Various ministries in India work in silos leading to lack of coordination and inordinate delays. What suggestions would you give to address such organizational efficiency in government?

Answer: Issues of Organisational Inefficiency:

  • Specialist attached offices of ministries working autonomously without taking inputs from the field level functionaries.
  • Lack of effective coordination among various ministries due to their domain specific functions and staff and line agencies and absence of interactive mechanisms for deliberation.
  • Appointment of private/external agencies to provide research inputs and advise ministries on specific programmes. These agencies may not be able to leverage the state machinery which is spread out at the field level.
  • Excessive rules and regulations disincentivise horizontal interactions within the ministries at the union and state level and vertical interaction between the union and the state level.
  • Recommendations and Solutions to address Organisational Inefficiency: Setting up of Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) for inter-ministerial coordination. For Example: The Government has constituted EGoS headed by Cabinet Secretary with Secretaries of 20 Infrastructure and Economic User Ministries as members of EGoS to monitor implementation of PM GatiShakti and setting up of Project Development Cells (PDCs) in Ministries/Departments for attracting investments in India.
  • Creation of Cabinet Committees assisted by staff from the Cabinet secretariat. These are able to provide skilled observations and resolve conflicts in cabinet decisions. For instance, the Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth and the Cabinet Committee on Employment & Skill Development were set up recently.
  • Initiatives like PRAGATI which enables the Prime Minister to discuss the issues with the concerned Central and State officials with access to complete information at the ground level.
    It is a three-tier system (PMO, Union Government Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries of the
    States) with the three objectives of:
    o Grievance Redressal
    o Programme Implementation
    o Project Monitoring
  • Constitutional mechanisms like the Inter-State Council under the chairmanship of the
    PM need to be revitalized by associating it with the PMO or Cabinet Secretariat so that
    bottlenecks can be resolved.
    GST Council needs to be strengthened as a deliberative platform for addressing the fiscal constraints between the centre and states. Strengthen the voice of states in NITI Aayog to give credence to local level initiatives and sharing of best practices across ministries at state level.

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About the Author: Nitin Kumar Singh 

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