Don't work in silos, be agent of change: PM Narendra Modi to civil servants

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked civil servants not to work in silos but as a team and act as an agent of change for welfare of the people and development of the country.

Addressing bureaucrats on Civil Services Day here, he asked them to experiment to bring in change besides increasing engagement with the people for greater results.

“Some people work in silos. We get more results working in team than in isolation. We need to come out of silos and work together as a team for nation building,” Modi said.

He said the role of civil services was earlier of a regulator. Then after some time, the role changed to that of an administrator and then controller.

“When time further changed, you (civil servants) must have thought of acquiring managerial skills. Time is changing.  Only being an administrator and controller is not enough. It is the need of the hour that everybody, at every level, has to be an agent of change,” the Prime Minister said.

He said, “we need to bring in changes. When we sit at one place we forget to experiment. If we do not experiment then how do we bring changes. There is no experiment without risk.  And if we don’t experiment, then it becomes merely a job”.

“I always reward experiments. People who do work differently and experiment, they get a different satisfaction,” the Prime Minister said.

In his about 45-minute long pep talk to a large gathering of bureaucrats from the Centre and states, Modi asked senior officials to benefit from the knowledge of their juniors, who are of a different generation and probably know better ways to do a task.

He said that his mantra of “reform to transform”, should be interpreted by civil servants as “reform to perform to transform”. Modi said if civil servants were able to perform, the transformation on the ground would be evident.