A bill to reform

Many retired bureaucrats looking for reemployment with one or the other regulatory authority may have reason to worry over Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s remark that retiring secretaries should not become regulators of industries they had overseen while in service.
Mr Ahluwalia, during a discussion on the bill for regulatory reform, suggested that licenses must be taken from ministers and given to regulators to ensure more accountability and transparency. He also stressed on the irrationality in the appointment of the selection panel in the ministry through a minister after the Prime Minister’s approval. Getting the cabinet to decide, according to him, was a better way. Other steps the deputy chairman suggested included increasing accountability of regulators to Parliament and reducing secrecy within Parliament by making Standing Committee meetings public.
Mr Ahluwalia’s views may have ruffled a few feathers among babus and netas, but the ball still lies in their court. Competition Commission of India chairman, Dhanendra Kumar, has said that since the bill would impact the existing regulators, comments should be invited from all. A reform bill on regulation was long overdue, but how effective it will be will depend upon the decisions the concerned take to keep the good and eliminate its shortcomings.

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Survey results
That the seductions of the corporate world have long bewitched babus is well-known. Clearly the civil service is no longer top draw for those seeking careers. Now confirmation of the fading lure of babudom comes from the first-ever government commissioned survey of the civil services carried out recently. The survey revealed that one out of three top officers in India’s civil services has at some point of time considered quitting his/her job. And those who actually did quit, mostly went to swell the ranks of the growing private sector.
Interestingly, political interference was just one of the many problems that babus said they faced in their careers. The other equally vital concerns of babus relate to promotion, transfer, performance appraisal and opportunities for deputations.
These survey findings, calculated for the ever-analytical Cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, have now been circulated to state governments and central departments, including the home ministry for study and discussion.
Apparently, they’ve been asked to take corrective measures to address these concerns. That the government takes the findings seriously is seen from the decision to now make the survey an annual practice. But the findings also underline the need to urgently press forward with bureaucratic reforms.