I am very happy to once again have this opportunity to interact with the IAS Probationers and I am particularly happy that this year I see a larger number of women joining the ranks of IAS than never before and I think that augurs well for the future development of our country and in terms of our ability to address the concerns of our people. This whole mix, the increased proportion of women officers, I think it is all to the good.

The Constitution of India gives great deal of security to the permanent Civil Service i.e, IAS and other Central Services and I believe that the makers of our Constitution were men and women of great wisdom, knowledge and experience. They recognised that although India is designed to be a functioning democracy, in true democracy competitive politics often creates an environment where political masters are not able to take a long term view of the country's needs, its prospects, the direction in which it ought to go and how we can steer the country in that direction. And therefore, if we cannot rely upon political class to perform this function as the conscience keepers of our country's value system, then where do we look for? I do believe that it is in the Indian Administrative Service and allied Central Services that we must look for a group of men and women of great ability, great dedication, great commitment for the value system enshrined in our Constitution and to think in a mature, long term way of where this country ought to be going and if you are not going in that direction, how we can put in place mechanisms to steer our economy, our polity, our society in that direction.

Therefore, you have a unique privileged role to think of the long-term interests of India. When I talk of the long-term interests of India, I am saying that you will soon be assigned to various States of the Union to be working in States and that has great advantage. We have a concept of the administrative service where people work, gain experience in States, come to the Centre for defined periods, go back and enrich their knowledge and experience. So I believe we have in the Administrative Service of our country, a group of people who must think of the long-term interests of our country first and foremost. I said of India as a whole, although you will be working in States, it is very important to recognise that first and foremost there has to be a Union before we can think of developing India as a cohesive entity. At a time when fissiparous tendencies are gaining ground, regional, caste sentiments are gaining ground, it is very necessary to remind us of our obligation to do nothing to hurt the unity and integrity of our country. We are a large country of great diversity, a country of great complexity. We have States. States have defined roles in our Constitution. There are very many times the States' interests clash and there are mechanisms provided in our Constitution to deal with those conflicts of interest. For that it is very important that those who will be in charge of the Administration of our country must not lose sight of this wider perspective of doing everything in our power to strengthen the unity and integrity of our country.

Today we are living in a world of unprecedented change. The only constant thing in the world is change itself and science and technology have made it possible, as never before in human history to ensure that chronic poverty need not be the inevitable lot of a majority of Indians. And our foremost task is to do everything to accelerate the processes of social and economic development, processes which lay emphasis on equity, processes which lay emphasis on proper regional balance, processes which ensure that all sections of our society become active partners in processes of social and economic change and it is where I believe you have very special responsibility.

Law and order will remain a very important function of any administration in our country and we have to ensure that in enforcing order, we do not lose sight of the essential purposes for which our Union has been created. Law and order with justice, with compassion, with concern of equity, with concern for the welfare of the poorer sections of our community, the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, law and order enforcement paying particular emphasis to the maintenance of communal harmony. These are therefore the requirements, which have to be kept in view while administering a country of our size, of our complexity.

As I said we are living in a world of unprecedented change and therefore it is very essential that the knowledge gathering process should not end with your training in the academy. Life must be regarded as one large continuous process of learning and re-learning. I do believe that Department of Personnel, Cabinet Secretary, Chaturvedi Ji and his colleagues have taken good care to ensure that our civil servants do operate at the frontiers of knowledge as far as possible which I think you have to inculcate in your mindset.

A receptivity to processes of change, to understand the processes, which are making change, whether these are technological forces, whether these are social forces, and their proper understanding will contribute a great deal to your effectiveness as administrative pathfinders or as agents of change. India is on a march. We are today one of the fastest growing economies of the world and it is our ambition to accelerate the tempo of growth from about eight and eight and a half per cent in recent years to about nine to ten per cent. I believe it can be done. But it will require lot of efforts.

We have to revitalise our agriculture and rural economy. The agricultural economy must grow at the rate of at least four per cent per annum if we have to realise the objective of nine to ten per cent growth. Hence, our agriculture has to be an active participant in processes of change and what makes for revitalisation of our rural economy, of our agriculture, must remain the prime concern of administration for many many years to come. How is it then that Indian agriculture can acquire more and more scientific temper about which Jawaharlal Nehru talked as early as in 1947? How is that Indian agriculture can operate at the frontiers of technological knowledge? How is it that we can ensure that the processes of change in agriculture do not accentuate the disparities? How to reduce disparities? You have to spend a great deal of your time understanding the dynamics of administration in a predominantly agricultural society. How do cooperatives work? How do panchayats work? And how do various other entities, which interact to give a new thrust to our agricultural growth? How do they interact with one another?

Credit is the lifeline of any modern agriculture. And yet, we have large number of gaps. How can we make our agriculture more bankable, more credit worthy? What can we do to increase the absorptive capacity? What is role of a good extension service? What is the role of a good agricultural research system? We have today all over the country, almost in every district, Krishi Vigyan Kendras. How can Krishi Vigyan Kendras become pathfinders to new technology for revitalising our agriculture? How can cooperative movement be revitalised? It used to be an axiom that cooperation has failed but cooperation must succeed. For 50-60 years, we have been relying on cooperatives as an important instrument of social and economic change in rural areas. We have success stories, we have failures also. We are today in a phase where in many States, cooperative system has come to a grinding halt. We cannot live with that situation. Revitalisation of cooperative institutions, these are the grassroot institutions of local level development, their revitalisation and factors which make them sick, how we can work together to get over that sickness, to ensure that existing healthy societies do not become sick.

I think these are challenges which our administration will have to face. And now you have to share your power, you have to be keen listeners to the felt needs of the people represented in Panchayati Raj Institutions. So, this calls for heavy responsibility. The old notion of Government servant as 'Mai Baap' I think must replace itself by Government servants becoming one of the principal agents of social change working in harmony and great cooperation with peoples' representatives particularly at the Panchayati Raj and district level institutions that are now being strengthened with new degrees of effectiveness all over our country. Therefore, deep knowledge of agriculture and our rural economy is very essential for ensuring that our administration remains in touch with the grassroot realities.

In the same way, I would say the Constitution of India requires us to pursue a path of development which is socially just and therefore the fruits of development must be shared equitably. The problems of Scheduled Tribes, the problems of Scheduled Castes, those who have been at the margins of subsistence for centuries and centuries. Unless we can lift these people, unless we can ensure that they are active partners in processes of development, I think we cannot be too sure of the strength of our economy, of the unity of our country. Therefore as civil servants, you must pay particular attention to the impact of Government Policies, Government measures on the welfare of the downtrodden, on the welfare of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Minorities, women and children and other disenfranchised sections of our society.

I would lay particular emphasis to pay more and more emphasis to understanding of what are the gaps in our performance which so far have created an environment where the processes of growth and development have not been shared equitably. There are problems of lack of adequate educational facilities, lack of adequate healthcare facilities, there may be many other factors. Therefore I think as our District Collectors, District Magistrates you must always be sensitive to these issues as to how working together we can understand the complexity of the processes of social and economic change and how then we can use that as an input in designing policies and programmes which we, in due course of time, integrate our economy and our polity and our society in a manner in which it ought to be integrated.

We have today five or six very important development programmes which if implemented carefully can soften greatly the harsh edges of extreme poverty. We have two years ago launched the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme. It is now operating in 330 districts of our country. Our ambition is that in the next two to three years, it should spread to all rural districts of our country. And if that succeeds, if this programme is well administered, it will ensure that each family in rural areas has a minimum income security of earning Rs. 6000 per annum. We may not abolish poverty but we would have succeeded in softening the harsh edges of extreme poverty. If this scheme is well administered through official programmes and other soil conservation programme, we would have also laid the foundation of the new thrust forward in improving agricultural productivity.

We have the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a massive programme of ensuring that elementary education becomes the birth right of every child in our country. Lot of efforts are being made and our effort is that in the next five years, we carry this educational thrust into the area of secondary education and also ensure that more and more children from the disadvantaged communities, particularly the first generation learners, their problems of being integrated into the educational system must receive greater and greater understanding.

We have launched a big programme for rural healthcare system. We are today having in our countryside about 300,000 ASHAs, the change agents to create an awareness about the health needs of our rural society and to find new pathways to ensure that the healthcare needs of the rural areas are met more effectively. We have launched a massive programme for Urban Renewal which now covers 63 cities. We will ensure that these cities are modernised, civic amenities are brought up-to-date to civilised standards of modern living. If all these programmes are implemented, we would march ahead as a proud Nation. If these programmes are to succeed, it will depend very much on your commitment, on your dedication, on your efficiency and therefore I believe, you are the builders of India of our dream. And this is a unique challenge. And you are privileged to be serving our country at a very crucial phase of our development. India is now recognised all over the world as one of the fastest moving economies. The world respects India. I have often said that today there are no external barriers to India's development. Most countries marvel at a country of one billion people where all the great religions of the world are to be found among the citizens, with all its complexities, with all its diversities, remaining a functioning democracy, sustaining growth rates of eight and eight and a half per cent. People wherever I go, they want India to succeed. If India succeeds, I think that would be a unique way of telling the world democracy and development are compatible. And that's why I find great fund of goodwill for India. If there are barriers, there are barriers in our country, in our governance, in our governance processes, the fact there is lot of corruption, both at the political level and at the administrative level. We must tackle this head on. Without improving the quality of governance at all levels, at the Centre, the States, at the grass root level, we can never build an India worthy of our dreams. I do believe, that in this room we have men and women who are going to make that crucial difference. So, I congratulate you for having joined this elite Service of our country and I pray that you will remain faithful to the ideals, to the value system enshrined in our Constitution. That's the only road forward to sustained progress and prosperity and getting rid of chronic poverty, ignorance and disease which should be the normal ambition of every young person in our country.