To ensure speedy execution of crucial projects, PM Narendra Modi gives secretaries more power

Pranab Dhal Samanta of the Times of India.

The Modi government has radically enhanced and transformed top bureaucracy's role in project implementation and potentially reduced ministerial involvement, secretaries from different, in some cases widely different, ministries have been teamed up into eight working groups and each group has been tasked with getting fast results on crucial projects.

There's no formal involvement of ministers in this arrangement and secretaries with very different remits have been put in the same group. Both are rare administrative steps in government.

These groups will directly submit their reports to the Cabinet Secretariat, which will pass them on to the PMO. Ministers are not formally involved at any stage. And the practice of keeping top babus wedded to their remits has been changed. For example, the defence and home secretaries, both heavyweight bureaucrats, are in the working group on financial services. And the culture secretary and school education secretary are in the working group on industry.

This major change in how the top bureaucracy works was formalised through a Department of Personnel & Training order on April 16. ET has reviewed the DoPT order.

The eight working groups, with 9-11 members, will cover the following areas: industry; skill development; infrastructure relating to rail, road & air; urban development; rural infrastructure and human resource management; agriculture and agro processing; financial services; health and social issues.

The government's directive to these groups of top bureaucrats is that they must first identify two schemes that can be tailored for better delivery as quickly as in three months. The groups have also been told to identify two existing projects or schemes that can be transformed in the long term but with minimal budgetary support.

The order on this arrangement notes that this major restructuring is a followup action to the prime minister asking all secretaries to go back to their first posting and then submit reports on those districts. The work of these groups does not end with just identifying specific schemes and projects. According to the DoPT order, the working groups will further "assign responsibilities to concerned ministries" to implement specific steps. Not just that, they will assign "time limits for achievement" of milestones, devise methods of "periodic monitoring" and "final evaluation" followed by "ways of maintenance". While the idea was to have the schemes and projects identified by April-end itself, senior officials said, the process will take longer because these groups have just begun to hold meetings.

"This is a very interesting innovation by the PM because these officers in the last leg of their career are being challenged to come up with ideas based on their experience and the gaps they have noticed in their tours," said a senior official. These officials spoke to ET on the condition they not be identified.