The former
President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
delivered the 3rd UPSC Foundation Day Lecture on Governance
and Public service in New Delhi today.
Dr. Kalam lauded the role in
selecting and recommended the most talented persons for appointment to various
segments of our National governance system. Over the last six decades UPSC has
selected nearly quarter of a million candidates, after examining over forty-six
million applicants which is equivalent to the entire population of South Africa
or England, he said. Dr. Kalam said that inspite of various factors affecting
societal dynamics, UPSC has conducted examinations, interviews, personality
tests and recommending suitable candidate for various Services under this
intense competition. Dr. Kalam said, “Creative Leadership is the essence of
good governance”.
Elaborating on
the creative leadership, Dr. Kalam enumerated the undernoted
traits/qualities:
a.
a vision.
b.
passion to realize the vision.
c.
Leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path.
d.
knowledge of how to
manage a success and failure.
e.
courage to take decisions.
f.
nobility in management.
g.
transparent in every action.
h.
Leader becomes the master of the problem, defeats the problem
and succeeds.
j.
Leader must work with integrity and succeed with integrity.
Dr. Kalam narrated from
his personal experience as well as history
the situations when the political
leadership and the scientific leadership
in India had displayed these
qualities of creative leadership in
taking the country forward.
Dr. Kalam
expressed confidence that with nine dimensions of creative leadership quality
which will be the foundation for our talented human power, will transform India
into a performing nation. Indeed UPSC is a partner in this transformation by
equipping the nation in multiple fields with the best human power with the
great qualities of “what can I give” and “I will work with integrity and
succeed with integrity”. [Full text of Dr. Kalam’s speech is available at
www.abdulkalam.com]
Minister of
State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and PMO, Shri V.
Narayanasmay in his remarks said that the Commission has made a mark for itself in fulfilling the
constitutional mandate. The progressive application of the merit
principle in the just, fair, impartial and equitable manner by the Commission
has greatly benefited the composition and complexion of Indian Civil
Services.
Shri V.
Narayanasmay said that there is a need to keep pace with changes in the
society. The recruitment policies of
the Commission need to be reviewed and revised to make recruitment faster and
also to ensure induction of the civil servants with right aptitude. Reform in civil services has also been
emphasized by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. The Minister said that the
idea of a lecture service on governance assumes contemporary relevance in the
larger expectation of people for smoother and faster delivery of facilities and
amenities. Public Servants must have firm moorings to moral
values and principles and the system has
to be made corruption free. Towards this end, the Government has recently taken
several measures to tackle the menace of corruption at all levels including
bureaucracy, he said.
Chairman, UPSC,
Shri D.P.Agrawal in his remarks said that
good governance largely depends on correct manning of the public
services by the people with right attitude and ethics. Recognizing the role of the civil servants in
the changed paradigm, the UPSC have been reviewing its methods and process of
recruiting Civil Servants, he said. The
scheme of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination has been revised from
this year. Commission has constituted a high power Committee to suggest
possible changes in the pattern of Civil Services (Main) Examination. I would like to make it very clear that the
endeavor of the Commission is to ensure that
all the candidates are judged on the basis of in-depth knowledge and
understanding rather than information gathered at the last moment.
Like the
changes made in the Civil Service Examination, Commission is also looking at
other examinations conducted by it to bring them in tune with the present
scenario of country’s development and aspiration of people. Similarly, to improve the process of
induction of ‘State Civil Service’ Officers and Non-state ‘Civil Service
Officers to All India Service, Commission had recommended an alternative system
to the Government (Department of Personnel and Training ) which is under its
active consideration.
To overcome
any delay in the proposals/ cases received by UPSC, workshops were held for the
Ministries and Departments to sensitize them about the manner in which proposals are to
be sent and the documents that are mandatory.
A single Window System has been introduced whereby all the proposals are examined across
the table and only complete ones are accepted. The system has been successful and UPSC in a position to tender
advice within the shortest possible time.
To cite an example, the DPC proposals are now finalized in a record
time of 43 days as against the normal time of 120 days and the Disciplinary
cases are disposed in 2.8 months as
against the normal disposal time of 6 months.
Shri Agrawal said that through the National Conference of
the Chairpersons of State Public Service Commissions, of which Chairman UPSC is
the National Chairman, the best practices and procedures among all the State
PSCs are shared. Special care and considerations are given by the Commission to
the needs of the people living in the North East region of the Country, he
said.
The Chairman said that to further the idea of promoting
international cooperation, UPSC had hosted the “Conference of the Chiefs of
Public Service Commissions of SAARC countries, in 2010. Commission have signed Memorandum of Understanding
with the Public Service Commission of Canada and with Royal Civil Service Commission of the Royal Government of
Bhutan in 2011 and another with Independent Administrative Reforms and Civil
Service Commission of the Government of Afghanistan is on the anvil, he said.
Ms. Shashi Uban Tripathi, Member UPSC in her welcome
address said that relevance of UPSC is more than ever in the present times.
Secretary, UPSC, Shri A. Bhattachrya proposed a vote of thanks.
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RS/k