Karmayogi Bharat
Capacity Building Commission (CBC)
- To build credibility and shape a uniform approach to capacity building on a collaborative basis.
- Will determine the roll-out strategy of the NPCSCB
- Will onboard different ministries and departments
- Will conduct the HR audit of government organisations
- Will ensure functional oversight over all central training institutions
Conclusion
- India is moving towards a "less government, more governance" approach.
- This requires a paradigmatic shift in the capacities, mindset and actions of the civil servant.
- The structure and setup of the workplace is rapidly altering and work from anywhere to deliver good governance to all citizens will soon become the norm.
- All this requires a worker (civil servant) who is not just committed but also has the competence to deliver on this evolving man.