Dear Narayana Murthy, LBSNAA & UPSC are doing a fine job. They don’t need corporates

Murthy has a point. Govt can cut costs by hiring gig workers with attendant benefits. The question is, can we outsource elections, census, and disaster management?

File photo of NR Narayana Murthy | ANI

Dear Narayana Murthy,

Greetings from a superannuated career civil servant who respects you as one of the finest entrepreneurial minds and a person of impeccable integrity and probity in personal and public life. Your contribution to making India a global IT player is second to none. Let me also place on record that I have not the slightest doubt about your commitment to making India an economic superpower by 2047, with defined milestones along the way.

Allow me to introduce myself. I was an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer for 36 years and have worked in two state governments (West Bengal and Uttarakhand) besides the Government of India. Apart from the usual field postings, I have worked mostly in agriculture, industry, and training institutions.

I superannuated as the director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) and have seen several batches graduate. I can vouchsafe their brilliance and ability to undertake complex tasks within the given timeframes. I am also aware of their predilections and dilemmas about dealing with the ecosystem in which some of them are hurled. 

This letter is prompted by your recent comments against the IAS, Indian Police Service (IPS), and the allied services at the CNBC-TV18 Global Leadership Summit on 14 November. I submit that your views are based on a false assumption about their role and responsibilities.

Your main proposition is that vision, cost control, innovation, and rapid execution of programmes hold the key to the “changing demands of governance”. These tasks, according to you, will be performed better by business school graduates rather than those churned out by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and LBSNAA.

B-schools are places of privilege

May I remind you, sir, that the UPSC is a body created under Article 315 of the Constitution. Nine articles (315 to 323) cover not just the establishment of the UPSC but also provisions relating to tabling its reports in Parliament.

The UPSC’s selection process incorporates merit, diversity, and inclusion. It offers every young Indian the choice to appear for the exam in English or any of the 22 languages included in the Eighth Schedule. I am not aware of any B-school having such a provision. As such, there is an inherent bias in favour of students from elite English–medium institutions with a background in science and maths.

India cannot become Viksit Bharat if those working toward achieving that goal come predominantly from the uppermost echelons of the English-speaking, urban middle class.

The 500-odd UPSC selections for the All India and Central services are the best of 12 lakh aspirants. These are then sent to LBSNAA for their foundation course, which now includes the component of Aarambh at the Statue of Unity in Kevadia, where the PM shares his vision of Viksit Bharat with them. May I also mention, at the risk of blowing my own trumpet, that I was privileged to curate the first and second of these interactions with the PM in 2019 and 2020.

Vox populi

Let me now raise the issue of vision. I must assert, sir, that the ‘visioning exercise’ is a function of democratic polity. It is the elected representatives of people who must engage in this task at all levels—starting from the panchayat, the zilla parishad, and/or the territorial council to the state and central government.

Visioning is intrinsic to political economy. Is it for civil servants or managers to decide whether India should join the QUAD, settle the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and Line of Control (LoC), or have a uniform civil code? Should managers decide the income cut–off for stakeholders under the National Food Security Act?

A question such as “whether or not free bus travel for women and students will make society more inclusive” cannot—and must not—be addressed only in terms of balance sheets. It is not rocket science to spell out the financials involved, but there are larger issues to account for. For instance, has the mid-day meal scheme improved health and education indicators for children from juggi-jhopri clusters?

True, these issues can be managed better, and as a concerned citizen, you must give your candid suggestions on how this can be done. Last month, in these columns, I wrote about how the NITI Ayog has linked the payment of IT vendors to learning outcomes in government schools.

Demands of governance?

Sir, you have also talked about the changing demands of governance. Who decides what these demands are? How do we balance the ease of doing business (EODB) with the ease of living (EOL), both of which are legitimate goals?

While you have advocated for a 72-hour work week (thankfully with one day off), the ease of living is citizen–centric. It includes work–life balance, care for children and the elderly, and physical and mental health with adequate opportunities for an individual’s cultural and social evolution. Who will be the arbiter between the EODB and the EOL?

Across the world, we are moving from considering Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the only indicator of a nation’s progress. The matter cannot be decided in a corporate boardroom.

Cost-effectiveness

You have also made a point about cost control. Rather than making a general statement, I would request you to spell out the sectors/areas in which government services are less cost–effective than those offered by the corporates.

Would you like to compare the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) with Max, Apollo, or Medanta? Take the per capita costs of a student from Delhi University with one from a private university, perhaps? Take a look at the logistics of ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme) centres anywhere in the country, and I will be happy to see where further cost–cutting can be done.

The Government e Marketplace (GeM) portal offers another instance of cost-cutting, where IAS offices have ensured that both transaction time and cost have been cut down to almost zero.

To be fair, you do have a point: The government could cut substantial costs by hiring gig workers instead of regular staff with attendant benefits of leave for healthcare and education. Can we, however, outsource elections, census, and relief and disaster management?

I have been invited to many corporate events, from product launches to marketing summits—it’s impossible to compare the costs of these events to what is spent on government conferences, usually held at the Vigyan Bhawan.

I would also invite you to dwell further on what you mean by rapid execution. Any programme announced by the PM or any CM is implemented within a matter of weeks—if not days.

It is true that the political executive, cutting across party lines, has chosen direct benefits aimed at women and unemployed youth over infrastructure, skilling centres, and universities. However, this is driven by electoral compulsions.

Choices are political

Let me conclude by stating that the choices society makes are political, and those who preach what should be done ought to listen to the diverse voices outside of corporate offices.

The corporate sector spends more on advertisements than on corporate social responsibility. Let them also adopt the RTI for their organisations. Let them share the salary differentials between the top honcho and the gig worker. Let them give a breakup of which products and services their profits come from. Let them give a report on the inclusivity index: How many of their leadership positions are occupied by persons of disability, third gender, scheduled castes, OBCs, and from the Northeast?

Only once this happens, will you have the credentials to advise institutions like UPSC, LBSNAA, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNA), and Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA)—institutions that are doing a fine job of assisting the democratically elected leadership to implement policies chalked out in Parliament, state assemblies, municipal corporations, and zilla parishads.

Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweets @ChopraSanjeev. Views are personal.

(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)