DAYA SAGAR
Donald Trump took oath of the office of President of United States of America ( USA) on 20 Jan 2025 and one of priority actions that would attract the attention of developing democracy was his decision to appoint a Department of Government Efficiency ( DOGE ) which was what that also sounded unique to me since the reference was surely in relation to the delivery of services with level of quality & efficiency by a democratic government run with whatever the contributions are made by individual citizens out of whatever earned by services rendered by individual citizen as also out of one’s right on the ‘national’ resources to the State Exchequer. No doubt in every government , in whatever form it may be , there could be found also existing anticorruption departments / organisations , but still ‘often’ questions are not uncommon as raised on the truthfulness and efficiency of the government machinery. Most of the anti corruption departments / units / agencies are often seeing only taking to financial complaints / irregularities and there could be microscopic cases where some delivery of services by a public servant proportional to the wages / authorities delegated are investigated. So, going by that I felt that India too needs to appoint a Department of Government Efficiency like the one that Mr Trump had slated on 20th January 2025 itself. USA Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an initiative by the second Trump administration in the United States with it’s stated objective like to modernize information technology, maximize productivity, and cut excess regulations and spending within the federal government briefly summing focus on three major kinds of reforms, including regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, wasteful cost savings and improving input ( resource / funds) use efficiency. India too surely needs such a department where more focus would be on the money use efficiency of inputs made by India as a welfare state. Need for such a department has more increased in India after scores of welfare schemes / programmes introduced by the NDA Governments lead by Sh. Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister after 2014 as well as also by some state governments. Sh Narendra Modi has the credit of initiating almost all the welfare programmes of Central Government and so it has become utmost requirement of the day so that the scarce resources placed in the public domain deliver with efficiency and reach the real needy so that Prime Ministers pious intention deliver maximum on the ground. Identification of the real beneficiaries and the beneficiary audit need to go simultaneously in a country as vast as india. Financial audits cannot meet these requirements.
For instances Ex Prime Minister , Mr Rajiv Gandhi , had in late 1980s very painfully opined that out of whatever the government allocates for the common welfare what actually reaches the real beneficiary ‘is’ not more than 15% of the allocated resources / funds and even after over three decades of that still every new prime leadership accuses the earlier governments by quoting that and many may be saying that position has not much changed yet since even in 2025 over 82 cr population ( 2011 census) of Bharat is dependent on 5 kg/ per capita/month free ration for meeting their needs for two square meals and would still need such props atleastu pto 2029 in a country which on the overall is said to be 4rth largest economy of the world.
At the same time it is also very relevant to quote here that that in 1960 ( as I remember) the pay scale of a Junior Asstt ( lowest level clerk above Class IV in J&K) was Rs.70-06-130 with almost negligible allowances whereas scale of a Jr Assistant on 1-1-1973 in central government was 330-8-370-10-400-EB-10-480 plus allowances ( lowest level clerk) and as on 01-07-2025 the pay scale is Level – 4 (25500-81100) with 58% DA plus HRA plus (city compensatory allowance (CCA) plus transport allowance plus child education allowance plus child hostel subsidy allowance plus medical allowance i.e minimum basic pay plus DA is 40290/pm for a fresh appointee (CCA plus transport allowance plus child education allowance plus child hostel subsidy allowance plus medical allowance).Not only that the social status of those in government services in India is so well placed that even top brass from the educational institutions ( even engineering graduates from professional institutions like IITs and doctors from medical colleges ) prefer to join the India Administrative / Indian police services in view of the service conditions including possibilities for rising to the highest levels of bureaucracy . Highest posts even in state governments are held by officers belonging to Central Government services like IAS /IPS in the states and so are under the management / administration of the officers belonging to central services. Whenever there is change in government the new governments blame the earlier governments for the shortfalls and falls backs in the development and education& health services in particular. India is a welfare state but the two basic input departments of the government i.e education & health do not hold to the trust of the common beneficiary since they do not deliver worth matching the inputs made by the state exchequer. Those who hold the reins of the service departments do not themselves prefer to avail the hospitals & schools they manage / control and are found availing services in the private sector.
Hence emerge the indicators of there being a need for establishing The Department of Government Efficiency ( DOGE ) in India like the one has been established by US President . The terms of reference for India would surely be different like focusing on the State welfare programmes and direct benefit extensions to the socio economically backward masses and like sectors.
To be continued
(The writer is Sr Journalist & analyst of J&K affairs dayasagr45@yahoo.com 0419796096)