JUGALBANDI ON GOVERNANCE
It is unusual for two distinguished former IAS officers with such vastly different experiences to combine forces and put down their learnings about governance. Lead author Nand Kishore Singh has worn several hats, the more recent one being chairman of the Fifteenth Finance Commission. A member of the Rajya Sabha earlier, he held several posts while in bureaucracy, among them being secretary to the prime minister and revenue secretary. Currently, he is president of the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi. His co-author Pramod Kumar Mishra held several senior secretary-level posts both in the state and at the Centre, including being a Union Agriculture Secretary. Post retirement, he was first secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then from 2019 onwards his principal secretary.
Their book, titled Recalibrate, is a literary jugalbandi with an exceptional collection of insights on a range of subjects dealing with India’s governance and development. With two Black Swan events in quick succession—the Covid pandemic and more recently Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—causing tremendous global turbulence and uncertainty, nations including India need to recalibrate the way they governed themselves. The crux, as Singh points out in his opening essay, is the need for a new social contract between citizen and the state. The big challenge is to further human development and well-being even as the envelope of carbon space and natural resources begins to narrow.
Both authors have seen and dealt with power at intimate quarters and have been in the thick of major crises. They use their rich experience to provide fascinating personal anecdotes, comprehension of issues that matter and the reform needed. What makes the book stand out from other similar efforts is that the authors do not presume that the reader is well-versed
Both authors have dealt with power at intimate quarters and use their rich experience to provide fascinating anecdotes and insights into key issues and the reforms they need
with the subjects being discussed. So, in their individual essays, they provide a primer, including a short-hand history, of a sector or topic before analysing the current situation and outlining innovative solutions.
Singh’s forte is in dealing with issues of finance and the economy, apart from governance. Having served in the prime minister’s office, one of his essays analyses how, over the years, the PMO has overshadowed the important role of the cabinet secretary, to the detriment of governance. He opines that in today’s fast-moving and complex world the approach as to which office has the last word on what reaches the PM is both outdated and ineffective. He talks of the need for a ‘next-gen’ PMO that would be able to anticipate uncertainties while remaining connected with realities to enable it to rapidly respond to challenges. Instead of a mindset of hierarchy, he says, there is a need to shift to complementarity and equality between the PMO and the cabinet secretariat. Calling for reforms in the finance ministry, too, he narrates how Dr Manmohan Singh, when he was taking his leave as the finance minister in the mid’90s, asked him, “What do you think honestly is my failing?” When Singh looked perplexed by the question, Manmohan answered it himself saying, “The two entities which remain totally unreformed are the ministry of finance and the RBI. Regrettably, I have headed both these institutions.”
When it comes to disaster management, P.K. Mishra is internationally recognised as one of the top experts. He was lauded for the way he went about arranging relief and rehabilitation for victims of the 2001 Bhuj earthquake and developing a manual for dealing with such disasters. Years later, he would become central to the handling of the Covid pandemic by the Modi government. In his essay, he says that “whole of government” and “whole of society” approaches are the best recipe for success while dealing with major disasters. In another essay, Mishra narrates personal anecdotes of being a young IAS officer in Gujarat, including dealing with recalcitrant politicians. His learning: For rapid development to happen, there is need for constructive and harmonious relationship between politicians, bureaucrats and citizens. He quotes Balwantrai Mehta, a former Gujarat chief minister, who once said, “The Panchayati Raj system would succeed if officials do not behave like non-officials and non-officials do not behave like officials!”
Both authors in their essays deal with a vast range of subjects, including federalism and the Centre, the emergence of urban local bodies and rural panchayats as the third tier of governance, the ways to transform agriculture, technology and its future role in education, the architecture of a new health policy, dealing with climate goals and analysing the fiscal matrix. Many of the essays are based on their speeches, lectures and articles, which they have expanded on here. The value of the book lies in its central theme that paradigms of the past need to be recalibrated and the reforms required must be put in place. ■