Context:

India has taken up the G20 presidency and there have been talks about changing India. However, even among G20 nations, the condition of India is dismal.

Vikasvaad:

• The vikasvaad of 2015 was aimed at a reform of the top bureaucracy of the country, and a revamp of the central scientific agencies. 
• Ultimately, for any society, it is this cadre that determines the quality of people’s lives. 

India’s agencies for Vikasvaad:

• Through the IAS, IITs, IIMs and a network of central agencies, this power is concentrated in a few hundred top functionaries — the secretaries, directors of central institutions and senior scientists. 
• They are responsible for the conduct of most state functions such as managing irrigation systems, making railway engines, running universities or regulating hospitals. 
• The scientists and professors are responsible for the measurement, analysis and upgradation of most practices — from estimating groundwater to tackling pollution. 
• The elite institutions, through their graduates, are to create new professionals, companies and agencies that would bring modern services to the citizens of this country.

Major issues:

• Centralized scientific system and its accountability: A highly centralised scientific system merely ensured that the scientists were more accountable to their own internal bureaucracy of promotions and awards than to the problems which people in the regions faced. 
• Disconnection of IITs from regional problems: Most IITs remain disconnected from the states they belong to and most professors have little understanding of regional problems — floods and droughts, pollution and its causes, small industries or failing public transport. 
• Global brand image of IIT graduates and lack of interest in nation-building.
• Inefficiency in delivering basic services: Fail to deliver even the most rudimentary services in a timely manner. 
• The sheer complexity of managing a typical department of a state such as Maharashtra like Managing transport, for example, requires a cadre of committed officers at all levels. 

Way Forward:

• To achieve the essence of vikasvaad on ground level, there is a need to incorporate ground level peoples from policy formulation to implementation.

News Source: The Indian Express

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