Inside The Secretariat: Commonwealth Games, VGGS Race, & The Maze For Approvals

The PR Gate For VGGS Gets Wider

Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit (VGGS) 2027 is still months away, but the PR race has already begun—and Gujarat has quietly changed the rules of entry. iNDEXTb’s latest Corrigendum has reduced the minimum PR experience requirement from 10 years to 5 years and cut the average annual turnover threshold from ₹5 crore to ₹2 crore. In bureaucratic terms, the gate has become a little wider: alongside established agencies, emerging and professionally managed firms now have a chance to enter the race. But this is not a complete free pass. Bidders still need at least three relevant PR projects, the prescribed minimum project value, CA certification, and a five-member team for the assignment. The more interesting part is that the selected agency will have to deploy a team comprising a dedicated Senior Media Coordinator, Media Coordinator, and English and Gujarati Creative Writers. This time, both ideas and execution will matter. In other words, iNDEXTb has lowered the entry barrier, not the delivery bar. The message is clear: “you may no longer need a decade of experience to enter the VGGS race, but you still have to prove that you can handle VGGS.” Now the question is whether the relaxed criteria will genuinely increase competition—or simply make the queue outside the same door longer.

Foreign Tour, Fierce Seat Hunt

The buzz around foreign travel has already turned “Vibrant” in the Secretariat ahead of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit scheduled for January 2027. In the first leg, a delegation comprising Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Chief Secretary M.K. Das, senior officials and industry representatives will travel to the US and Canada on August 17. After the CM returns on August 24, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi will lead the next leg to Japan and Europe. The state government has identified nine countries and groups for the global outreach, with plans to invite countries that were partners in earlier Vibrant Gujarat Summits to join again. Now, the real question is not about the summit, but “Whose Name Makes the Delegation List?” The window for foreign travel may have opened for bureaucrats, but there is already chatter in the Secretariat corridors about cabinet members keen to get their share of the “global exposure”. In Gandhinagar, therefore, preparations for Vibrant Gujarat now appear to have a parallel contest running: Who will bring investors to Gujarat—and who will get to fly abroad to meet them…!

A Hospital, Not a Waiting Room!

Chief Secretary M.K. Das had earlier urged secretaries to improve the quality and direction of primary education. Now, his attention has shifted to the ‘queue’ in government hospitals. At civil and government hospitals, making patients stand in line before treatment is not just an inconvenience—it can also increase the risk of infection. The bigger problem, he notes, is not a shortage of equipment but manpower gaps that slow the system down. If required, the government may need to explore the PPP model to move from ‘queues to quicker care’. The government has increased the Health & Family Welfare budget by an average 8% every year, yet hospital queues refuse to shrink—a calculation the Secretariat now needs to confront. With ₹25,403 crore allocated to health this year, the question is how much of that money will actually be used to reduce patients’ pain and waiting time. If government hospitals can deliver faster, more organised treatment like corporate hospitals, the budget will get a genuine ‘health check-up’. The CS’s message is clear: patients go to hospitals for treatment—not to spend hours in queues.

Global Experience, Gujarat Execution

Preparations for the Commonwealth Games in Gujarat are in full swing. At venues where events are scheduled to be held, work is underway on stadiums, infrastructure and environmental protection, alongside efforts to relocate polluting industries outside the city. Meanwhile, the most interesting preparation is taking shape in the Secretariat — building teams of government officials. The government has begun the process of including Junior Scale officers alongside senior officials in teams being formed across departments. During the CWG held in Glasgow, Scotland, a Gujarat team accompanying Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi included 11 IAS and 3 IPS officers. The experience gained in Glasgow will now be put to work on the ground in Gujarat. When the CWG begins, athletes will take to the field, but an entire government machinery of officials will be running behind them. Officials will be responsible for nearly 15 areas, including Transportation, Accommodation, Catering, Events, Security, Traffic Management, Athletes’ Villages, Healthcare, Human Resources, Legal & Regulations and Sports Management. Senior officers will bring their Glasgow experience to the table, while junior officers will be tasked with translating that experience into execution on the ground in Gujarat.

Secretariat Shines, Udyog Fades

In Gandhinagar, the blocks of the Secretariat are renovated from time to time, but the adjoining Udyog Bhavan seems to have been left out of the government’s development list. In this maze-like building, not just visitors but sometimes even officials get confused while looking for offices. Some doors are missing, some windows are nowhere to be found, parking remains a problem, and the tangled electrical wires look as if they are playing hide-and-seek with fire safety. The condition of some ceilings is such that one has to worry whether “a file will come down or the ceiling from above.” Udyog Bhavan houses important offices such as the Industries Commissionerate, iNDEXTb, GIDC, GEDA and GIDB. Now, due to the renovation of the Secretariat, the main office of the Industries and Mines Department has also been shifted here, leaving officers and employees unhappy—because no one from the Secretariat seems particularly “enthusiastic” about moving to Udyog Bhavan! According to a senior engineer of the Roads and Buildings Department, renovation alone will not be enough; the building needs to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch. While the Secretariat blocks get frequent “makeovers”, Udyog Bhavan seems to have disappeared from the diary of government buildings.

First the File, Then the Flight!

For Gujarat government employees, even a private foreign trip has now become a ‘planning exercise’. As per the General Administration Department’s circular, employees will have to obtain approval from the competent authority before proceeding on leave for a foreign trip, and the application must be submitted at least 30 days in advance. Which country are you travelling to, what is the purpose of the trip, how much will it cost and where will the money come from—not just that, details of who will accompany the employee and the sponsor, if any, will also have to be provided. So, for a government employee’s foreign trip, paperwork may now weigh more than the passport! And even after getting approval, the government’s ‘conditions apply’ continue. During the foreign trip, no business or professional activity will be allowed, the employee will have to report back for duty immediately after the leave ends, and travelling abroad without government approval could be treated as Gross Misconduct, inviting disciplinary action. The application form will also require the government to check whether the employee is facing any serious charges, Departmental Inquiry, Criminal Case or Suspension. So, before entering “Holiday Mood,” government employees will first have to get into “Government Clearance Mood”!

One Order, Many Questions

Amid discussions of resentment over the functioning of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) office, its secretary Shilpa Patel has been transferred to Gujarat Institute of Educational Technology (GIET) as Deputy Director. What stands out is that the transfer has been effected through a single order. At the same time, the charge of SSA Secretary has been handed over to the ASPD. The move has also triggered discussion within departmental circles over an officer from outside the education stream being given such a charge. Questions had earlier been raised over the functioning of the SSA office, including matters related to procurement and the way administrative responsibilities were being handled. With the secretary's charge now being rearranged and Shilpa Patel moved to GIET, the message behind the transfer is drawing as much attention as the transfer itself. In bureaucracy, an order may fit into a single line, but the administrative arithmetic behind it can run into several pages. The file may have moved on, but the story behind it could stay on the bureaucratic radar for days.