Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's speech at the Civil Services Day

It gives me immense pleasure to be present today on the occasion of the observance of the first Civil Services Day. I commend the Cabinet Secretary and Mr Nair for organizing this meeting. I welcome the idea of observing a specific day each year as the Civil Services Day. We have for long observed specific days in the year to celebrate the contributions of various sections of our defence and security services. It is also appropriate that we dedicate this day to express our appreciation of the contribution of the civil services to national development. Our civil services have a proud record of contribution to national integration and development. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Central Civil Services are the backbone of the governance structure of our nation. They have played a vital role in the task of nation building, right from the time we achieved independence, to the present day. It was Sardar Patel's vision that the Civil Service should strengthen cohesion and national unity. He wanted a strong and vibrant federal administrative system in which the All India Services would play an important role. True to his conviction, the Civil Services have provided the framework for the administration of the country. The values of integrity, impartiality and merit remain the guiding principles of our civil services. 

Permit me to recall Sardar Patel's advice to young officers at the dawn of our Independence in 1947: "Above all I would advise you to maintain to the utmost the impartiality and incorruptibility of administration. A Civil Servant cannot afford to, and must not, take part in politics. Nor must he involve himself in communal wrangles. To depart from the path of rectitude in either of these respects is to debase public service and to lower its dignity. Similarly no service worth the name can claim to exist if it does not have in view the achievement of the highest standard of integrity." 

At the time of Independence, the nation was faced with many problems and definitely the issue of keeping it together as one was not the least amongst them. Ensuring unity given our diversity was indeed a great concern and the civil services played their historic role. The all-India services played an important role in strengthening the bonds of unity and integrity, under the leadership of Panditji and Sardar Patel. Yet, we must ask the question today whether the services have fully lived up to the Sardar's exhortations about integrity and commitment to secular values. Both corruption and communalism remain as important a challenge today as they appeared to Sardar Patel in 1947. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Civil Servants have played multiple roles in the initial years of our nation building process. A wide range of tasks spanning a variety of knowledge areas were undertaken for completion by civil servants as the country had a severe shortage of trained personnel in many areas. In addition to performing their main role of administrators, civil servants took upon many other roles which were of specialists in different fields. It was the requirement of the time and they rose to the occasion. 

Along with a maturing of the nation, the role of the civil service has also been changing. However, throughout this process of change that the country has been experiencing, the civil service has continued to be an important instrument for initiating and managing change. Much of this change has been in areas and activities that had a strong presence of the government and its resources. Where development was driven by government, the civil servant has been a key instrument, along with the political leadership, in initiating and managing change and delivering services.

However, there is a larger purpose and a larger role that a meritocracy like yours must fulfill. Our national leaders like Panditji and Sardar Patel viewed the all India services as a group of professionals who would take a long term view of the nation's needs and priorities. While state and local administration would focus on day to day issues of governance, the all India services were charged with the responsibility of thinking ahead and into the future. You represent a national establishment with a national responsibility. You, therefore, continue to constitute the "steel frame" of our Republic. This gives you both power and responsibility. It also gives you the opportunity to guide a political leadership that is subject to the law of electoral change. Governments may come and go, but the administration endures and must play its due role. 

Our Government has taken several measures to improve the functioning of the civil services. We have brought in new procedures for evaluation and promotion. We have imparted greater transparency to the process. We have initiated steps to ensure security of tenure and depoliticisation of appointments and transfers. I hope these measures will restore to the all India services the prestige they were meant to enjoy and a sense of pride in their professionalism. 

Key challenges facing us today

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

I am happy to note that today you have chosen to discuss the role of civil administration in better public service delivery. As the economy evolves and society and polity change, Government and the civil service must also prepare to play a new and varied role. Markets will increasingly become the arbitrators of resource allocation in many cases. At the same time, it is necessary to realise that markets can at times lead to marginalisation of the poor and the vulnerable. We must not forget that markets serve those who are part of the market system. When millions of people are living on the edge of subsistence, with little in the form of assets or skills to be active participants in the evolving market economy, market signals cannot have significance for them. While markets can facilitate higher growth, a government must ensure that growth is equitable, inclusive and not unduly harsh on those not equipped to manage change. Ensuring and assuring equitable and sustainable growth is, therefore, an important challenge before Government and its managers. 

The modernization of both economy and society will require Governments to play new roles and in an increasingly transparent manner. Our civil servants must learn to grapple with the phenomenal explosion of knowledge. They will have to learn to seek the right information and utilize it for public good. Another aspect of government that is going to change is in the arena of accountability. Through greater access to information and effective mechanisms to seek redressal, the average citizen is likely to demand her due and is not going to be very patient about it. The Right to Information Act has empowered the citizen to seek more information from Governments. Further, there has been an explosion of civil society activities. Governments need to constructively engage with civil society, actively seek answers to problems in a transparent manner and manage the interface with public opinion effectively. Modern governments will have to reorient themselves to this reality. Government must develop the capability to work in a more open environment with more demanding standards of transparency and accountability. 

Historically, governments have viewed themselves as administrators of public delivery systems. They have viewed citizens as outside beneficiaries of governmental action. Citizens were expected to accept whatever was provided, with little choice on offer. This situation is changing everywhere. Citizens are expecting good service from Governments as a matter of right. Governments are expected to deliver efficient public services or facilitate privatisation. Effectiveness and efficiency of public service delivery is increasingly being demanded as a basic right of the citizen. Government is expected to be a service-provider rather than a mere administrator of a public service delivery system. This change in orientation is the third key challenge facing the governments of this day. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

The civil service has to reorient itself and be trained to deliver better services to the people. To make Government more efficient, we need a new public service orientation in the thinking of civil servants. You cannot view yourself as mere administrators. You are also managers. You have to manage change and manage efficient delivery of public services. This new orientation must begin at the very beginning. The questions that require addressing are: 

- Are the civil services adequately equipped to address these emerging challenges?

- If not, what must we do to address these challenges? 

- Is the present method of recruitment appropriate for inducting the right kind of persons in to government?

- Are the performance assessment and appraisal methods appropriate for preparing the civil services for the emerging demands on them and the government?

- How do we make the civil services an attractive career proposition for a talented young person? 

There may not be immediate answers to these questions, but these issues must be addressed if the civil services have to be reinvented to meet the needs of the future. I hope your conference today is able to address some of these questions and find meaningful answers. I also hope that, in an ever evolving and changing world, this effort to find answers continues as an ongoing exercise. I wish you well in your endeavours. 

Thank you.