Equipping IAS officers to deal with the manufacturing sector

• The Make in India & Ease of Doing Business policies were framed because the PM correctly believed that the problems of poverty and unemployment could only be solved by the rapid growth of the manufacturing sector.
• This could not happen unless India changed from being a difficult country to an attractive destination for manufacturing investment.

Issues in reforms

• No significant increase in manufacturing: despite the reforms
• Inadequate investments: in the sector.
• Issues in implementation strategies: due to inadequate knowledge & skills, lack of motivation, environmental constraints, weak supervision & monitoring.
• Issues related to promotions and postings: prevent the right man from being posted in the right job.

Role of IAS officers

• Responsible for translating a vision into reality: Political leadership lays down a vision, officers are responsible for translating it into ground realities.
• Ensuring that subordinate civil servants are adequately trained: which are motivated and guided to deliver good outcomes.
• Creating rules: that constitute the environment for implementation.

Need of the hour

• IAS officers need to be better equipped: to work in the manufacturing sector.
• Understanding impact of laws, regulations & procedures on competitiveness of industry: a must for achieving global levels of cost and quality competitiveness in the sector.
• Making the officers aware: of the ways in which these add to or reduce the costs of manufacturing.
• Appreciating the importance of demand creation: for enabling industry to achieve economies of scale and how the stability of policies is required for companies to make long-term investments.
• Understanding the importance of the private sector: as it is financially loaded, it can avoid long delays, higher costs and loss of competitiveness.

What should be done to equip IAS officers

• Reforming the system of human resource development: and bringing it in line with the best global practices.
• Creation of a wing: in the Department of Personnel & Training to select officers based on aptitude from the IAS & other services, and train them to frame & implement policies for manufacturing & industrial development.
• Secondment to selected private companies: so that officers could get actual working experience to understand finer points of market competition.
• Regular transfer of officers: to other unrelated areas of work to understand various dimensions of work.
• Making periodic evaluations: to identify those capable of moving to the highest levels for making policies and strategies.
• Direct reporting of the wing of DOPT to the Prime Minister: to insulate it from pressures from various quarters.