System needs to clean the system

Cabinet secretary has made an attempt to encourage the bureaucracy to break the mould of fossilized attitudes

Gen Z concerns are sneaking into spaces they have no business being in. Like, in India’s cabinet secretary’s letter on work culture and allied matters to his younger colleagues posted across the country. By talking about mundane routine work, behavioural shifts, and the need for introspection, Dr TV Somanathan has made an attempt to encourage Indian bureaucracy to break the mould of fossilized attitudes, many inherited from the colonial system. And he has begun this process by taking on the dreaded M word. Meetings. Even the seniormost bureaucrat of this country clearly shares the Gen Z disdain for “overstretched” and “directionless” meetings.

According to global surveys, India’s bureaucratic red tape has been historically rated as one of the most suffocating in Asia. While corruption may empirically appear to be the biggest issue, the lack of defined KPIs for civil servants is a much bigger problem. (Shutterstock)

According to a recent survey, Indian employees spend nearly nine hours per week in meetings. While civil servants, who are supposed to be informed and intelligent generalists, ought to spend time in coordination and feedback activities — meetings being one of them — there’s a risk of many meetings being rendered meaningless by indecision and the status-quoist approach. Somanathan, as a scholar of bureaucratic affairs, has been underscoring these issues for at least two decades. It is widely acknowledged that bureaucrats’ suboptimal performance often stems from their tendency to safeguard their personal and professional interests through inaction. The arbitrariness of postings, empanelment, and transfers feeds into the insecurity of civil servants, despite the promise of a stable government job — Holy Grail for an average Indian.

According to global surveys, India’s bureaucratic red tape has been historically rated as one of the most suffocating in Asia. While corruption may empirically appear to be the biggest issue plaguing Indian bureaucracy, the lack of defined Key Performance Indicators for civil servants is a much bigger problem. Less than 5% bureaucrats in India face KPI-based appraisals. This is both a reward and punishment. It is the latter for hardworking and innovation-oriented officers who find it difficult to stay motivated. For the truant ones, it is a security blanket. With his letter, Somanathan, once again, has worn his scholarly hat to highlight and address the issue of the bureaucracy’s collective performance. With a nudge towards accountability and efficiency, along with the release of a handbook on conducting meetings, he has made it clear that it is the system that needs to clean up the system.