A mix of old and new:NITI Aayog

The NITI Aayog will surely continue to both formulate plans and engage with the states

The Planning Commission has been abolished. A new body in its place has been set up - the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog. Fresh responsibilities, too, have been outlined for the NITI Aayog, indicating what kind of role it could play in the coming months. But more significant and revealing are the details in the Expenditure Budget for 2015-16 that show the government's financial allocations for the NITI Aayog.

First, it would be interesting to take a look at the new set of responsibilities for the NITI Aayog. The overall task of setting national development priorities with the active involvement of states has been entrusted to the new body. It is expected to foster cooperative federalism and prepare credible plans at the village level and aggregate them progressively at higher levels of the government. There is also a hint that the new body would provide support to the government through its advice and research work and even build itself to be a think tank.

All this might appear a little vague. But what could provide some clarity are the two words that have been used by the government in articulating the new responsibilities of the NITI Aayog. And these are: Plan and states. What this means is that whatever else the NITI Aayog may be doing, it surely will continue to both formulate plans and engage with the states. What these plans would be and what the nature of engagement with states would be are issues that the NITI Aayog will have to work out. Similarly, the government will have to decide if it would permit the NITI Aayog to determine the allocation of central resources to states or act as a forum of discussion of Centre-state issues.

It, therefore, appears that the NITI Aayog will not be completely different from what its predecessor was. There are other indications as well that support such an assessment. For instance, even though the Planning Commission has been abolished, the planning ministry continues to remain in existence. You might wonder what the need for a planning ministry would be when the government has bid goodbye to the planning era. And an even more important question: What role would a full-fledged minister for planning play when there is no Planning Commission?

Probably, restructuring institutions are easier than reforming the council of ministers. One possible reason for retaining the planning minister could be to have a person who could be present in Parliament to address questions and issues concerning the NITI Aayog. If that is the only reason for having a planning minister, then why not have the prime minister, who is the chairman of the NITI Aayog, or a minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office to do that job in Parliament? Or has planning not been completely abandoned?

Controversies have also surfaced over the status of the vice-chairman and members of the NITI Aayog. It appears even as its vice-chairman will enjoy the rank of the Cabinet minister, his pay and perquisites will be equivalent only to those offered to a Cabinet secretary. Likewise, its members will enjoy the rank of a minister of state but their salaries will be the same paid to a secretary in the Union government. What does it mean for the NITI Aayog vice-chairman's status as a permanent invitee to the Cabinet meetings? Remember that the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission was an invitee to all such Cabinet meetings.

Equally interesting is the financial outlay for the NITI Aayog's secretariat for this year, estimated at Rs 52 lakh, compared to Rs 42 lakh spent on the secretariat of the Planning Commission in 2014-15 and Rs 25 lakh in 2013-14. The overall expenditure on the NITI Aayog for this year would be around Rs 88 crore, compared to Rs 93 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 78 crore in 2013-14. So, what is going on about institutional reform? And where are the financial savings that the creation of a leaner body like the NITI Aayog was to have generated?

The government has of course saved some money by doing away with the Independent Evaluation Office that was set up in 2011-12 to assess the effectiveness of the government's flagship development programmes. Have the flagship programmes too been wound up? Not really, even though the funding pattern for some of them has changed and the states have been asked to cough up more on financing some of them. So, who will evaluate these programmes?

In short, whatever role the government may want the NITI Aayog to play, it should articulate it more clearly. Equally important, there is an urgent need for some reforms of the council of ministers and the rules of business framed by the government for the NITI Aayog.

‪#‎PrimeMinister‬ to confer awards in public administration on ‪#‎CivilServicesDay‬

Prime Minister to confer awards in public administration on Civil Services Day

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi will confer the `Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration’ for the years 2012–13 and 2013-14 to outstanding initiatives in Public Administration on the Ninth Civil Services Day which is being held here on April 21, 2015. To mark the Day, a two-day programme organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, begins on April 20, 2015 (AN).

A number of outstanding initiatives in Public Administration in three categories – Individual, Team and Organisation - have been selected for the award for the year 2012-13 and 2013-14, from across the country. Under this scheme of awards all officers of Central and State governments, individually or as a Team or as an Organisation, are eligible. The award includes a medal, scroll and a cash amount of Rs.1 lakh. In case of a team, the total award money is Rs.5 lakh subject to a maximum of Rs.1 lakh per person. For an organisation, this is limited to Rs. 5 lakh.

Unlike previous years, the Civil Services Day which is being held on two days this year, focuses on ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’ with specific sectoral emphasis on Social Sector, Housing, Employment & Skill Development and Agriculture. The related sessions would be chaired by senior Union Ministers viz. the Union Minister of Raiways, Shri Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani and other dignitaries Vice Chairman, NITI Ayog, Dr. Arvind Panagariya and the Professor from Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, Dr. Ashok Gulati. A number of eminent speakers in the respective fields are expected to deliberate on these issues of contemporary relevance and seek to address the challenges before the Civil Services in India and re-inventing government for efficient service delivery.

During the event, a book on ‘Best Practices – Tomorrow is Here’ will also be released by the Prime Minister on April 21, 2015.

This Day is being observed by all Civil Services to rededicate and recommit themselves to the cause of the people, since 2006. It provides a unique opportunity for introspection as also for working out future strategies to deal with the challenges being posed by the ever changing times. 

#UPSCIAS (Mains) revised preference forms: Important instructions

#UPSCIAS (Mains) revised preference forms: Important instructions

The candidates should note the following instructions/guidelines for filling up of revised service preferences in the application form:

The candidates who have qualified the Civil Services (Main) Examination, 2014 shall be required to mandatorily indicate revised order of preferences only for those services participating in the said Examination for which they are interested to be allocated to and such revised order of preferences shall be in supersession of the earlier order of preferences filled by the candidates in their detailed application form;

In case of recommendation of their name by UPSC, the candidates shall be considered for allocation to one of those services by the Government for which they shall indicate revised order of preference subject to fulfilment of other conditions;

The candidates should note that they would not be considered for allocation to the service for which they would not indicate any preference;

The candidates would be required to fill up and submit their revised service preferences online in the following manner:

The candidates will be mandatorily required to fill up their revised service preferences during the period April 20 and April 27

The candidates will be required to register on Commission's website using their roll number to get a new password, which would be forwarded to their e-mail registered with the Commission

The candidates will have to login with their user ID (Roll No.) and the password which will be sent through email and fill up the revised preferences in order of preference say 01, 02 and 03 etc

The candidates can give preference for as many services as they desire

In case of the service/services, which they do not want to opt for, they will have to mark '99' against such service/services

A printout of the revised preferences duly signed by the candidates concerned will also have to be handed over by the candidates to the officers concerned of the commission at the time of their personality test

One bill to rule them all

Tax" has always been a dirty word. It is dirty for the people who pay, who evade and who collect. Those who pay, don't really want to pay but do so either out of compulsion or perhaps because they don't have the option to evade. They are never really given due recognition despite being the venerated four per cent who pay taxes for the remaining 96 per cent of Indians. Those who evade also have their reasons - e.g. high tax rates or justification of the logic "most don't pay, so why should I?" The collectors are a demoralised lot; professionally, they never meet their performance goals and personally, they are looked upon suspiciously and only respected out of fear. So, no one is really happy.

A more friendly, transparent and intelligent tax ecosystem could be implemented. That ecosystem should aim to give a seamless experience to tax payers and create an amiable relationship between a genuine taxpayer and taxmen.

Four programmes of the Government of India - Digital India,Jan Dhan Yojana (JDY), GST implementation and Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) - weaved together, have the potential to create such an ecosystem. It can curb generation and enable recovery of black money and increase the government's revenues significantly to support the broader objective of Bharat Nirman. More importantly, a system that incentivises volitional tax-paying behaviour is likely to be more effective in broadening the tax base than creating policies inclined to beat up tax evaders.

First, India can be the first country ever to adopt a "One Bill" policy. It means that all financial transactions across India for trade of goods and services, no matter how small, is billed through one universal billing system. Today's technology maturity can make this happen. It should be internet-based, made ubiquitous through mobile smartphones and can be hosted on a cloud platform. Every transaction will require PAN/TIN numbers of the buyer and seller. The transacted amount and GST paid will flow into the 26AS statement for individuals and an equivalent statement for companies. There will be no need for paper invoices.

Such a system will provide every seller of goods and services a credible, easy-to-use, universal and cutting-edge invoicing system, bring all financial transactions in the white economy, discourage under-invoicing and over-invoicing, ensure transparent accounting of tax collected and deposited and eliminate "kachcha" bills. Taxmen, on the other hand, will have a platform to detect evasion accurately and perform surgical enforcement operations with undisputed data. Most importantly, this can bring the black economy into the tax net.

The success of this system is based on the principle of a backward propagation of pressure in which the end-consumer will forcibly drive sellers of goods and services to declare their actual revenues and deposit tax collected from them instead of making windfall profit from it. Volitional adoption will be key to success - i.e. the more people insist that sellers give bills, the more the white economy will grow. Consumer awareness campaigns have been trying to educate people but have not been effective.

Encouraging people to adopt this system is the answer. The government must reward the taxpayer for generating more white money. If people are allowed to reduce their taxable income by a percentage of GST that they pay for purchase of goods and services over and above income tax, it will incentivise everyone to demand bills from sellers. Unbilled transactions, a major contributor to the shadow economy, will reduce. Sellers who continue to operate in black will be eventually eliminated by market forces.

There is no dispute that the shadow economy is big; estimates vary between 22 per cent and 30 per cent of the GDP based on Friedrich Schneider's report of The Institute of Economic Affairs and Indian think tanks. That is a whopping Rs 25 to 34 lakh crore. If the government fixes the GST rate at 20 per cent, every one per cent reduction of the shadow economy will bring Rs 16,000-22,000 crore additional revenue receipts per year! Considering the US and UK black economy at eight per cent and 12 per cent of GDP respectively, if India can bring its own down to 10 per cent, an additional Rs 2-4.5 lakh crore will accrue to the exchequer every year. This can double the current planned expenditure of the government.

The One Bill system can be implemented as an extended module of the BBPS, which is currently under implementation but with a much higher degree of artificial intelligence, technology power and integration with the income tax system. One Bill will be the universal billing system and BBPS the universal payment gateway. The benefits of building such a system would far outweigh the investment required for it.

Three other supporting initiatives will further help the cause. First, elimination of Rs 1000, Rs 500 notes and having fewer Rs 100 notes in circulation. With the success of JDY and the direct cash transfer mechanism, a large population now has a bank account and we have a proven system that enables direct transfers. We really don't need a big cash economy.

Second, the velocity of adoption will increase if the government fixes a high rate of GST. Although it will artificially inflate the price of every commodity, this can be used as a mechanism to make transactions in black prohibitively expensive. Imagine, getting a refund of a part of the GST amount credited to your account the moment you complete the transaction in white!

Third, the IT department must show every tax payer the mirror of their income, spending and taxes paid. Doing so will improve the IT department's image as a transparent enforcement body and will also put pressure on individuals to pay taxes on time. If everyone finds a simple monthly statement of total income, total tax paid and total expenditure from their IT department, more people will comply and pay taxes on time.

Let us accept that it is grossly unfair to tax four per cent of the population, which contributes about 16 per cent of total government tax revenue. If India can double the tax-paying population and reduce the shadow economy, leveraging technology under the ambit of Digital India, it is possible to dramatically cut the budget deficit, in which case, it is time to give the real Indian taxpayers money back in their pockets. The FM should provide a roadmap for drastically reducing income tax rates, similar to what he has done for corporates this year.

#NirmalGanga #Sahbhagita Initiative Launched

Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti has called for close coordination with Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to achieve the goal of clean Ganga. Launching the Nirmal Ganga Sahbhagita, a sustainable initiative with ULBs situated on the banks of the river Ganga here today she said that economic and cultural significance of Ganga is no less than its religious significance. The Minister said millions of our countrymen have a tremendous devotion towards this sacred river and we have to convert this devotion into a big public movement. Sushri Bharti said ULBs have a major role to play in this regard as they are directly communicating with the people at the grass root level. She said if necessary, a separate act will be considered for clean Ganga mission. The Minister said clean Ganga mission should be an example for the whole world and we should be able to invite foreigners to see our clean Ganga. She said this task is very arduous and complex but not impossible to achieve.

National Mission for Clean Ganga (#NMCG), an autonomous society under Ministry of #WaterResources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has launched ‘Nirmal Ganga Sahbhagita’ for initiating a sustainable partnership with 118 Urban Local Bodies located along the River for a Clean Ganga. Main objectives of the‘Nirmal Ganga Sahbhagita’ is to provide required assistance by the Centre to Urban Local Bodies for following activities:

• Formation of Ganga Project Implementation Units (PIU) in various towns to enable implementation of the ‘Clean Ganga’ Programme at the town level

• Systematic Solid Waste Management near Ghats and confluence of Nalas into the River

• Maintaining the 500 mt. area along River Ganga and connecting drains as a ‘litter-free zone’

• Providing livelihood opportunities for unemployed youth to monitor the litter free zone and the health of the river

• Public Outreach Activities

For this purpose, NMCG will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with each ULB and work with them to achieve the cherished objective of a Clean Ganga.

Chairperson/Municipal Commissioner/Executive Officer of 78 ULBs from the States of Uttrakhand, UP, Bihar and Jharkhand attended the day long dialogue. It may be recalled that only last month NMCG had directed these ULBs through a public notice to furnish the action plans for construction / rehabilitation and / or upgradation of the sewage treatment plants (STPs), installation of requisite equipment / augmentation of the STPs by such municipalities / urban local bodies and Effluent Treatment Plants / Common Effluent Treatment Plant (ETPs / CETPs ), zero liquid discharge / real time monitoring for the discharge of trade effluents for abatement of pollution by the industries, as the case may be within 15 days.

Untreated municipal sewage account for the bulk (over 75 percent) of pollution in Ganga, mostly generated by the larger cities. Currently, the responsibility for provision of adequate sanitation and waste management services overlap considerably across the State Governments and the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Ownership and commitment of local agencies, supported by an incentive to recover Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs, is required to progressively build technical and management capacity for effective implementation of Clean-up Programme of River Ganga.

#IndianNavy Ships #Mumbai And #Tarkash Return to Hero’s Welcome

INS Tarkash which participated in the #OperationRahat returned to Mumbai harbour this morning while INS Mumbai had entered on 16 April 15. The ships’ crew was greeted by senior officers of the command and the Chief of Naval Staff will be interacting with the crew on Monday, 20April 15.

Earlier this year, a raging civil war in Yemen has left thousands of people homeless and stranded. Military intervention by Saudi Arabia and other nations have further complicated the situation with aerial bombardments continuing relentlessly across the country. The airports and seaports of the country, with the exception of Al Hodeidah, have been thrown out of gear leaving very little room for movement of people from the strife-torn country.

Prior to commencement of operations, Indian diaspora in Yemen was estimated to be approximately 4000 people working in all walks of life. Some of them had been working and earning a living in Yemen for decades. Most of them were located in and around the capital city of Sanaa,which had seen much violence and had been under relentless attack. With the situation in the country deteriorating rapidly, the Indian Government had ordered evacuation of Indian nationals from Yemen on 30 Mar 15.

The Indian Navy was first off the starting block, with INS Sumitra, one of the newest Offshore Patrol Vessels of the Indian Navy, being diverted immediately from her operational tasking in the Gulf of Aden. She immediately entered the Port of Aden and evacuated the first wave of 349 Indians on 31 Mar 15 and transported them to Djibouti.During the evacuation operations at Aden, the ship reported bombing and gunfire and a general disorder, pandemonium and unrest. At Djibouti, the evacuated Indians were met by Gen (Retd) VK Singh, the Minister of State for External Affairs, before they were airlifted to India by the Indian Air Force.

After the first group of evacuees was disembarked at Djibouti without losing any time, INS Sumitra after a quick operational turn around dispatched for the Port of Hodeidah on 02 Apr 15, from where the ship evacuated another 317 people (mostly Indian nationals) amidst similar unsecure conditions with bombing in the distance. This second wave was transported to Djibouti on 03 Apr 15.

In the meanwhile, two major warships i.e. guided-missile destroyer INS Mumbai and the guided-missile frigate INS Tarkash were sailed from Mumbai to Yemen on evening of 30 Mar 15. Two Indian passenger ships, MV Kavaratti and MV Coral, which normally ply between Kochi and the Lakshadweep Islands, were also sailed out from Kochi towards Yemen. IN Ships Mumbai and Tarkash were tasked to escort these passenger ships till Djibouti as the waters of the Gulf of Aden have been piracy-infested since 2008.

As the days progressed, the Port ofAden was engulfed in shelling and firing and permission for entry of ships was not accorded by the local authorities as fighting raged in the port city. As more than 300 Indians were known to be awaiting evacuation from Aden, INSMumbai was relieved of escort duties and was dispatched to reach off Aden,where she arrived in the wee hours of 04 Apr 15, while INS Tarkash continued to escort the passenger ships, which reached Djibouti on 05 Apr 15afternoon. In a well coordinated operation, 441 people, including foreign nationals, women, elderly persons and children were evacuated using boats from the Port of Aden to INS Mumbai, which was just outside the port and were evacuated to safety in Djibouti by the morning of 05 Apr 15.

After all ships were in area the evacuation cycle continued with close cooperation between various government agencies participating in the area and the three ships. As very few countries were participating in evacuation, requests poured in from the international community to evacuate their citizens from the war zone also. Keeping safety of life as paramount requirement, these ships, provided assistance to many foreign nationals in escaping to safety. In all these ship undertook a total of nine missions to various ports to evacuate over 3,000persons form war torn Yemen.With most Indian already evacuated,Indian Naval Ships Mumbai and Tarkash left Djibouti for Indian coast on PM 12April 2015, while INS Sumitra continued to remain in the area for the final evacuation mission conducted on 15 Apr 15 and for expeditious response to any contingency. INS Sumitra will also resume her Anti Piracy patrol duties and will thus be available in the area for quick response to any untoward development. INS Mumbai reached Mumbai Harbour on 16Apr 15 and INS Tarkash escorted the two MVs Kavaratti and Coral out of piracy ridden Gulf of Aden and returned Mumbai harbour on 18 Apr 15. The two MVs with evacuees on them entered Cochin on PM 18 April 15.

The operation was executed under the operational control of the Western Naval Command, headquartered at Mumbai under the directives and monitoring at Integrated Headquarters (Ministry of Defence) Navy. In an unprecedented show of synergy, the MEA and MoD (Inidan Navy and Indian Air Force) worked in absolute synchronisation and real-time information was exchanged with the ships on thescene through satellite communications

Effective economic ‪#‎diplomacy‬

The new National Democratic Alliance (‪#‎NDA‬) government has stepped up the intensity of India's summit-level interactions with major powers, neighbouring countries and the non-resident Indian (NRI) diaspora since May 2014. Refreshingly, in addition to political and strategic ties, these external engagements have focused more overtly than in the past on raising trade and investment levels. Economic diplomacy has become a tired expression and any reference to it usually elicits a yawn. It has become de rigueur for governments to repeat too often to their diplomats that trade and investment along with technology transfer are crucial elements and even drivers of foreign policy. This article explores how India could use its relationships with the rest of the world to push employment-generating growth and acquire appropriate technology.

In today's world with instant low-cost written, pictorial and voice communications, publicly available information is adequate to quickly put together an accurate picture of political and strategic developments. In such an environment, traditional diplomatic despatches from embassies are often redundant. There could be exceptions during armed conflicts or if relationships are tense, but such situations are not the norm.

Diplomats are expected to further the economic interests of their home countries with the time freed up by not having to, for example, analyse host country political developments in excessive detail. Technological content constitutes an ever higher proportion of the value added in the total volume of traded goods or services. Hence, protection of intellectual property rights and availability of skilled human resources take higher priority than in the past. It follows that diplomats need to follow innovations in technology more closely.

Indian embassies in the larger countries have economic-commercial wings. These wings spend most of their time in engaging with our industry associations, such as Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and with the visits of delegations from the ministry of commerce and industry or of finance. Annual work-programme targets are drawn up by our missions in consultation with the commerce ministry. These targets are more in the nature of the number of meetings, seminars, and trade and investment promotion exhibitions to be held annually. All this can be useful, but specifically targeted interaction with individual Indian and foreign companies is needed. For example, auto components is an important Indian export item and our commercial wing representatives need to be aware of what is happening in this sub-sector. This would not be possible without practical experience, which would happen only if government allows deputation between the government and the private sector more freely. There is no a priori reason to assume that if officers were to go on deputation, say, to Bharat Forge or Mahindra & Mahindra, they would on return to government push what benefits those companies to the detriment of public interest.

In India, the commerce ministry is responsible for trade and foreign direct investment. The ministry of external affairs is staffed by foreign-service officers and the commerce ministry by administrative-service officers. At the working level, there are often instances of lack of communication or inter-service rivalries to protect turf. This could be overcome in specific cases by better coordination at the ministerial level, but may not percolate downwards systemically. The Indian government uses Cabinet committees for resolving inter-ministerial differences. All things considered, for faster decision-making and better follow-up action, the external affairs and the commerce ministries need to be merged. Brazil and Australia, two G20 countries, have one minister who is responsible for both foreign affairs and trade. Their stated intention is to take advantage of the synergies between the functioning of their foreign offices and trade ministries. It is about time that India follows this Brazilian and Australian example.

Indian missions abroad are our official eyes and ears, and personnel who have opted to specialise in economic-commercial work should also report on significant technological trends. For instance, there is considerable speculation about what 3D printing has in store for the manufacturing sector. Currently, a 3D printer that costs about $1,500 can print out screw-drivers and hammers. It would be useful if our missions in developed countries were to interact with government agencies, engineering colleges and private sector firms on innovations in manufacturing.

Going back to the first half of the 1990s, after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the United States and China were quick to offer highly trained Soviet scientists and engineers well-paid employment in their countries. Clearly, the compensation levels were much higher than what was available in the chaotic post-break-up Soviet Union. It was opportune for India with its long-standing relationships with Soviet-era defence and research establishments to have offered somewhat lower salaries than the United States and China yet attractive opportunities to ex-Soviet specialists. It seems we did think on these lines, but could not resolve what grade these experts would be equivalent to within our scientific establishments. It may be that a sense of insecurity among some of our senior scientist-engineers was the deal-breaker.

The Indian diaspora in developed countries includes highly trained scientists, engineers and management specialists. However, we tend to offer executive and advisory positions only to those who have distinguished themselves in the social sciences. We need to use our missions abroad to also identify those who have excelled in the physical sciences and technical disciplines, and are prepared to teach in India. Many of them have completed their child-rearing responsibilities once they are past 50 years of age and are receptive to spending a few months each year in India.

In select large missions, there are representatives from the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the department of atomic energy (the Indian Space Research Organisation tends to work more on its own) who are in touch with their counterparts. However, cutting-edge technology and applications are areas with which at least some of our foreign-service or administrative-service officers should be familiar. Going forward, for work involving transfer of technology or cyber security officers from technical streams in their university days could be identified early on in their careers. This should be easier than in the past since the proportion of those with a science or a technical background among those who join the civil services has increased sharply in recent years.

To sum up, promotion of foreign trade and investment, and facilitation of scientific-technological tie-ups cannot be left to the individual initiative of officers posted in our missions abroad. We need a systematic approach to the selection of officers and their training for corresponding responsibilities. This would make our diplomacy effective, and not just economic.