05.06.2024 Editorial
05.06.2024 Editorial
With the decision in ‘Kolkata Municipal Corporation’, the wheel has come full circle.
The genesis of this power struggle dates back to the case of Bela Banerjee which
involved the interpretation of Articles 19(1)(f) and 31(2) of the Constitution (prior to
amendment). The Supreme Court of India held that the word compensation in Article 31(2)
postulated “a just equivalent of what the owner has been deprived of”. To undo this
interpretation, the Constitution (Fourth) Amendment was passed in 1955 amending, inter
alia, Article 31(2) to expressly state that the courts could not delve into the question of
inadequacy of compensation.
To retaliate, the courts then devised an ingenious plan: they held that although the final
compensation was non-justiciable, the principles fixed by the legislature to arrive at such
determination would be open to scrutiny.
Word substitution
Parliament, for its part, realised that the word “compensation” in Article 31(2) was the
source of all mischief. Vide the Constitution (Twenty-Fifth) Amendment Act, 1971 the word
“compensation” was substituted by the word “amount” which kept the interpretation of
the courts at bay. Thus, acquisition of property could now be effected through the
medium of eminent domain (the state) by paying the landowner an “amount” (as
Though the validity of the Constitution (Twenty-Fifth) Amendment Act, 1971 was upheld in
Kesavananda Bharati, the Supreme Court watered down the intended effect of the
amended Article 31(2) by an interpretive process .
The majority in Kesavananda Bharati took the view that though the adequacy of the
amount paid was not justiciable, the courts could still examine whether the principles
fixed for determining such compensation were relevant which in effect, reinstated what
Justice Shah had said in the bank nationalisation case. After this decision, Parliament was
convinced that the right to property remained a proverbial thorn in the goal of achieving
a socialist state. This was because the right to property, from a socialist point of view,
was very much a citadel of the bourgeoisie.
A significant change
After the defeat of the Congress in the general election of 1977, the Janata Party, which
came to power, passed the Constitution (44th Amendment) Act, 1978. The right to
property under Article 19(1)(f) was deleted from Part III and rehabilitated in the form of a
constitutional right under Article 300-A. Article 31, which had witnessed much
controversy in the matter of the determination of compensation was also deleted. The
ripple was felt instantly.
Justice K.K. Mathew, who was one of the dissenting judges in Kesavananda Bharati,
observed that ownership of property has a direct corelation to the quality of the
civilisation and its culture and hence opined that “…there is no justification to exclude the
fundamental right to own and acquire property from the category of basic features of
the Constitution even if it be assumed that the concept of basic structure is a tenable
one”.
In 1980, Professor P.K. Tripathi wrote an influential article, arguing that the deletion of
Article 31 was a folly and further that: “The power granted by Entry 42 of the concurrent
list is the power to ‘acquire’ and not the power to ‘confiscate’. As long as these two
Article 300A reads that “no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of
law”. This, according to Prof. Tripathi, still meant that the “law” cannot be valid unless the
acquisition or requisitioning is for a public purpose and there is also a provision in the law
for paying compensation.
In that sense he believed that “compensation” will continue to have the same meaning
given in the case of Bela Banerjee, namely, which is the market value of the property
concerned at a time not too remote from the date of period of acquisition.
In the years that have followed the deletion of Articles 19(1)(f) and 31, the Supreme Court
has held that the right to property is not only a constitutional right but also a human right.
In the case of M.C. Mehta, the Supreme Court held that to be a valid law, it must be just,
fair and reasonable. In other words, though the right to property was not a fundamental
right, a law which deprived a person of his property must answer to the requirements of
Articles 14,19 and 21. In B.K. Ravichandra, the Court went a step further and observed that
the phrasing of Article 300A had a striking resemblance to Articles 21 and 265 and hence
its guarantee could not be read down.
Facets that are protected
The recent decision of the Supreme Court in Kolkata Municipal Corporation has fleshed
out seven different facets which are protected under Article 300-A. These are: The right
to notice; the right to be heard; the right to a reasoned decision; the duty to acquire only
for public purpose; the right of restitution or fair compensation; the right to an efficient
and expeditious process; the right of conclusion.
The Court has concluded that the absence of even one of these features would render
the law susceptible to challenge. The right to restitution or fair compensation judicially
affirms the position prevailing when the unamended Article 31 was in force, and the
The decision in Kolkata Municipal Corporation vindicates the prophetic words of Prof. P.K.
Tripathi, that in enacting the Forty-Fourth Amendment and deleting Articles 19(1)(f) and 31,
Parliament has unwittingly given the property of a citizen the kind of protection it has
never enjoyed before either in British or in independent India.
© The Hindu, First published on: June 04, 2024 12:59 am IST
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/property-is-real-and-so-should-the-compensation
/article68247139.ece
வார்த்தை மாற்று
குறிப்பிடத்தக்க மாற்றம்
Engaging with vernacular diversity is a practical way to convey biodiversity concerns and
values. It also helps to understand the plural ways in which communities value nature.
June 5 is World Environment Day.
An international day’s function is raising awareness. In that spirit, let us be aware of two
things.
Mainstreaming biodiversity
Biodiversity refers to the variability among terrestrial, marine and aquatic organisms, the
diversity within and between them, and ecosystems. Despite referring to things concrete,
like species and ecosystems, biodiversity is abstract. In both expert and lay minds, there
is disagreement and difficulty in what this translates into. An “unapologetically“ scientific
term, it has not achieved scientific “parsimony”, a problem-solving principle that assumes
that the most acceptable occurrence or event is the simplest, making it even “indefinable“
at times.
In short, biodiversity is an obscure concept. It does not figure in everyday usage. Even
the local translations of the word are all Greek and Latin for respective speakers.
Consider jīvavaividhya in Kannada, palluyirmam or paluyiriyam in Tamil or jaiv vividhata in
Hindi.
On the other hand, nature, or forest and their vernacular — prakriti or iyarkai, bana, solai,
adavi, kadu — evoke more verdant imagery and utility in public minds. Engaging with
vernacular diversity is a practical way to convey biodiversity concerns and values. It also
helps to understand the plural ways that communities value nature.
For instance, the ‘seeing is believing’ and ‘psychological distance’ principles condition
people’s climate change perceptions. Experience trumps statistical facts in acknowledging
climate change while proximity— in time and space —reduces abstraction and enhances
concern levels. Also, people are more forthcoming to questions of ‘local warming’ events,
rather than global warming. They respond when researchers substitute abstract statistics
with accessible attributes, both semantic and experiential. Biodiversity advocates can
communicate its significance with appropriate examples.
Biodiversity folk need not look far for ways to understand well-being in these ways. They
will find the necessary words in their own conceptual arsenal-variability (think species
variety) and functioning (think leaf litter decomposition or soil stabilising).
And yet, human variation and functioning are central to Noble Laurette Amartya Sen’s
idea of “capabilities,” a philosophy behind the Human Development approach. A critique of
mainstream utilitarian welfare economics, it provides a new informational space for life
quality assessment — ‘capabilities’ or freedoms and opportunities to pursue valuable
things in life. Sen pitches this pursual in ‘being’ and ‘doing’ terms. These are human
‘functionings‘. His core point is to consider development as freedom. Or your capability
and mine to lead the kind of lives we have reason to value.
For example, the state of being well nourished or educated or having the freedom to do
organic cultivation. In these cases, functioning is the well-being achieved while capability
is the freedom to function or achieve. A community, and its individuals, differ in their
capabilities to convert income or ecosystem service into valuable functioning.
Take forest income or rights. In a country characterised by class, caste and gender
inequities, converting forest rights and income, or a forest’s ecosystem service into
Restoration
Restoration is the active or passive regeneration of biodiversity in a degraded
ecosystem. Restoration is also an expert and confined field, ridden with technicalities and
metrics. Take, for instance, phrases like four approaches to restoration, six principles of
restoration, or a step-by-step restoration guide. Further, success metrics include area
restored, ecosystem services generated, and livelihoods enhanced. But an ecosystem
service is no indicator of well-being if people vary in their abilities to access it and
convert it into valuable interest like growing their crop of choice and using the income
raised for city-based education.
Livelihoods, whose original and influential definition includes capabilities and equity, are
reduced to income. But what use is income for women in a household if they cannot
spend it to pursue patriarchy-defying pursuits? Also, do we not see that community
participation itself in restoration activity can be a well-being indicator? The care work
that women invest in restoring a forest, and the aesthetics of a green flourish, are also
well-being metrics. To answer questions raised in PNAS, biodiversity’s links to well-being
will unravel if we are awake to human variability and functioning.
The author is Lead, Ecosystems and Human Well-being Programme, ATREE, Bengaluru.
பல்லுயிர்ப் பாதுகாப்பு
மறுசீரமைப்பு
If one looks back at India's economic history since 1991, it becomes clear that coalition
governments have undertaken some of the boldest and most visionary reforms that laid
the foundation for India’s resurgence.
The NDA has returned to power for a historic third straight term at the Centre, but the
BJP itself has fallen short of the majority mark of 272. That implies there will be a
coalition government in the real sense of the word.
Since 1991, when India was forced to open up its economy and give up on the planned
economy model, all governments were coalitions of the sort where even the lead party
was quite far from the majority mark of 272. This obvious weakness of the leading party
— be it the Congress or the BJP or the so-called third front — meant that India always
had — to borrow the words of Montek Singh Ahluwalia (former Deputy Chairman of the
erstwhile Planning Commission) — “a strong consensus for weak reforms”.
In other words, while everyone agreed that economic reforms were required, the parties
of the ruling coalition pulled in different directions when it came to deciding the exact
nature of an economic reform.
One, the past decade under PM Narendra Modi was supposed to sort out that weakness
and provide confidence to investors — both local and foreign — about policy stability, and
a concerted push towards economic reforms. That did not happen as envisaged.
While Modi’s first two terms saw several reforms such as the introduction of the Goods
and Services Tax (GST) and the creation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, it was
not exactly a smooth ride all through. For instance, the Modi government failed to bring
about reform of land acquisition. Early in the first term an ordinance to this effect was
taken back after the “suit boot ki sarkar” jibe by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Similarly, during the second term, the Modi government could not convince farmers about
the farm reforms and was forced to repeal them. Indeed, the announcement of the
demonetisation with disastrous consequences injected a deep sense of uncertainty
among all economic agents.
What were the notable reforms brought by the previous coalition governments?
The biggest example is the whole host of reforms during the P V Narasimha Rao-led
government, which was essentially a minority government. It discarded centralised
planning and opened the Indian economy to global completion by removing the
licence-permit raj. The country also became a member of the World Trade Organisation.
Under the short-lived Deve Gowda government, then Finance Minister P Chidambaram
came out with what is still referred to as the “dream budget”. It placed faith in the Indian
taxpayers and cut tax rates — both personal income tax, corporate taxes, and customs
duties.
Under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, India
framed the Fiscal Responsibility & Budget Management (FRBM) law for fiscal rectitude,
and limited the government’s ability to borrow within prudential limits. The Vajpayee-led
coalition further advanced the push towards disinvestment of loss-making Public Sector
Undertakings (PSUs), and focused on boosting rural infrastructure and connectivity
through the PM Gram Sadak Yojana. The very first NDA also brought in the Information
Technology Act, in 2000, that laid the foundation for the bustling e-commerce giant that
India is today.
Under the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) India built on the
Vajpayee era Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to initiate the Right to Education Act. Singh’s
government brought in several reforms under the rights-based approach — far more
robust than the personal guarantees of an individual leader. These included the Right to
Information Act, which boosted transparency in India’s democracy, and the Right to Food,
which ensured that no Indian should go hungry. In the same light, the UPA brought in the
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MG-NREGA), which provided
minimum employment to the rural poor. Singh’s government also deregulated fuel prices
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd, First published on:June 5, 2024 06:32 IST
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-economics/coalition-government-e
conomic-reforms-9372118/
Two lakh plus NOTA votes in Indore: Why NOTA was introduced, its consequences
-Ajoy Sinha Karpuram
The Indore Lok Sabha constituency saw more than 2 lakh votes polled for NOTA. Here is
why the option was introduced and what happens in the unlikely situation when NOTA
receives more votes than all other candidates.
Two lakh plus NOTA votes in Indore: Why NOTA was introduced, its consequences The
Indore Lok Sabha constituency saw more than 2 lakh votes polled for NOTA. Here is why
The BJP’s Shankar Lalwani has won in Indore with a massive 10.09 lakh margin, receiving
12,26,751 votes. His nearest competitor: NOTA, with 2,18,674 votes.
In 2004 the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) had approached the apex court
seeking directions to the ECI for measures to protect the ‘right to secrecy’ of voters to
exercise their franchise. They argued that the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 violated
the secrecy aspect as the Presiding Officer (from the ECI) maintains a record of voters
who choose not to vote along with the signatures or thumb impressions of each voter
who exercises this right.
The central government, however, argued that the right to vote is “pure and simple a
statutory right” (as it is provided by a law, and not the Constitution), and only voters who
exercised their right to vote have a right to secrecy as well, not those who have not
voted at all.
The three-judge Bench, comprising Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam, and Justices
Ranjana Prakash Desai and Ranjan Gogoi, however, held that “Whether a voter decides
to cast his vote or decides not to cast his vote, in both cases, secrecy has to be
The court accepted this reasoning and the suggestion from the ECI’s letter, stating that
political parties would be “forced to accept the will of the people and field candidates who
are known for their integrity”, and directed the ECI to install a NOTA button in EVMs.
As Assistant Solicitor General P P Malhotra pointed out to the court, NOTA has no legal
consequence attached to it — even if the highest number of votes in a seat are polled for
NOTA, the second most successful candidate wins. This has never happened (in Lok
Sabha elections), but the Indore result, as well as other local body elections, show that it
remains a distinct possibility.
Currently, the apex court is considering another petition for elections to be considered
“null and void” if NOTA receives the highest number of votes in the constituency. Shiv
Khera, author and the founder of the Country First Foundation, approached the court in
April 2024 seeking directions to the ECI to “frame guidelines/rules regarding uniform
implementation of the NOTA vote option with consequences for candidates who do not
surpass NOTA.”
Khera argues that the ECI should frame similar rules for all elections where NOTA gets a
majority of the vote. According to his petition, the introduction of NOTA in 2013 “has not
fulfilled its purpose” as it has not led to increased voter participation or political parties
fielding good candidates. NOTA is a “potent weapon in the hands of the voter” and
requires “teeth” to put pressure on political parties, according to the petition. It also
states that candidates who poll fewer votes than NOTA should be “debarred from
contesting all elections for a period of 5 years” and requests the Supreme Court to direct
the ECI to frame rules for this as well.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd, First published on:June 5, 2024 06:34 IST
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/more-than-2-lakh-votes-nota-indore-937202
6/
As the election results come in, an agenda for the next government.
-Nilesh Shah
It should aim for a rapid increase in per capita GDP through accelerated, inclusive and
environmentally sustainable growth.
The election outcome seems to be against the market and exit polls expectations. But
the show must go on. The incoming government should aim for a rapid increase in per
capita GDP through accelerated, inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth.
One, our crucial challenge is the disguised employment in the agriculture sector. We must
create adequate employment opportunities in industry or services in India or abroad. Our
manufacturing is burdened with higher power and logistics costs. Industrial power bears
the subsidy of agricultural power. Commercial railway freight bears the subsidy of
passenger fare. Due to fiscal constraints, agricultural power and passenger fare subsidies
couldn’t be absorbed into the budget. Fortunately, the re-rating of PSU stocks has
provided an option. The PSU market cap has increased significantly in the last three
years. It offers an excellent opportunity to monetise, including the option of strategic
divestment to raise resources to absorb either full or partial power and logistics subsidies
to make our manufacturing competitive and take full advantage of the China plus one
opportunity.
Two, there is a need to boost consumption at the bottom end of the pyramid and in mass
market products. A gold monetisation scheme, which can bring gold locked in the tijoris
(parallel economy) into the mainline economy can raise additional resources to provide
such a boost along with additional liquidity to support growth.
Three, a large part of Indians depend upon agriculture. Agriculture will hold the key in
creating inclusive and sustainable growth. The country became the largest producer of
milk in the world through cooperative movements like Amul. This can be replicated in
other commodities. Substituting imported agri products like palm oil, pulses, and dry fruits
can create local opportunities. Focusing on exports of agro products and horticulture can
support farmers. India can learn from the Netherlands which has become a large exporter
of agri-products. We should enter into a bilateral arrangement for food vs oil. For
example, Saudi Arabia can invest in the agriculture sector to secure its food supplies and
provide us with a guaranteed oil supply.
Four, seek free labour movement with long-term work permits in our FTAs. We should
provide preferential access to our markets on trade and investment in exchange for
Five, provide skills through institutional mechanisms across India. For instance, the
plumbing institute in Kendarapara, Odisha, can provide plumbers to India and the world.
Six, improve/launch PLI schemes to expand manufacturing jobs. For example, Indian
garment exports lag behind by a wide margin. It makes commercial sense to export
garments rather than yarn or fabric. This can also create jobs primarily for women
workers. Processed agro products, automobiles, auto components, engineering,
lab-grown diamonds, jewellery and shipbuilding can be areas of focus to create
well-paying jobs.
Seven, services sectors like tourism, education and healthcare must be supported
through integrated development. The Indian diaspora should be nudged to become brand
ambassadors for tourism, education and the healthcare sector. India can provide speedy
and quality healthcare at a low cost. Our citizens teach across universities around the
world. An ageing world with an underfunded healthcare system is like the Y2K problem
waiting to be solved by India. Indians spent substantial amounts on travel and education
abroad. Developing the local ecosystem will help divert that spending to the local
economy and create jobs in India.
Eight, growth requires investment. Our savings are frozen in real estate, gold, and
currencies. We must unlock frozen savings through innovative ideas to ensure adequate
domestic capital is available for our entrepreneurs.
Nine, investment requires the rule of law. Many investors prefer arbitration outside of
India. Our judicial infrastructure is burdened with unresolved cases. Investment should
improve judicial infrastructure to reduce pendency and resolve cases faster.
Ten, investment requires the ease of doing business. Land acquisition remains a
challenge. Labour laws, despite some reforms, pose a significant challenge. We must
create special economic zones where one window clearance is available for setting up a
project with labour laws comparable to our peers.
Twelve, India, China, and the US have become the engines of global growth. We remain
one of the lowest per capita carbon emitters in the world. While we should follow a green
growth model through renewable energy, we must seek compensation through
technology/capital grants to create a level playing field on per capita historical emissions.
The world did come together to reduce ozone-depleting refrigeration gases. We must
push carbon credit and emission tax on per capita and historical contributions.
Thirteen, land acquisition for mining is challenging in a populous country like India. Despite
having large coal reserves, we import coal worth billions of dollars annually. We must
create a responsible mining policy, balancing local and industrial interests. Odisha is a role
model state that has become a revenue surplus primarily driven by mining royalty.
Fourteen, sustainable growth requires healthy and educated citizens. We have a long
distance to cover in education as well as healthcare. Using mobile technology bridged the
communication gap. We should leverage technology to provide quality education and
healthcare solutions to citizens. A public-private partnership to keep government schools
accountable locally can improve education significantly. DBT, through education coupons
given to needy citizens, which can be encashed at a school that provides quality
education, can dramatically enhance the quality of education.
Fifteen, Indians are good savers but not so good investors. Crores of Indians remain poor
due to suboptimal savings allocation to cryptos, Ponzi schemes and derivatives trading.
We must encourage investor education initiatives to ensure better financial awareness.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd, First published on: June 5, 2024 08:00 IST
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/election-results-come-government-gd
p-9371537/
Mission Karmayogi : For civil servants who are better prepared and
citizen-oriented
- Praveen Pardeshi
India has embarked on the path towards Viksit Bharat by 2047. It’s clear what India
aspires to achieve: Becoming a manufacturing hub in the global supply chain, critical
exporter of value-added services and mass supplier of human skills to an ageing
developed world. But the “how” seems to concern many.
Improved governance and efficient and competent civil services are required for
achieving India’s ambitions. Doubts were raised about the capacity of civil servants in
helping India achieve its goals. Prime Minister Narendra Modi aimed to change that by
launching Mission Karmayogi, that is, the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity
Building, in order to transform India’s three million civil servants into citizen-centric,
future-ready and result-oriented karmayogis. As part of Mission Karmayogi, the Capacity
Building Commission (CBC) was constituted in 2021 to provide policy guidance and tools to
In the past, delayed completion of mega infrastructure like rail freight corridors and
national highways was the norm. Delayed inter-ministerial permissions threw many
infrastructure projects into a quagmire.
The PM Gati Shakti platform integrated all legal and geographic layers, including forests,
wildlife sanctuaries, roads and railway lines, as well as planning and execution of mega
infrastructure projects. It became the means of achieving the “whole of government”
approach mooted by the PM where ministries were required to work in a de-siloed
manner to achieve national priorities by harmonising sector-specific perspectives.
However, for the portal to function as intended, knowledge and skill sets in emerging
technologies and GIS across diverse ministries and field-level public officials, from
highways, customs, forests, power, mining, regulatory authorities concerning civil
aviation, rail safety, etc., are critical.
The CBC worked closely with the Ministry of Commerce and civil services training
institutions like Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya and National Academy of Customs, Indirect
Taxes and Narcotics to curate digital training courses to equip civil servants with skills to
apply PM Gati Shakti for project planning and coordination across departments. Over
24,000 officials from railways, forests, customs, highways, telecom have completed PM
Gati Shakti learning modules.
Similarly, the CBC curated an online learning module on emerging technologies like
Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Big Data analysis which was uploaded on the
online learning portal, iGOT Karmayogi Bharat. Over 3,88,000 government personnel from
across ministries have successfully been certified in learning modules on emerging
technologies. The CBC worked closely with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways,
IIT Mumbai, Indian Academy of Highway Engineers, and the Norwegian Geotechnical
Institute to curate courses on emerging high-tech road-construction technologies and
resolving geohazards like landslides in high-altitude road construction.
PM Modi announced from the Red Fort that Mission Karmayogi will promote
citizen-centric approaches among civil servants. A key tenet of ease of living has been
access to public security. The CBC partnered with the Ministry of Home Affairs to train
police personnel from the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh,
Delhi, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh,
Puducherry on a research-based self-reflection course to promote “sewa bhaav”. Over
50,000 police personnel who interact with citizens at police stations, traffic junctions,
and for emergency response underwent a two-day training which modelled common
citizen flashpoints and taught them to proactively address problems.
For example, one of the flashpoints modelled via field research with the Delhi Police dealt
with certain complainants attributing biased behaviour on the part of the personnel
towards one party in the dispute. Training protocol advises police personnel to call on a
colleague to jointly hear the complaint and allay misgivings and transparently work
toward a solution. An independent impact assessment undertaken by Quality Council of
India by interviewing citizens visiting police stations before and after the training found, in
Puducherry for example, that the percentage of “very satisfied” citizens dealing with
police stations increased from 24 per cent to 66 per cent after training.
However, the true peace dividend is reflected in the sense of security demonstrated by
citizens in Kashmir. Nearly 21 million tourists visited Kashmir in 2023. A police sub
inspector in Srinagar, after the police karmayogi training, said that his attitude to policing
became very professional. Similarly, the Delhi Police received accolades during the G-20
summit for their soft skills in dealing with visitors.
A similar programme curated by the CBC, Railway Board and Indian Railways Institute of
Rail Transport Management (IRITM), Lucknow trained 1,00,000 stations masters, travelling
The PM said in Parliament, Viksit Bharat will develop only on the back of a tax system
which is painless and rewards the honest taxpayer. The CBC partnered with the Central
Board of Direct Taxes to curate an online module on systemic solutions to repeated
taxpayer grievances. Over 14,000 direct tax personnel have completed the online
learning module.
The role of state governments and municipal corporations is equally important in India’s
2047 targets. Services, infrastructure and public goods like drinking water, sanitation,
and roads are delivered by municipal governments. The CBC has piloted capacity building
approaches in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Nagpur, Pune, Bhubaneswar and Mysuru municipal
corporations. Almost the entire Ahmedabad municipal corporation staff and those of
Nagpur have been onboarded on iGOT Karmayogi Bharat learning portal and are taking
courses on municipal finance, road engineering, solid waste management, etc.
Visible impacts of Mission Karmayogi apart, internally, there is also an ongoing invisible
churn towards cultivating a culture of life-long learning. Section officers and
administration assistants across the country have completed 15 lakh online learning
modules on data analytics, Government e Marketplace modules and software tools like
advanced excel. The Indian Institute of Public Administration assessed the impact by
seeking inputs on recently trained staff from their supervisors and reported increased
proficiency in data analytics and e-governance tools.
Mission Karmayogi, flanked by the CBC and Karmayogi Bharat, have made giant leaps in
the capacity building of Indian civil services. I believe Mission Karmayogi is slowly allaying
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd, First published on: June 4, 2024 07:15 IST
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/mission-karmayogi-for-civil-servants-
who-are-better-prepared-and-citizen-oriented-9370185/
India’s 2024 election, with record voter turnout of 64 crore and the challenges faced by
the Election Commission.
Going forward, the EC could consider reducing the duration of the general elections,
especially if they are to be conducted in summer. It is gruelling for its own staff, and
stalls routine government functioning for too long.
© The Hindu Business Line (P) Ltd, First published on: June 04, 2024 at 07:19 AM.
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/editorial/the-real-winner/article68246133.
ece
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