For any idea to fructify and sustain in the government it has to be politically acceptable, socially desirable, technologically feasible, financially viable and administratively doable, this was explained to me by Anil Swarup, around 7 years ago, when he was heading the Project Monitoring Group (PMG), which currently is under the Prime Minister’s Office.
On another occasion, he explained to me how other countries are using standards as a mechanism to block import of goods from India, while India has not been able to use the same metric to stop dumping into India.
Over the course of years, and many interviews with him on my show Policy & Politics, he shared with me the various intricacies of how work is done in the government and how he cleared 128 projects with project investment of about Rs. 5.70 trillion which were stuck in a maze of permissions and objections.
His work in the PMG was not only appreciated but helped the wheels of the economy move at a critical time in 2013.
On the eve of the launch of his book, Ethical Dilemmas of a Civil Servant, with the permission of the author, we are publishing two excerpts from his book in the Policy & Politics section today. I am sure everyone form Indian Administrative Service (IAS) aspirants, industrialists, politicians, young professional and bureaucrats will find these excerpts interesting.
Tarun Nangia is the host and producer of Policy & Politics.