IAS PHASE II PROGRAM AT LBSNAA

Good Governance: Principles & Practices

V.Srinivas

“In this decade of Amrit Kaal, we will give priority to Next Generation Reforms. We
will ensure that all facilities like service delivery should reach citizens up to the last
mile; it should reach the last person seamlessly, without hesitation or any kind of
difficulty. For the overall development of the country, unnecessary interference by the
government and the government processes in the lives of the people has to be
ended” – Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi1

I thank the Director LBSNAA and Deputy Director (Senior) LBSNAA for inviting me for
an interaction with the Phase II of the IAS Professional Training Course for IAS 2022
batch with 181 IAS Officer Trainees and 3 Officer Trainees from Royal Bhutan Civil
Services. The Phase II program largely based on presentations/ feedback of field
work/ assignments conducted by IAS Probationers in the District Attachment provides
the batch a comprehensive over-view of the diverse governance models of India. The
Socio-Economic Survey of a Village, Court work as Assistant Collector & Executive
Magistrate with prescribed number of Judgments in revenue/ criminal cases,
attachments with District/ Tehsil Level Offices empowers the IAS Probationer for the
initial years in Government. The Academy teaches you administrative leadership,
ethics of public service, moral integrity, discipline and dedication to serve the Nation,
and determination to pursue excellence. Each one of you can be a catalyst to stability
and growth as India pursues its stated policy goal of Viksit Bharat@2047.

As an Institution, the Civil Services, particularly the All-India Services, have always
commanded considerable respect from the people of India. Such respect emanates
from a perception that decision making would be neutral and unbiased and would
enable the Nation to achieve the objectives outlined in the Preamble of the
Constitution.

In a broader sense, the challenges Civil Servants face in the 21st century are no
different from the challenges that they faced in the 20th century. Commitment to the

1
English rendering of the text of PM’s address from the Red Fort on 75th Independence Day, 15 August 2021
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larger public good against all odds. Further the New Age Competency remains
anchored in integrity, building credibility and trust in the institution of the civil service.
These skills are foundational and non-negotiable. You can hire skills, but leadership
and faith and impartiality cannot be outsourced.

Introduction

The subject of my oration today is “Good Governance: Principles and Practices”.

The Prime Minister’s 76th Independence Day Address on 15 August 2022 outlines the
vision of our Nation’s Good Governance Principles and Practices. The “Panch Pran of
Amrit Kaal” – goal of developed India, to remove any trace of colonial mindset, take
pride in our roots and unity and sense of duty among citizens. Prime Minister asked
the Nation to focus attention on “Panch Pran” for the coming 25 years, concentrate on
fulfilling the dreams of freedom fighters by embracing the Panch Pran by 2047 when
the country celebrates 100 years of independence. The Prime Minister’s 75th
Independence Day Address on 15 August 2021 gave a clarion call for adoption of Next
Generation Reforms, while empowering citizens and reaching the last mile as the
priorities for Viksit Bharat@2047.

The foundation of progress in the modern world lies on modern infrastructure. It also
fulfills the needs and aspirations of the middle class. The quest for next generation
infrastructure, for world class manufacturing, for cutting edge innovation and for New
Age Technology represents the foundations of Good Governance.

The Civil Service has responded by injecting a greater sense of discipline and
streamlining of procedures. Policy planning benefitted from a more rigorous process
of intellectual enquiry. Information technology along with the broadband network
enabled a key competitive advantage, transforming work processes in every branch
of government and facilitating citizens interactions with the government. The story of
India’s success in digitalization is an example of how a clear vision articulated by the
political leadership was implemented rigorously and effectively by the Civil Servants
across many different Ministries/ Departments.

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Government strived to liberate people from the web of unnecessary procedures and
laws and in the past decade hundreds of old laws and procedures were abolished.
Even during the pandemic, Government ended 15,000 compliances. Dozens of Labor
laws were subsumed into just 4 codes. Form simplification has led to less paperwork
for citizen’s dealings with government. For example, the application for pension
requires submission of multiple forms under the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021, the
merger of e-HRMS with BHAVISHYA platform enabled the multiple forms to be
subsumed into one form.

Freeing the country of antiquated laws and unnecessary compliances was an

important manifestation of “Maximum Governance – Minimum Government” policy
and was important for ease of living and ease of doing business.

Civil Servants are known for rule-bound administration and doing things according to
the standard operating procedures. The Government started Mission Karmayogi and
Capacity Building Commission to increase people-centric approach in bureaucracy
and improve their efficiency. The results of transformation from a rule-based civil
service to a role-based civil service has potential to bring significant benefits to India’s
governance models.

Saturation approach of priority sector schemes has been the defining goal of
Government’s all-round, all-pervasive and all-inclusive development model. There are
important Priority Sector Schemes where the Saturation approach has been adopted,
these include the following:

1. Promoting Swachh Jal through Har Ghar Jal Yojana

2. Promoting Rural Housing through Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
3. Promoting Immunization drive through Mission Indradhanush
4. Promoting Clean Cooking Fuel through Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana
5. Promoting Healthcare through Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana
6. Promoting Financial Stability through PM SVANidhi
7. Promoting Maternal Health and Nutrition through PM Matru Vandana Yojana
8. Promoting Skill Development through PM Vishvakarma Yojana

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9. Promoting Financial Assistance through PM Mudra Yojana

10. Promoting Nutrition for Women and Children through PM Poshan Yojana
11. Promoting Agricultural Credit through Kisan Credit Card Scheme

India’s developmental journey witnessed authentic efforts to construct toilets and

make electricity available in 100 percent households. In the near future, India through
the priority sector schemes seeks to achieve saturation where all villages have roads,
all households have bank accounts, all beneficiaries have Ayushman Bharat cards and
all eligible families get the benefit of Ujjwala Yojana through gas connections, drinking
water supply with water from pipes, overcome malnutrition and provide quality health
care in every village with upgradation of health infrastructure through Health and
Wellness Centers.

At the heart of effective policy is the deep commitment to principles of social equity,
justice, transparency and accountability. Social justice was at the heart of policy
making and the Government worked to provide equitable opportunities to everyone.

I quote the words of Hon’ble Prime Minister from his address to the US Congress in June
2023:

“When I first visited the US as Prime Minister, India was the tenth largest economy
in the world. Today, India is the fifth largest economy. And, India will be the third
largest economy very soon. We are not only growing bigger but we are also growing
faster. When India grows, the whole world grows. After all, we are one sixth of the
world’s population. In the last century, when India won its freedom, it inspired many
other countries to free themselves from colonial rule. In this century when India sets
benchmarks in growth, it will inspire many other countries to do the same. Our vision
is Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas.”

The Agenda for Good Governance 2024

“I believe that now it is my responsibility to think more than what I have thought in the
last 10 years and to do more than that. Now whatever has to be done, has to be done

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in the direction of surpassing the global benchmark. What you were yesterday, how
well you did today, that time is gone. Now the world is here on this subject, there is
nothing ahead of it, so we will be ahead of it. We have to take our country where no
one has ever reached.” – Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The Prime Minister in his historic 3rd term in Government has laid down an ambitious
and result oriented agenda for Good Governance which envisages each Ministry and
Department to formulate initiatives and ideas for implementation as part of ‘Panch
Pran’ (five resolutions) announced in the independence-day address of Prime Minister
on 15 August 2022.

Each Ministry and Department shall seek to effect qualitative improvements in their
grievance redressal systems to make them more sensitive, accessible and
meaningful.

Whole of Government approach to be adopted in formulating and implementing

policies and schemes and concerted steps to be taken for India to become the 3rd
largest economy in the shortest possible time.

Ease of Living for citizens is a high priority for Government and sustained efforts to be
made for reducing the compliance burden and decriminalizing minor offences.

A comprehensive exercise to be undertaken to simplify rules and regulations and

processes to ensure these are consistent with the spirit of laws and policies.

Suitable incentives for encouraging officers to take full advantage of the capacity
building courses and modules available on iGOT Karmayogi portal.

Metrics to be developed to foster a competitive spirit amongst States and Districts in

order to encourage them to adopt reforms in different areas of governance, particularly
in respect of statutory clearances and approvals.

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Development of comprehensive action plans for implementing the concept of women-

led development.

The Department of Administrative Reforms – Historical Perspective

The Second Administrative Reforms Commission said

“Governance in order to be citizen centric should be participative and transparent. It should

be effective, efficient and responsive to the citizens. Furthermore, the ethos of serving
citizens should permeate all government organizations. Last but not the least, Government
organizations should be accountable to the people. As one of the primary functions of the
State is to promote the welfare of its citizens, an evaluation of the functioning of institutions
of governance will ultimately have to be based on the satisfaction they provide to the
common man. In this regard prominence would need to be attached to the voice of the
citizens themselves.”

Some of the initiatives of Government in Citizen Centric Governance included setting up

institutional mechanisms to redress citizens’ grievances, enacting laws to give rights to
citizens like the right to information, simplifying procedures to reduce bureaucratic delays,
using technology to improve internal efficiency, rewarding government employees who
perform well, improving discipline within the organization and holding public contact
programs.

In the period 2019-2024, a New Paradigm of Governance emerged. Under the visionary
leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the Governance landscape of India radically changed in
scale, scope and learning paradigms. India succeeded in transforming technologically
obsolete institutions into modern day digital institutions which benefitted millions of Indians.
Today India’s rural country side has changed - banking Correspondents, e-Mitras and
common service centers have bridged the gap between internet poor and internet rich. I
recall my visits to 32 Districts of Rajasthan as part of “Prashasan Gaon ki Ore” in 2018 and
witnessed the empowerment of rural population with digital technology. Common Service
Centres bridged the gap between the internet rich and internet poor and enabled access to
improved service delivery.

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As India celebrated its Amrit Kaal period, Prime Minister Modi has given a clarion call for
adoption of Next Generation Reforms by bridging the gap between government and
citizens. In his address at the Special Session of Parliament, Prime Minister Modi said,

“The first rays of the Amrit Kaal (golden era) are illuminating the nation with a new belief,
fresh self-confidence, new enthusiasm, new dreams, new resolutions and a renewed
strength of the Nation. Achievements of Indians are being discussed everywhere and with
a sense of pride. This is the result of a collective effort in our 75-year Parliamentary history.
As a result, today, the echo of our accomplishments is being heard world-wide.”

This vision of Next Generation administrative reforms of the Prime Minister has been
diligently translated into reality by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public
Grievances. Secretariat Reforms, Special Campaigns, Benchmarking of Governance and
Services, Redressal of Public Grievances & Improving Service Delivery, recognizing
meritocracy and replication of good governance practices formed the core of India’s good
governance model. Technology adoption in the Central Secretariat also gained significant
momentum with ASO’s/ SO’s/ Under Secretaries undergoing reskilling in Emerging
Technologies using i-GOT Mission Karmayogi. The Digital March of the Central Secretariat
has had significant spill over effects to Attached/ Subordinate/ Autonomous bodies, all of
whom adopted e-Governance practices.

State Secretariats adopted e-Office and 16500 services were operationalized as e-

Services. Strong Digital Platforms formed the bulwark of the Digital Public Infrastructure
push of India in the G20 deliberations as a global public good. Technology impact in
governance was most visible in Jammu & Kashmir which provided an all-time high of 1080
e-services, adopted e-Office saving crores of rupees from abolition of the Darbar
movement, developed the JK-IGRAMS, convened regional conferences and national
conferences on e-Governance.

Maximum Governance – Minimum Government

India’s governance model in the years 2019-2024, has undergone radical reforms. e-

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Governance has simplified a citizen’s interface with Government, brought government and
citizens closer and enabled benchmarking of service quality. The Central government’s e-
governance models have benefitted in bringing transparency and openness to government
processes. The widespread adoption of e-Office ver 7.0 has created paperless offices in all
Ministries/ Departments in the Central Secretariat 93 percent files being handled as e-files
and 94 percent receipts being handled as e-receipts. In 2023, CPGRAMS helped redress
21 lac Public Grievances and in 2024 till June 16 lac Public Grievances were redressed.
The organizational reforms coupled with significant reforms in Personnel Administration like
Mission Karmayogi, Lateral Recruitment, timely promotion policies, regional conferences
for replication of good governance practices, recognizing excellence in public
administration by scaling up the scheme for PM’s Awards for Excellence in Public
Administration represent the new paradigm in India’s governance model. New India’s
strong institutions are best symbolized by adoption of e-governance practices. The best
manifestation of “Maximum Governance – Minimum Government” policy is a “Digitally
Empowered Citizen” and a “Digitally Transformed Institution”.

The PM’s Awards Scheme for Excellence in Public Administration 2023

The PM’s Awards Scheme for Excellence in Public Administration 2023 was restructured
to encourage constructive competition, institutionalization of best practices, factor-in holistic
approach through convergence of schemes, promote Jan-Bhagidari, focus on technology
driven innovations with participation from all District Collectors of India. The category of
Holistic Development of Districts provided a broad indicator into the significant progress
achieved by the Districts across India in achieving saturation with innovative leadership.

Saturation Approach and Inclusive Development Reaching the Last Mile

Barpeta District in Assam is an aspirational district situated in western part of Assam

with a population of 16.93 lacs, with 173 riverine islands and 9 development blocks.
The District Administration of Barpeta adopted a convergence and saturation
approach -“Barpeta: Scaling New Heights”, leveraging technologies and data
monitoring as also innovative initiatives which resulted in saturation of schemes. GIS
based field monitoring was implemented through the portal SAMPADA which

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monitored school visits by officials, e-file and e-billing systems were introduced for
administrative efficiency. Jan Bhaagidari was seen in formation of health clubs, youth
clubs, and people led IEC practices. SHG’s were leveraged for scheme verification
and served as micro-vendors for government programs. Saturation was achieved with
ODF+ villages, MGNREGS convergence, Sampoorn Ghar with PMAY houses with all
basic amenities for households. Large numbers of Street Vendors were enrolled for
PM SVANidhi, craftsmen were enrolled for enrolled for PM Vishvakarma, 100 percent
target completion was achieved under the Kisan Credit Card Scheme, and 96 percent
of beneficiaries were ready for payment under PM-Kisan. The District Administration
Barpeta was successful in reaching the last mile across all programs and represents
a role model for implementing saturation approach in the Country.

Gumla District in Jharkhand with 69 percent tribal population, tough topography,

46.7 percent multidimensional poverty and left-wing extremism presented unique
challenges for holistic development. Despite the challenges, the saturation approach
was successfully implemented with Ayushman Bharat, PM Ujjwala distribution, PM
Vishwakarma registration and PM Awas Yojana Grameen Sanctions being saturated
for primitive and vulnerable tribal group families of Gumla district. The District
administration strived to revive government assets, operationalized the Gumla
Science Centre, developed additional classrooms in 25 schools, functional science
labs in 43 schools, SMART classes in 100 schools and computer labs in 93 schools.
An online public-grievances portal “Sarvodaygumla” was operationalized, weekly
grievance redressal camps were held and grievances were redressed in a timebound
fashion. A convergence approach for PM Poshan Abhiyan was adopted with
convergence between Raagi farmers of Palkot Block and the Anganwadi centers of
Gumla. Health Screening Camps for sickle cell diseases and for students was
commenced, Project Asha was commenced for fighting epilepsy and superstitions. For
enhancing Jan Bhagidari, public meetings were held by senior officers in all Gram
Sabhas and camp courts were conducted. Technology was leveraged extensively for
ensuring transparency and real time monitoring of Government schemes, and
information related to government schemes was accessible on open government data.

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Kulgam district in Jammu & Kashmir with a number of hilly blocks and mountainous
terrain, with limited working season and challenging security situation with militancy,
made significant strides in achieving saturation of priority programs and reaching out
to far flung areas. Ayushman Bharat Yojana became the biggest health security net for
Kulgam district with 100 percent district being saturated and 28000 cases settled. The
registration of Ayushman Bharat cards was done in villages and hamlets through a
sustained campaign with Schools, Colleges and Panchayats being co-opted to reach
out. Kiosks were introduced in every hospital for the registration process. Similar
village level campaigns were conducted for implementing the schemes of PM-
Vishwakarma, PM-Poshan, PM-Awas Yojana (Grameen and Urban), PM-SVANidhi,
Mission Indradhanush, PM-Ujjwala, and Har Ghar Jal. Beneficiaries got door-step
delivery of services, infrastructure development was witnessed under almost all
schemes.

The saturation approach to implementation of priority sector schemes was witnessed

as a mass movement for good governance practices across the Nation. Many districts
across India - Banda, Bahraich, Vizianagaram, Eluru, Sukhma, Kondagaon, Nalbari,
Sehore, Barwani, Nalanda, Pathankot, West Garo Hills, Nashik and Bikaner reported
high levels of saturation across priority sector schemes.

Innovations in Governance

Technology has been a force multiplier and several technology-led innovations in

governance have come forth as transformative changes in ease of living for citizens.

Face Authentication technology represents an indigenous development that can be

used anytime, anywhere, and requires only an entry-level smartphone for
authorization. Face Authentication is simple, secure and user friendly with capture of
face image on own device for authentication. It is secure against leakage of captured
image. In 2024, the authentication success rate was 85 percent, with over 4 crore
transactions/ month and 74 entities were using face authentication. Usage on other
devices and platforms such as desktop, windows is also possible. Face authentication
promotes inclusivity amongst divyaang, hard manual labour, senior citizens and

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represents a significant step for ease of living. Face authentication made Jeevan
Praman for Pensioners very easy, is used for cashless health benefits with PMJAY,
skill trainings in Jails in Uttar Pradesh, hassle free beneficiary identification for
eligibility check in PM Ujjwala Yojana and financial disbursal made easy for PM Awas
Yojana. Face authentication also promotes ease of doing business and good
governance with several usages ranging from employee attendance from individual
mobile phones, e-sign services, opening of bank accounts, scholarship distribution
and SIM issue by telecom companies.

Cyber Tehsil of Madhya Pradesh is an online, paperless, faceless and automated

process of mutation and updation of land records after sale deed. It seeks to end
territorial disputes and covers all undisputed, encumbrance free sale/ gift registry
cases of full land parcels. The buyer need not visit the Tehsil office, and application for
mutation is taken at Registration office itself at the time of sale deed. After execution
of the sale-deed, the data from registration portal (SAMPADA) is automatically
transferred to revenue portal (RCMS). A certified copy of the order/ updated land
record is delivered to the concerned via email/ whatsapp. There is a dedicated helpline
call, email support, chatbot and online ticket raising facility available for the citizen’s
assistance. Amendments were made in the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code
1959 by introducing the provisions for Cyber Tehsil. The centralized Cyber – Tehsil
was established at Bhopal and scaled up to all 55 districts of the State in February
2024.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry during the pandemic period identified a digital
solution for the government’s delivery of essential goods and services in the retail
segment, which led to the birth of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
The ONDC connects all buyers and sellers for e-commerce transactions in goods and
services and is similar to UPI for financial transactions. It can be extended to B2B and
B2C domains. The ONDC has 22 Buyer apps, 71 seller apps and 16 logistics service
providers, 10 million monthly transactions, 5.48 lac sellers and service providers
across 600+ cities and 1200+ cities from where orders have been delivered. Most of
these cities are tier 2 cities and 80 percent of small sellers and service providers are
working on the network. ONDC has enabled digital public service delivery across

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financial services, agriculture, health, logistics, education and skilling. It has enabled
bridging the digital divide by ensuring cashless inclusivity. Government envisages
ONDC as a solution for market access, digital enablement and promotion & outreach.

Poshan Tracker is an important governance tool under Mission Poshan 2.0 to ensure
transparency in nutrition delivery support system at the Anganwadi center. It is a job
aid for the Anganwadi worker, available in 24 languages, monitors nutritional delivery
with 13.95 lac Anganwadi center reporting on Poshan Tracker. Baseline data on
nutritional indicators has been made available on real time basis in Poshan Tracker.
The Poshan Tracker enables daily tracking, growth monitoring, beneficiary migration
and has a provision for a home visit scheduler.

National Conferences on e-Governance and National e-Governance Awards

Government implements the Awards Scheme for National Awards for e-Governance. This
Scheme is recognized as amongst the most competitive and prestigious digital governance
awards schemes in the country. In the year 2023, 425 nominations were received out of
which 16 nominations were conferred the National e-Governance Awards. The National
Annual e-Governance Conferences were held at Mumbai in 2020, Hyderabad in Jan,2022,
Katra in November 2022. This year the 26th National e-Governance Conference was held
at Indore, Madhya Pradesh on August 24-25, 2023.

The key takeaways from the 26th National e-Governance Conference were the following:

• The Conference drew inspiration from the words of Prime Minister Modi who
stressed on the role of technology in making governance and justice delivery
systems reach the poorest of the poor, the marginalized and women living in the
hinterland. The vision of Prime Minister of India’s techade can be realized through a
vigorous and all pervasive digital governance push
• Closer synergy amongst researchers, academia, industry and start-ups in the field
of e-Governance is the way forward for India to be an Atma Nirbhar Nation. The
Vision India@2047 on Governance is truly e-Vision India@2047 marked by
saturation and benchmarking of high quality e-services reaching out to the last man
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in the queue for service delivery in the true spirit of Antyodaya, focus on young policy
makers and creating interactive fora between academia and start- ups.
• Open Digital Platforms are tremendous force multipliers, and critical for providing
affordable, inter-operable technology to India’s citizens. Digital Governance can
enable massive reach and benefits in the conduct of Special Campaigns aimed at
reducing pendency and institutionalization of Swachhata with the objective of
providing good governance.

The National e-Governance Conferences have had significant spillover effects into the e-
Governance in States/ Union Territories where they were held. The biggest transformation
was witnessed in Jammu & Kashmir where the number of e-services were scaled up from
15 in 2019 to 225 in 2022 to 1080 in 2023. This represented a remarkable achievement.
The dissemination of the award winning nominations through the National e-Governance
Webinar Series is a new initiative of DARPG.

Regional Conferences

DARPG regularly conducts Regional Conferences for replication of good governance

practices and e-Governance practices. In 2022-24, Regional Conferences were held at
Srinagar, Benguluru, Itanagar, Mumbai, Bhopal, Jaipur and Guwahati. Regional
Conferences attended by 500 officers/ conference have helped in presenting the State’s
best governance practices in addition to PM’s Award winning nominations. DARPG has
also commenced curating the Regional e-Governance conferences which have enabled in
dissemination of the best e-Governance conferences. The Regional Conferences enabled
the creation of fully digital public institutions, strengthen linkages between stakeholders,
strengthen state portals and service portals for digital empowerment. The movement for
saturation of e-services across the Nation has been significantly strengthened in this period.

Good Governance Index 2021

DARPG launched the Good Governance Index (GGI) framework to gauge the performance
of the States/UTs following the recommendations of the Group of Secretaries on
Governance and published the ranking for States and UTs for 2019 and 2021. The GGI
framework assesses the state of Governance across the States and UTs and ranks

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States/UTs. The objective is to create a tool which can be used uniformly across the
States/UTs to assess the impact of various interventions taken up by the Central and State
Governments/UTs. The GGI 2019 encompassed 10 Sectors and 50 Indicators and GGI
2021 encompassed 10 sectors and 58 indicators. Each sector carries equal weightage and
is composed of indicators carrying different weightages. The sectors of GGI 2020-21 are:
1) Agriculture and Allied Sectors, 2) Commerce & Industries, 3) Human Resource
Development, 4) Public Health, 5.) Public Infrastructure & Utilities, 6) Economic
Governance, 7) Social Welfare & Development, 8) Judicial & Public Security, 9)
Environment, and 10) Citizen-Centric Governance.

The GGI 2020-21 categorizes States and UTs into four categories, i.e., (i) Other States –
Group A; (ii) Other States – Group B; (iii) North-East and Hill States; and (iv) Union
Territories. GGI helps assess the status of governance in States & UTs. Gujarat,
Maharashtra and Goa to the composite score of 10 sectors under GGI 2021 assessment.
Uttar Pradesh has shown a 8.9 percent increase over the GGI 2019 performance. The GGI
2021 says 20 States have improved their composite GGI scores over the GGI 2019 scores.
This indicates that the overall governance in the States of India is moving in the positive
direction. The biannual publication of Good Governance 2023 is under formulation and will
be released in the coming months.

District Good Governance Index

District being a basic unit in field administration and governance, implementing various
programmes and innovative projects for the well-being of citizens, measuring their
performance becomes important for proper assessment and planning which will lead to the
development of the districts and region as a whole. The District Good Governance Index
(DGGI) represents next generation administrative reform in benchmarking governance at
district level. This Index is prepared after extensive stakeholder consultations for
benchmarking governance in all the districts of a State on a number of indicators under
different sectors. The ranking brings healthy competition amongst districts to address
existing gaps, plan to bridge these gaps and aid decision making tools.

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District Good Governance Index of Jammu & Kashmir — The Department of Administrative
Reforms and Public Grievances have conceptualized, formulated and released the DGGI
for Jammu & Kashmir in consultation with the Government of Jammu & Kashmir. India’s
first DGGI was designed and developed for the UT of Jammu and Kashmir by Centre for
Good Governance, Hyderabad as knowledge partner was launched by the Home Minister
of India on 22 January 2022. The DGGI is a framework comprising of performance under
ten governance sectors having 58 indicators with 116 data points. The DGGI helps to
identify the impact of various government interventions at District-level and provides a
futuristic roadmap for improving District-level governance and service delivery with targeted
interventions.

District Good Governance Index of Gujarat — The DGGI for Gujarat provides significant
data insights to the State of Gujarat and other stakeholders in their efforts to address
existing gaps, plan to bridge these gaps and aid as decision making tool. The ranking is
expected to bring about healthy competition amongst districts in the quest to provide citizen
centric administration and governance. DGGI Gujarat is first for any big state of India, as
the Index benchmarks governance in all the 33 Districts of Gujarat on 65 indicators under
10 sectors. The DGGI Gujarat was released by Chief Minister, Gujarat in the valedictory
Session of the three day ‘10th Chintan Shibir’ – a brainstorming session for senior and junior
government officials of Gujarat – at Kevadia in Narmada district of Gujarat on 21st May,
2023.

District Good Governance Index of Arunachal Pradesh — DGGI Arunachal Pradesh is first
DGGI for a north-east State of India. The Index benchmarks governance in all 25 districts
of Arunachal Pradesh on 65 indicators under 8 sectors. The ranking brings about healthy
competition amongst Districts and provide guidance to the State Government as well as
District administration of Arunachal Pradesh in their efforts to address existing gaps, plan
to bridge these gaps and aid as decision making tool. The District Good Governance Index
of Arunachal Pradesh was released on 8th June 2023.

Good Governance Week

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The Nation-wide weekly celebrations of Good Governance were organized by DARPG in

2021, 2022 and 2023. The hallmark event of Good Governance Weeks 2021 and 2022 was
the weeklong Nation-wide campaign ‘Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore 2022’ aimed at redressal
public grievances and improving service delivery.

Prime Minister Modi in his message on the eve of Good Governance week 2021 said

“In the Amrit Period of Independence, we are marching ahead rapidly to create a
transparent system, efficient process and smooth governance to make development
all-round and all-inclusive. In this context, the theme of the week – Prashasan Gaon
ki Ore assumes even greater significance.”

The second nationwide campaign ‘Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore’ was conducted from on
December 19-24, 2022. Guided by the principle of Citizen-First, the Government strived to
make the eco-system transparent and faster by simplifying procedures and processes at
every level. Various citizen centric initiatives including redressal of public grievances, online
services, disposal of service delivery applications sought to expand the outreach of service
delivery mechanisms and make them more effective. The emphasis was on projecting the
immense potential of technology to bring citizens and government closer, as a powerful tool
to empower citizens as well as a medium to optimise transparency and accountability in
day to day functioning. The Government’s endeavour was to increase the impact of
governance and reduce the interference of government in every citizen’s life, to increase
opportunities and remove obstacles from the citizen’s path.

During the Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore Campaign District Collectors organized special
camps/events at Tehsil Headquarters/Panchayat Samitis to resolve public grievances and
for improved service delivery. The campaign was monitored centrally on a real time basis
through a Dashboard created for this purpose on the ‘Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore’ Portal. In
2023, the Good Governance Week events included a series of workshops on Good
Governance, Secretariat Reforms, Institutionalizing Swachhata and Reducing Pendency,
Capacity Building programs, Innovations in State Governments, and Pensioner centric
reforms.

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The National e-Services Delivery Assessment 2021

The National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) was undertaken to

boost the e-government endeavours and drive digital government excellence. The study
Report assesses States, Union Territories (UTs), and focus Central Ministries on the
effectiveness of e-Governance service delivery. NeSDA helps the respective governments
to improve their delivery of citizen centric services and shares best practices across the
country for all States, UTs and Central Ministries to emulate.

The Department has undertaken NeSDA 2019 and 2021. The preparation of NeSDA 2023
is currently in progress. In assessment of State portals, Kerala remains a front runner and
the progress made by Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh in NeSDA 2021
is commendable. In Service portals, Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Meghalaya
has topped the rankings. All States/ UT’s have shown improvements in the promotion of
integrated service portals and the number of services being offered on their State portals.
India’s e-Governance policies have shown improvements and citizen satisfaction levels
have risen. In many ways Technology succeeded in Bringing Government and Citizens
closer. The NeSDA 2021 report assessed 1400 e-Services across States and UT’s and
reported that India’s e-Services had grown by 60 percent in the period 2019-2021. 69
percent of the mandatory e-services have been delivered by States/ UT’s in 2021 up from
48 percent in NeSDA 2019. 74 percent of the respondents of the nation-wide citizen survey
are satisfied/ very satisfied with the e-services.

DARPG is collaborating with States and Union Territories to ensure timely implementation
of the recommendations of the NeSDA 2021 for rolling out of all mandatory e-services by
States and Union Territories in a time bound manner. The DARPG is also coordinating with
States and Union Territories to strengthen the State Portals and Service Portals to enhance
the ease of living of citizens. The objectives of the monitoring/ collaboration are to adopt
the 56 mandatory services and to saturate e-service delivery by all the States/UTs. DARPG
has designed the NeSDA-Way Froward, Status of Implementation Dashboard in line with
the focus areas of e-Governance. While Central and State Governments are taking utmost
care and importance to improve their service delivery through digital channels, this
enhanced dashboard aims to create the baseline for online service delivery and build an

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inclusive digital ecosystem. The monthly reports institutionalise the nation’s endeavours for
improved delivery of e-services and prepare States/UTs for NeSDA 2023. The objectives
of the monthly progress are saturation of e-services, to promote faceless and suo-moto
entitlement-based delivery of services, identification of bottlenecks in the implementation
of recommendations process and dissemination of best practices. Starting from April 2023,
12 monthly editions have been released till April 2024. In this period April – December 2023
the Nation’s e-services increased from 11500 to 16500. It is expected that the number of
e-services will reach saturation by 2025.

Effective Redressal of Public Grievances

Prime Minister Modi has said “Effective Redressal of Public Grievances” is one of the most
important aspects of Indian democracy, accorded highest priority to the subject with focus
on citizen engagement. The Prime Minister’s commitment to an effective grievance
redressal mechanism emanated from his early years in Government as Chief Minister
Gujarat when he launched the SWAGAT portal in 2003. The SWAGAT portal of Gujarat
celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023, was a pioneer in introducing citizen interaction,
categorization of grievances and effective redressal of public grievances.

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances is the nodal agency in
respect of policy initiatives on public grievance redressal mechanisms and citizen centric
initiatives.

Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is an online

platform available to the citizens 24x7 to lodge their grievances to the public authorities on
any subject related to service delivery. It is a single portal connected to all the
Ministries/Departments of Government of India and States. Every Ministry and States have
role-based access to this system. CPGRAMS is also accessible to the citizens through
standalone mobile application downloadable through Google Play store and mobile
application integrated with UMANG. The citizen can access the system online through the
portal www.pgportal.nic.in. The efficacy of the CPGRAMS portal has been an important
thrust area of the Nation’s Grievance Redressal Systems. The CPGRAMS portal has been
recognized as amongst India’s top 100 technology solutions for Vision India@2047. It has

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also been recognized as a state of the art system by the Commonwealth for replication in
all Commonwealth countries. The IBM Centre for Business of Government expressed
interest in deeper understanding of CPGRAMS.

The grievances received by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public

Grievances are forwarded to the concerned Ministries/ Departments/ State Governments/
UTs who deal with the substantive functions linked with the grievance for redress under
intimation to the complainant. India’s policy for grievance redressal has placed emphasis
on timely grievance redressal and quality of grievance redressal. The upper limit of 30 days
were introduced, along with staggered redressal of grievances priority wise, with an appeal
mechanism in cases where the citizen is not satisfied.

Under CPGRAMS 7.0 grievances are routed to the last mile grievance officer level. The
Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances has issued guidelines to all
Ministries/ Departments to sensitize grievance officers for effective redressal of public
grievances. There exist several digital portals in Government of India for effective redressal
of public grievances – CPGRAMS, Rail Madad and e-Nivaran all of which are linked to
CPGRAMS. All Ministries/ Departments have designated nodal Grievance Redressal
Officers for effective redressal of grievances. Periodic reviews by the Hon’ble Prime
Minister have enabled ushering-in of transformational reforms in CPGRAMS as
represented by the 10 Step reform program of CPGRAMS launched in 2022.

The implementation of CPGRAMS 10-Step reforms has resulted in a linear increase in the
number of public grievances being redressed every month to over 1 lac cases and reduction
in timelines for disposal to 16 days in central ministries/ departments for the past 22 months.
The CPGRAMS portal has mapped 1.01 lac Grievance Redressal Officers, and 25 lac
citizens have registered themselves to file over 20 lac grievances/ year. The grievance
redressal time has come down from 28 days in 2019 to 10 days in March 2024.
Considerable success was achieved in effective redressal of public grievances during the
COVID-19 pandemic with launch of the COVID-19 Grievance Redressal Dashboard and
portal on the CPGRAMS portal. This was a period in which 1.25 lac COVID-19 public
grievances were redressed with an average disposal period of 1.45 days. The CPGRAMS
is being included in the Digital Public Infrastructure toolkit for replication in foreign countries.

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The status of the grievance filed in CPGRAMS can be tracked with the unique registration
ID provided at the time of registration of the complainant. CPGRAMS also provides appeal
facility to the citizens if they are not satisfied with the resolution by the Grievance Officer.
After closure of grievance if the complainant is not satisfied with the resolution, he/she can
provide feedback. If the rating is ‘Poor’ the option to file an appeal is enabled. The status
of the Appeal can also be tracked by the petitioner with the grievance registration number.
Since July 2022, DARPG has also reached out to the citizen filing a grievance through
CPGRAMS by contacting him through an outbound call centre and soliciting his feedback
on his closed grievance.

The State Governments have evolved advanced mechanisms for redressal of public
grievances. States have operationalized public grievances cells which receive complaints
from citizens and forward those to the concerned departments and follows them up. Several
Chief Ministers hold regular citizen interactions through physical meetings/ virtual meetings
for hearing and redressal of public grievances. In several States, Senior Officers visited
districts and villages as part of Good Governance Week celebrations in 2021 and 2022
when Nation-wide campaigns for Effective Redressal of Public Grievances were conducted.
The impact of multiple grievance redressal platforms functioning in unison in the Good
Governance Week from December 19-25, 2022 was quite significant – 315 lac service
delivery applications being disposed and 6 lac Public Grievances being redressed. The
Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances has collaborated closely with
States in several initiatives for effective redressal of public grievances.

The areas of collaboration included:

i. Institution of an award category for Improving Service Delivery and Redressal of Public
Grievances under the Scheme for Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public
Administration 2020
ii. National Workshop on Technology Platforms in Public Grievance Redressal on 18
February 2021 and the National Workshop on Sevottam in November 2022 and May
2023

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iii. One Nation – One Portal initiative by integration of CPGRAMS with State Grievance
Portals and reverse integration.
iv. Sevottam Capacity Building Programs for Grievance Redressal Officers.
v. Publication of Monthly Reports from 2022
vi. Collaboration with Government of Jammu & Kashmir for revamping the Awaaz e-Awam
portal and relaunch as JKIGRAMS. A new version of the portal will be launched as “Jan
Samadhan” portal on July 23, 2024.

CPGRAMS Reforms – A Foundation for SMART Government

In pursuance of the decisions taken by the Prime Minister on 16 April 2022, CPGRAMS
reforms were implemented by DARPG for improving quality of grievance disposal and
reducing the disposal time. A comprehensive 10-Step CPGRAMS Reform program was
adopted after several rounds of consultations with key stakeholders. DARPG established
collaborations with Common Service Centre (CSCs), Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
(IIT-K), National Institute of Smart Governance(NISG), National Institute of Design,
Ahmedabad (NID), Quality Council of India, Centre for Development of Advanced
Computing (C-DAC), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Centre for Good Governance
Hyderabad and Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) Gurgaon through MOUs
and work orders.

The 10-step reforms of CPGRAMS are outlined as follows:

i. Universalization of CPGRAMS 7.0 - Auto-routing of grievances to the last mile
ii. Technological Enhancements - Automatic flagging of urgent grievances leveraging
AI/ML
iii. Language Translation – CPGRAMS Portal in 22 scheduled languages along with
English
iv. Grievance Redressal Index - Ranking of Ministries / Departments on their
Performance
v. Feedback Call Centre - 50-seater call centre to collect feedback directly from every
citizen whose grievance is redressed
vi. One Nation One Portal - Integration of State Portal and other GoI portals with
CPGRAMS.
vii. Inclusivity and Outreach - Empowering the remotest citizen to file grievances

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through CSC’s
viii. Training and Capacity Building - Conducted by ISTM and State ATIs under
SEVOTTAM scheme for enabling effective grievance resolution
ix. Monitoring Progress - Monthly reports for both the Central Ministries/Departments
and States/UTs
x. Data Strategy Unit - Established at DARPG for insightful data analytics

Two PMUs were established at DARPG – (a) PMU with QCI team for preparation of the
CPGRAMS Monthly Reports for Central Ministries and States and (b) PMU with CGG
Hyderabad team for preparation of Grievance Redressal Index in addition to the Data
Strategy Unit with Data Analytics specialists in collaboration with National Institute of Smart
Governance. The Public Grievances Division of DARPG was strengthened with
comprehensive redeployment and all vacant posts being filled up. DARPG collaborated with
22 State Administrative Training Institutes for implementation of the Sevottam Program
following extensive discussions with HIPA Gurgaon.

In pursuance of the deliberations in the Chintan Shivir, DARPG has further enhanced the
processes for establishing greater citizen connect – the steps include improvements in call
centre engagement with citizens, speech records being examined in senior level meetings,
training programs for operators, sharing speech records of appeals filed through call centre
with appellate officers, introduction of chat bot, introduction of outgoing call centre and
addition of new call centre operators.

The CPGRAMS reforms received considerable national and international appreciation. The
India Today featured CPGRAMS reforms as amongst 100 big tech ideas for the revolutions
needed in 10-key sectors to make India a developed Nation by 2047. In April 2024,
“CPGRAMS: A Foundation for SMART Government” was presented at the 3rd Biennial
Meeting of the Pan-Commonwealth Heads of Public Service/ Secretaries to the Cabinet on
“Institutionalization of SMART Government to enhance public service delivery” and was
recognized as a state of the art grievance redressal system that has engaged and
empowered citizens across India which has had a transformative impact on the
transparency and accountability of government. The evolution of India’s vision to use AI for

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further policy, process and people-related changes, to operationalize the CPGRAMS

mobile app and adopt the CPGRAMS 7.0 version in all States/ UT’s was also recognized
in the Outcome Statement of the Commonwealth Biennial Meeting.

Best Practices in State Grievance Portals

SWAGAT (Gujarat): The CMO Gujarat operates an ICT based program since April
2003 for effective, transparent and speedy redress of the grievances of the citizens at
various levels of the government throughout the State by direct interaction with Hon’ble
Chief Minister. The SWAGAT portal is a combination of digital and communication
technology in the form of a program to resolve public grievances effectively. Under
SWAGAT, citizens can register their grievances at village, taluka and district levels.
Citizens can view the status of their application online, using their allotted password
and login ID at any internet access point. The software application enables an online
review of sub-district, district SWAGAT and State SWAGAT outcomes and disposal of
grievances is also monitored by the software. Cases for attention of Chief Minister are
selected as those that are long standing, acute humanitarian issues, difficult to resolve
at other levels in Government and those that have policy implications.

Applications are registered in 3 categories – (i) Policy Matters where a limitation or

gap in the policy requires attention (ii) Long Pending grievances where the application
has remained unresolved after initial application (iii) First time grievances which are
sent to lower levels. There exist four levels of SWAGAT – on every 4th Thursday of the
month the SWAGAT hearings are held in the State Capital Gandhinagar by Hon’ble
Chief Minister of Gujarat through video conference The District SWAGAT is held in all
33 districts and the Sub-District SWAGAT and GRAM SWAGAT are also held as per
prescribed schedules. The four levels are well integrated by software. SWAGAT has
enhanced the accountability of Government, systemic changes as decisions lead to
policy reform, high citizen’s satisfaction, total transparency and monitoring system as
also awareness at highest levels of authority on public grievances. SWAGAT received
the 2010 UN Public Service Award in improving transparency, accountability and
responsiveness in Public Service.

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JK-IGRAMS (Jammu & Kashmir): JK-IGRAMS along with LG’s monthly mulaqaat with
citizens and review with officers provides the institutional framework to citizens that is
accessible to all in Jammu & Kashmir. The JK-IGRAMS portal is www.jkgrievance.in
and key features include decentralization of grievance system by mapping subordinate
offices upto block level, setting up of 2 call centers in Jammu and Srinagar for
registering grievances, Collectors have been made epicenter and all Districts/ Blocks
linked to CPGRAMS, Grievance Analysis teams deployed to study and share findings
for monthly mulaaquat with LG J&K. The impact increased disposal from 41 percent
to 74 percent in 4-months time in all categories. The dedicated call center provides a
unique JKIGRAMS number which is forwarded to the grievance officer and online
status is available to the citizen for effective follow-up. Various analytical reports and
other MIS options on the portal assist administration in data filtering.

SAMADHAN (Uttar Pradesh): SAMADHAN is an integrated web based application

system which brings all grievance redressal mechanism to one platform and enables
instant and easy communication between Government and Citizens resulting in
speedy redressal of their grievances from anywhere and anytime and It also provides
facility for submission of grievances online by aggrieved citizen. The Grievance input
mechanism has Janta Darshan by Chief Minister at State level and District Collector
at District level. The SAMADHAN portal integrates different channels and portals
including the PG-Portal, Anti Bhu Mafia Portal, Anti-Corruption portal, CM Helpline etc.
The citizen relationship management contains online registration and tracking of
grievances, project management and monitoring, analytical reports, calls/ SMS/ e-
mail, integrated & single platform, send reminders and giving feedback. Feedback is
obtained through the CM Helpline call center and the complainant can also provide
online feedback through portal. Negative feedback is reviewed by one level higher,
through grading opinion, if senior officer finds disposal of the grievance insufficient/
not satisfactory then he/ she can revive the disposed complaint.

Building Administrative Leadership

The National Centre of Good Governance is mandated to build administrative

leadership, and has collaborated with several countries to promote good governance.

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Over 3000 international civil servants have visited NCGG in the period 2019-2024 for
capacity building programs and several significant milestones were achieved. 1500
Bangladesh Civil Servants, 1000 Maldives Civil Servants, 150 Cambodian Civil
Servants, 150 Gambian Civil Servants, 100 Sri Lankan Civil Servants, as also Civil
Servants from Myanmar, Tanzania, Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia have attended capacity
building programs at the National Centre for Good Governance. India’s governance
models of digital public infrastructure, zero tolerance for corruption, effective redressal
of public grievances, Scheme for Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public
Administration, e-Office, priority sector schemes were appreciated and several
schemes are being replicated in the neighboring countries.

Conclusion

I have tried to present the critical elements of Good Governance: Policies and Priorities
in the context of India’s governance model 2024. Having been a part of several
administrative teams at District, State and Union Governments and also having served
in an international institution – the International Monetary Fund, I must point out that
there exist moral and human elements in the making of an administrator. No
responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining
the highest standards of ethical behavior. It is important to exercise compassion,
benevolence, fairness and optimism. Administrative leadership needs to establish
procedures that promote ethical behavior and hold individuals and organizations
accountable for their conduct, as also to prevent all forms of mismanagement of funds.

Intellectual and professional accomplishments are just as important. A deep

understanding of the constitutional and legal framework within which the administrator
has to function is an essential part of governance. Intimate knowledge of machinery
of government and of the procedures and practices of administration are critical to
successful ensure skillful implementation. Administrative leadership is judged by
performance, over a long period in top positions, carrying out major and diverse
responsibilities and by success in dealing with critical situations as well as normal
problems and by contributions to making of new policies and programs. Administrators
who take up initiatives and display deep commitment to building up new systems and

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institutions and contribute to the shaping of legislation stand the test of time and leave
their mark on administrative history.

Let me conclude with a quote of Prime Minister Modi:

“Remember the time before independence…yes, people had different methods of

working but the goal was big – the freedom of India. In this Amrit Kaal we have to come
together and work towards another big goal of a Viksit Bharat”.

Jai Hind.

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Brief CV of V.Srinivas, IAS

V.Srinivas serves as Secretary to Government of India, Department of Administrative

Reforms and Public Grievances and Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare in the
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and holds additional charge of
Director General of the National Centre for Good Governance. He represents India on the
Council of Administration of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences, Brussels
since 2018. He is a recipient of the Digital India Award 2020 for implementation of e-Office
in the Central Secretariat. He has authored 3 books - India’s Relations with International
Monetary Fund: 25 Years in Perspective 1991-2016; G20@2023 The Roadmap to Indian
Presidency; The March to New India: Governance Transformed 2014-2019, published over
250 papers, and delivered over 150 orations. In Government of Rajasthan he has served
as Chairman Board of Revenue and Chairman Rajasthan Tax Board. He is a senior
administrator, a respected academician and an institution builder par excellence.

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