Be facilitators of growth, PM exhorts civil servants

Asks bureaucrats to ramp up the pace and scale of reforms across sectors

- ARCHIS MOHAN

Civil servants in India must transform themselves into enablers, expanding their role from being merely the keeper of rule books to becoming facilitators of growth, said Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on Monday.

In his 40-minute pep talk to the country's top civil servants on the occasion of the National Civil Services Day at the national capital's Vigyan Bhavan, the PM said the world was changing at a rapid pace, and India's bureaucracy and policymaking could not operate on outdated frameworks.

He urged them to become tech-savvy, adapt to contemporary challenges, and, most of all, follow the mantra of "Nagarik Devo Bhava" and be sensitive to the needs of the poor.

Modi said there was a time when the bureaucracy's role was that of a regulator, which "controlled the speech of industrialisation and entrepreneurship." "But the country has moved beyond this thought process. Today, we are busy creating an environment to promote an entrepreneurial spirit in citizens and helping them cross barriers," the PM said.