Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's address to IAS Probationers

"I am very happy to have this opportunity to interact once again with the batch represented by you. Last four years that I have been Prime Minister and I have been interacting with the IAS Probationers and this is one of my most pleasant duties as Prime Minister, as I see so many young bright faces and growing number of our women joining Administrative Service that pleases me because you are the custodians of the future of India.

I have often said before that a country needs a vision to move forward and that implies that you need a group of influential men and women who can take a long view of their country's prospects. We have a political system where politicians are unable to evolve that long-term perspective. Comparative politics, Governments change every five years and now that we have elections in some State or the other all the time, the minds of the politicians get concentrated on electoral battle and this whole process of looking at the evolution of our country - the challenges, the opportunities that we face as a Nation, what measures we should adopt and what measures we should not adopt in order to realize our tremendous growth potential. Politics in our country, unfortunately, does not play that part. That doesn't mean that politics is not important, politicians are in many ways very close to the people. They bring insights, they bring inputs which are very essential for the governance of our country even for development and therefore their input is important but the way comparative politics is played out, the political process does not throw up men and women of visionary, zeal which our country needs in order to emerge as one of the front ranking countries in this game of development and prosperity. And that's the reason I think our founding fathers, the great Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel recognized that at the very time of India's independence. So he gave a privileged, secured position to All India Services in the governance of India. And I think the hope was that in this group of people, we will have men and women who would be the establishment of the country. The establishment sometimes is used as a dirty word. But I think every modern organised society needs an establishment by which I mean a group of men and women who can think long-term, who are secure enough, who have a stake in the long-term evolution of this country and therefore, who will worry about where we are going, what corrective measures we must adopt in order to realize our chosen destiny and the All India Services have been given that privileged role in our society, in our polity and I congratulate all those who have after a very intense competitive examination, qualified for service in these privileged services of our country.

India is a country of great opportunities. India is also a country of great diversity. Nowhere else in the world, you'll find a country of 1.2 billion people trying to seek its economic and social salvation in the framework of a functioning democracy committed to the rule of law, committed to respecting all fundamental human freedoms and fundamental human rights, committed to a vision of a country where all the religious groups can live together in peace, in harmony, in friendship as equal citizens. When I went to the United States some three years ago, the President of the United States introduced me to his wife and his friends and said, "Do you know of another country of 1.2 billion people which is trying to seek its salvation in the framework of a functioning democracy. And there is none and therefore what is happening in India, the transformation of India from a very poor country to a fast growing economy trying to get rid of chronic poverty, ignorance and disease which for centuries has been the inevitable lot of our people. I think this is an experiment of great contemporary relevance and if India succeeds, I believe, this will have implication for the evolution of the world economy and the world polity in this 21st century that we live in. Therefore, I believe, blessed are the young men and young women who are partners of this process not only witness but persons who will guide the process that it moves forward smoothly.

As I said, our first and foremost task is to get rid of chronic poverty, ignorance and disease which afflict millions and millions of our people. It is now at one time we believed that the State by itself could do all this. Subsequently we realized that the State has a very important role in the development process in social transformation, in maintaining law and order but by itself it should not take on all the burden and therefore market forces have a role to play in the development process. That's how we started the process of liberalization in 1991. It has released the greater energies of our people, of our entrepreneurs and the Indian economy is now moving at the rate of 8-9% per annum, and as you all know the logic of compound interest. If an economy grows at the rate of 9% per annum, you double the national income in a period of 72 divided by 9 in 8 years. So, if this process is sustained and maintained, I think we can hope in our life time to see an end to chronic poverty that afflicts millions and millions of our people. But, this whole process cannot go forward unless there is security both external security, that our external borders are secure, also that there is an internal security that we enforce the rule of law without fear or favour, that all the under privileged sections of our society have the satisfaction that this benign and benevolent hand of the State is there to protect their legitimate interests. That all communities regardless of their faith, regardless of their caste are entitled to equal protection of law. That's a basic pre-requisite of sustaining development of our country and this is a function which the Indian State has to perform and nobody else other than the organs of the Indian State can perform and the extent to which we perform this function with efficiency, with commitment, with deep regard for the values will determine the future of our country.

I urge you that in your day to day working, these concerns should be your abiding guidelines. That we want to build a country where the State will be there to protect the interests of the marginalized, that if there has to be any bias, it has to be a bias in favour of the under privileged section, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities, women, disadvantaged children. These concerns cannot be left entirely to the market forces. I have often said markets are good servants and markets serve those who are part of the market system. But when millions and millions of people live on the edges of subsistence, market signals have no meaning for them and therefore we need, I think, a benign, benevolent, caring hand of the Indian State to carry hope, to give people a sense of hope about their future that this is a country where all our citizens are equal partners in processes of development. So, this is one message that I would like to reiterate and this I have done every year.

The second thing that I would like to say is that we must also recognize that our economy has grown in many directions and the processes of State craft have also got extended into areas hitherto unknown. We have to recognize that knowledge which is growing at a very fast pace. Human knowledge, particularly scientific and technological knowledge are growing at a pace which was unthinkable even 20 years ago. Information technology revolution has made it possible for every one of us that howsoever isolated an environment we may be living, we can have access to information in any part of the world. Therefore, the second imperative is that we should not imagine that passing the examination at the academy or the entrance examination is the end of the acquisition of the knowledge process. Life is one long continuous process of learning and re-learning. Therefore, develop the habit in your life to question what you are doing, how well we are doing, or there are other models where same thing can be done better and whether new knowledge can help us to illuminate our path. I think this is a second thing that I would like to convey to you.

The third thing I would like to say to you is Governments in our country have a vital role to play in the processes of creating a secure environment, also in creating an environment where the creative impulses of our people can find the full expression. In all this, one has also to recognize that the public image of the Government is not as it should be. There is lot of dissatisfaction in the country about the way public services are delivered to our people. Whether it is healthcare system, whether it is educational system, whether it is the working of the urban institutions, urban institutions of governance, in all these matters there is an evolution of rising expectations. There are more possibilities of better delivery of these basic public services. And yet, we haven't developed new organisational structures to tackle these tasks as effectively, as efficiently as we should. And therefore, as guardians of the future of Indian State, I think, you must be on guard against evils which today permeates many sections, segments of our society. I think a commitment to the platonic ideas which inspired I think some of your predecessors, they have served India well. The fact that India is a thriving economy when the history of these 60 years is written, people would record that some of the most brilliant civil servants in our country, they made a tremendous contribution. I do believe that you have an equally important role to play in the future transformation of our country for the reasons that I mentioned, why politics cannot play that role and why it is the historic responsibility of the All India Services had to play that role. You will be working in various States. The unity and integrity of India that India is one large family and one large common market, that the narrow parochial interests of States, of narrow considerations will not allow us to do anything which would hurt the basic unity and integrity and prosperity of this great Nation whom Gods have made as one Nation. I think that's a commitment which civil servants have to honour, to respect and to cherish.

The third thing I would like to say to you is a revolution is taking place in our country at the third tier of the Government. We have the Central Government, we have the State Governments but new responsibilities have been entrusted by the Constitution to the Panchayati Raj Institutions. Somewhere they have succeeded, somewhere they have not succeeded. But a country as vast as India, has to learn to make decentralization a way of life, the way of thinking and make this decentralization process work, work efficiently, work in a manner which will inspire confidence among our people, that it must work also to promote the cause not only of efficiency, but also of equity. And therefore, take a deep look at the functioning of Panchayati Raj Institutions, how they can be made to fulfill their promise and finally I would like to say is, if India becomes a developed country as it must, the proportion of people living in rural areas will decline. But even then, that's a long-term process. Even today after 60 years of our Independence, 65 percent of our population lives in rural areas. And therefore, what happens to our agriculture, what happens to the concerns of food security, what happens to the rural infrastructure, will have for a long time a very visible impact on development pace as well as on the quality of life. Therefore, a deep study, a deep familiarity, a deep commitment to transformation of processes of rural and agricultural development has to be a key concern of all public servants in our country. At the same time, new challenges are arising. Over a period of time, urbanization, will increasingly become an important component of our national life. Even today, there are many States like Maharashtra where 40-45% of population lives in urban areas. So, the whole management of processes of urbanization, the environmental concerns that arise, the management of solid waste, how can we ensure development is environment friendly.

You all must have heard about the concerns of climate change. These are not unreal concerns. If not attended to, India will be one of the worst affected countries if these adverse changes do take place. But if we have to prevent, I think, those sorts of catastrophic outcomes, then each one has a responsibility, each unit of our society has to ask this question what we are doing, the way we are doing, is it environment friendly, is it climate friendly, will it bring the doomsday nearer or will it ward off that day. So concerns about the environment, the purity of our rivers, our river systems, our civilization has grown around the villages. But many of our rivers today, whom we regard as sacred are deeply polluted. How can we live with that sort of situation. Millions and millions of marginal farmers in our country today face a prospect of sheer impoverishment due to the degradation of our land and water resource. Therefore, concern of the environment, melting of the glaciers, excessive deforestation, all these are concerns which have to be built into processes of social and economic change and as public servants, you have to guide the rest of the community in ensuring that these concerns do get embedded in whatever we do in various walks of life. These are some of the thoughts which occur to me and I thought I would share these with you.

I once again congratulate you. You have a very bright future ahead of you because as I said, service of a country of over a billion people trying to transform itself is a unique experiment in history and you are blessed that you will be the agents of change in carrying forward that processes of social and economic transformation.

My very best wishes. God bless each one of you."