Bureaucracy biggest hurdle of development: Former President Pranab Mukherjee

Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee, in his concluding lecture at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, termed "bureaucracy" as the "biggest hurdle" of our development. Mukherjee was addressing students as part of a course on 'Public Policy for Inclusive Development of India' under the aegis of JSW School of Public Policy at IIM-A. The lecture titled 'Articulating Policy and Institutional Agenda for Future Transformation of India' was hosted on Saturday.

While listing issues that demand urgent attention for future transformation of Inida, Mukherjee said, "There is only one motion in civil services and that is promotion. Bureaucracy is the biggest hurdle of our development and they must rectify. While bureaucracy has made substantial contribution also, at the same time, they need to keep in mind that the world is changing very fast and they shall have to keep abreast of this change, adjust, adapt make it flexible so that we can frame policies accordingly."

He further said, " Another problematic aspect of our governance is the isolationism that can be seen in the working of different organs, ministries and even between separate departments within the Ministries. This shows poor coordination and lack of teamwork in our governance. The bureaucratic system has adopted a system of thinking in silos. The need of the hour is to build a bureaucratic system which nurtures the democratic values, and works towards inclusive development."

Mukherjee also emphasized on the skilled working force in the country. Quoting the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said that India could continue to be the fastest growing economy if it exploits its demographic dividend in the next two decades. However, he added, "This demographic divided may turn into demographic disaster if we fail to utilise workforce with adequate skill development".

Taking note of the increase of lynching incidents, he cited regionalism, communalism, violence, traditionalism as our weakness where the strength and resilience of Indian society lies it its plurality and diversity, he said.

Taking a dig at the current scenario of parliament, he said, "The job of the parliament is debate, discuss and decide. But instead of 3 D's, now we have a new D which is disruption. The parliament has been converted into an arena of combat rather than debate. We need a judiciary that gives justice without delays. When the Parliament fails in discharging its law-making role or enacts law without discussion, it breaches the trust reposed in it by the people. This is neither good for the democracy nor for the policies anchored in those laws."

Apart from these issues, he further called upon a need for 4th industrial revolution which is the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and health care systems and how we need to prepare ourselves for future transformation of India.

Mukherjee gave awards to school children for innovation

On Saturday, Pranab Mukherjee gave away the Dr A P J Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards 2018 to creative and innovative students. The competition is organised by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

Five students from the state along with 26 from across the country received the award by the President of India. Over 90,000 submissions of students from 643 districts of all the states were received during the IGNITE 2018 competition, which ran from September 1, 2017 to August 31, 2018. On November 17, a total of 31 students from 11 states will be awarded for their 21 ideas and innovations.

The competition aims to promote creativity and originality among children up to class 12 or those out of school up to the age of 17 years.