(...Contd)

If one views the Minister as an agent of change, one has also to guard against the danger that innovations tend to be routinised and lose their initial edge. This is a sequel to the character of the administrative process in which everything has to be written down and little is left to individual initiative. We are often running a race between routinisation and change.
Civil servants should be encouraged to think out ways to match the rules and procedures to the changing environment. This may mean often a totally new departure in the structure of the government.
When I started discussing greater delegation of powers to the public sector managers in the sixties, there was great resistance to the move. In the background was the structure of the law and order State.
The emancipation of the public sector managers from the thraldom of centralisation and audit procedures could not be achieved in the framework of the then existing rules.
The process of change was initiated in the sixties and could be completed only when I became Finance Minister in the seventies.
New ministerial initiatives cannot become effective unless and until the civil servants in charge share the spirit of the change. It was my good fortune to be associated with the establishment of institutions such as the Food Corporation of India and the Agricultural Prices Commission which have now become important instruments in the evolution and implementation of food and agricultural policy in the country. Critical to the success of these innovations was the quality of their initial leadership. I had to get the new institutions manned by people who dared to think boldly and were able to implement the new policies with courage.
I have been a strong advocate of giving a better position to the technocrats and experts in our administration. They have for too long been dominated by the generalist. At the same time, I cannot ignore the service done by the integrative skills of the top generalist administrators of the country. They have indeed performed a great role in synthesizing different points of view and eliciting from among the options the best course of action in a complex situation.

(Contd...)