Inside The Secretariat: The New Grammar Of Governance

Chandramouli Test for Today’s Babus

In bureaucracy, every day brings a new file, a new noting and a new order — but sometimes, even an old file throws up a lesson for the new generation. At SPIPA, Ahmedabad, a book on the life and administrative journey of late R.V. Chandramouli was recently released by Dr. P.K. Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. A 1955-batch IAS officer and former Chief Secretary of Gujarat, Chandramouli’s story is centred on “values over power, integrity over position and administrative conscience over political pressure.”

In today’s bureaucracy, where a file sometimes travels across five tables and ten notings before a decision is taken, the decision-making ability of a veteran officer is certainly a mirror for the new generation of babus. What makes the book particularly interesting is Chandramouli’s handling of some of the most challenging phases of administration — the Emergency, drought relief, education reforms, communal crises and election management.

He served as Gujarat’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) from 1972 to 1985. His administrative journey offers a sharp contrast at a time when decision-making can sometimes get buried under layers of files, consultations and notings. The real question now is whether the new generation of officers will merely read Chandramouli’s story or actually learn from it. Because if the book remains only another volume on a bookshelf, its purpose will be limited. But if officers pick up something “to do” rather than merely something “to read,” then the true purpose of the book will be served. After all, for a bureaucracy trapped in files, perhaps the biggest lesson from the Chandramouli chapter is simple — take a decision, move the file and deliver for the citizen.

Files Under Reform Lens

Gujarat’s bureaucracy will now move beyond merely responding to complaints and learn the lesson of improving the system through the complaints themselves. During October to December 2026, the state will conduct the ‘Reform Utsav’, under which individual complaints received from citizens will be separated to identify suggestions for systemic reforms, classify them and implement them within a time-bound framework. In other words, if the same type of complaint keeps coming up, it can no longer simply be treated as ‘one citizen’s problem’ and the file closed. The exercise will be to find where the system itself is failing behind that problem. A state-level committee headed by the Chief Secretary and district-level committees headed by Collectors have been constituted. At the state level, Additional Chief Secretaries of all departments have been made members, while the district committees include the DDO, Resident Additional Collector as well as officials from agriculture, health, banking, social security and the power sector. Now, the real ‘test’ is of the nodal officers. The nodal officers will also be responsible for ensuring that all updates are entered on the Reform Utsav portal within the timelines prescribed by the Government of India. So, the big question is whether the Utsav will remain limited to meetings and PPTs, or whether some real ‘reform’ will actually emerge from the piles of files. The complaints may belong to citizens, but the real test is of the system.

Vacancy Out, ‘Additional Charge’ In!

With a retirement, a key chair in the Gujarat Police has fallen vacant. DGP (Armed Units) Raju Bhargava retired from government service on August 31, leaving the post vacant. Until a fresh appointment is made, ACB DG Piyush Patel has been given the additional charge. In other words, a senior officer retires, the chair falls vacant, and the bureaucracy immediately finds a ‘charge’ to fill it. The talking point now is that until a regular head is appointed for a sensitive post like DGP (Armed Units), the show will run on an ‘additional charge’. In government, additional charge is nothing new — one officer’s table gets two or three departments’ files, the responsibility grows, and ‘additional charge’ gets added after the officer’s name. The funniest part of bureaucracy is that the moment a chair falls vacant, the ‘charge’ arrangement is ready, but deciding the permanent name for the chair takes time. The Home Department’s order has once again shown that in government, the distance between a ‘vacancy’ and an ‘additional charge’ is very small. Now, the question is how long this charge remains ‘additional’ — and when the permanent DGP finally arrives.

Old Stamp Duty, New Relief!

A major change has been introduced in the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), under which if stamp duty was left unpaid in an old transfer of a plot and the present owner now wants to execute the lease deed, the burden of the old mistake will not be passed on to the new owner. The government has, albeit late, introduced an Amnesty Scheme for MSMEs, offering 80% relief on stamp duty. The government too seems to have realised that reopening an old file and recovering four or six times the amount as penalty will not grow industry — it will only ‘liquidate’ the patience of the industrialist! Interestingly, in the name of ‘Ease of Doing Business’, Ease of Clearing Old Business has now also begun. In other words, the government seems to be saying: “Let bygones be bygones — but remember the 20%!” Whether the transactions are from before 2018 or after, or whether they are under appeal or pending before a court — if the conditions are fulfilled, the door to relief will open. After years of travelling between files, notices, appeals and courts, the amnesty has finally created a ‘shortcut’ through the entire bureaucratic journey. The obvious question, though, is: if this was the solution, why were industrialists made to undertake the stamp-duty journey for so many years? With the amnesty, old transactions will get legal registration, the government will get its revenue and industrialists will get relief. So, for now, it is a ‘win-win’ — at least until some officer comes up with a new process!

Prohibition State, Face Value!

Gujarat has prohibition, but for more than 55,000 permit holders, getting liquor will now require showing their face, not their finger, as Facial Recognition has replaced fingerprints in LEMS from this month. There will be no need to say at the wine shop, “This permit belongs to me” — the face itself will become the identity card. The bureaucracy too has raced ahead with technology to such an extent that before the liquor bottle is handed over, the system will first read the face. The objective of the new system is to prevent irregularities and improve transparency. A digital trail will be created showing which permit holder collected how much quantity, from which shop and when. So, in the permit world too, ‘working behind a hidden face’ will become difficult. The most interesting part is that in a prohibition state, the system for issuing liquor is becoming so high-tech that, in future, perhaps the face may matter more than the permit itself. The journey from fingerprint to face is complete; now the hope is that as the technology changes, the process too will genuinely become easier. Because in government systems, applications often become digital, but the ‘obstacle’ remains old. Now the question is whether Facial Recognition will only identify faces instantly or also help recognise the loopholes in the system. Technology can read a face, detect irregularities and create a digital record of every transaction — but ultimately, technology has meaning only when it makes the process easier for the citizen. Otherwise, the fingerprint is gone, the face has arrived… but the file is still standing at the same place!

No More Babu-Giri, It’s GPS-Giri Now!

In Gujarat’s public distribution system, GPS is now running faster than files. The state’s 250 godowns and nearly 17,000 fair-price shops are being brought under an ICT-based logistics system. From FCI depots to godowns and FPS outlets, vehicles can be tracked in real time. If a truck leaves its designated route or its GPS goes offline, the system raises an instant alert. So, for the grain truck, the old “Where has it reached?” question may soon have to be asked not to an officer, but to the system. Technology is also giving traditional babu-giri some serious competition inside the godowns. Geo-fencing, e-Proof of Delivery and live stock dashboards are being backed by around 7,000 CCTV cameras, including Bullet, Dome, PTZ and ANPR cameras. Their feeds are monitored through video walls at various offices and the Command-and-Control Centre. In short, instead of asking “What happened inside the godown?”, officials can now ask, “What did the camera see?” Even procurement from farmers at MSP is moving from ‘pehchan’ to verification, with Aadhaar, bank details, land records and biometric checks built into the Farmer Procurement Portal, along with SMS alerts at different stages. It is a shift from “the babu says it, so it must be right” to “the data says it, so check it.” And if a truck still disappears, stocks still go missing or a ‘setting’ still finds its way into procurement despite GPS, CCTV and dashboards, then perhaps the next question will be: Was it a technology failure—or was the old babu-giri simply smarter than the technology!

GUJSAIL: From Flight to File!

After the alleged scandals involving former Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Company Limited (GUJSAIL) CEO Captain Ajay Chauhan, the government has decided to restructure the company. With allegations ranging from alleged misuse of aviation equipment to fabricated vouchers and alleged illegal earnings from private companies, the government appears to have realised that running an aviation company requires not just the skill to fly aircraft, but also administrative controls with the right ‘landing gear’. Now, preparations are reportedly underway to appoint an IAS officer as the head of GUJSAIL — meaning that in the aviation company, the weight of the ‘file’ may now be greater than the ‘flight’. Under the new HR policy, the roles, job descriptions and eligibility criteria for around 20 key positions will be defined. The existing manpower will also be assessed, with fresh recruitment wherever required. Reform is certainly needed, and if the new HR framework genuinely brings accountability, it deserves a welcome. But along with every chair, there must be responsibility; and along with authority, a tough audit. Otherwise, at GUJSAIL, just like aircraft, positions will take off, files will take off — but accountability will once again remain standing on the runway!