The Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) organised a lecture by Shri Sanjeev Sanyal, Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and Secretary to the Government of India, under the Eminent Persons Lecture Series on 25 November 2024. The theme of his talk was “Process Reforms: How to Make the Indian Government Efficient?” The event was chaired by Ambassador Sujan R. Chinoy, Director General, MP-IDSA. Scholars of the Institute were in attendance.

Executive Summary

‘Process Reforms’ remain extremely important in simplifying and streamlining the operational processes and for enhancing the efficiency of an existing system/sector or governance architecture. In recent years there has been great emphasis by the Government of India on undertaking ‘Process Reforms’ in various government and private sectors, institutions, departments and ministries so as to enhance their efficiency. Government of India is aiming to include process reforms as a part of training to government officials as these are an important part of the policy tool-kit.

Detailed Report

The Director General, Ambassador Sujan R. Chinoy delivered his Opening Remarks and introduced Shri Sanjeev Sanyal. Amb. Chinoy also acknowledged the presence of Shri Tarun Vijay (Member, Executive Council, MP-IDSA) and Shri Nalin Kohli (Member and Spokesperson, BJP) at the event.

Shri Sanjeev Sanyal started his talk by highlighting the importance of ‘Process Reforms’. He mentioned that discussions in the past about economic reforms have always tended to focus entirely on large-scale structural reforms aimed at reshaping the fundamental framework of the economy. He mentioned that ‘Structural Reforms’ in India began with economic liberalisation in 1991 and over the years various other structural reforms were undertaken. These include opening of sectors to private investment, establishment of regulators, introduction of GST, an inflation-targeting framework, implementation of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), to name a few. He mentioned that though structural reforms remain important, the Indian Government in recent years has undertaken several other types of reforms that have largely gone unnoticed. These are known as process reforms.

Shri Sanyal defined process reforms as the nuts-and-bolts reforms which are often microeconomic in nature, with a specific focus on an individual sector or issue. He highlighted that the objective of process reforms is to simplify and streamline operational processes and to enhance efficiency of an existing system/sector or governance architecture. Such reforms if undertaken help in improving the ease of doing business, delivery of public services and in several cases these even prove essential for the success of undertaking structural reforms. He pointed out that till now very little has been covered in academic literature or policy discussions on the government’s process reforms in India, as well as in other parts of the world. He further discussed the importance and steps involved in undertaking process reforms in government.

Shri Sanyal, in the second part of his presentation mentioned that there could be multiple types of process reforms but his own research has outlined 7 broad types/categories of process reforms. These include: Type I: Revisiting default “Lists” and precedents; Type II: Streamlining of the existing administrative processes; Type III: Changes in regulations within the given law; Type IV: Changes in legislation to change the law; Type V: Adding capacity in some level of government to remove bottlenecks; Type VI: Removing requirement or a state-mandated activity to remove bottlenecks; and Type VII: Merge/close/restructure outdated government agencies.

Highlighting one such example undertaken recently through Type I process reforms, Shri Sanyal mentioned that all organisations including the government work on the basis of some existing default lists in almost all organisations. These lists could be list of invitees, national monuments, vendors and so on. Typically, a few are changed from time to time at the margin, but a large part of the lists remain same and simply get perpetuated year after year. He pointed out that simply revisiting some of these existing ‘default lists’ can bring in important changes. He mentioned that one such example in which they have successfully undertaken process reforms has been the list of “Monuments of National Importance (MNI)”.

Shri Sanyal highlighted that India currently has 3695 MNI that are under the protection of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). 2584 of these monuments got shifted en masse from the colonial-era list while the others were taken from the princely states. This list has hardly been revisited or scrutinised since its formulation. He mentioned that after undertaking careful assessments of these monuments mentioned in the list, it was found that some of these are actually untraceable on ground, while various others do not have any national (or even state) importance in present times. He mentioned that through Type 1 process reforms we have managed to remove such monuments from this list.

Similarly, highlighting the reforms undertaken in the process of voluntary liquidation of companies (through Type II process reforms); in the IT-BPO sector (through Type III process reforms); reforms undertaken in Legal Metrology Act 2009 (through Type IV process reforms); reforms in the process of applying for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) (through Type V process reforms); reforming the requirement of State Mandated Requirement in mediation needed before going for commercial litigation (through Type VI process reforms); and reforms in merger/closure/restructuring of outdated government agencies (through Type VI process reforms); Shri Sanyal mentioned that he has done considerable amount of work in undertaking process reforms in India, with the support of the current government.

In the final part of his presentation, Shri Sanyal mentioned that everyone focuses on the larger picture of structural reforms whereas we need to understand that process reforms are also an important part of the policy tool-kit. He pointed out that economic literature has largely ignored these types of reforms. Shri Sanyal further mentioned that initiating process reforms in any area requires a detailed mapping out of the existing process and then removing inefficiencies at each step. He highlighted that a large part of these process reforms involve a series of small incremental changes, which ultimately have significant impact on efficiency of the economy, ease of doing business etc.

In his concluding remarks, Shri Sanyal pointed out that there has been a concerted effort from the Government of India (GoI) to systematically look at sectors and undertake process reforms wherever necessary. He finally highlighted that the GoI is aiming to include process reforms as a part of training to government officials as these remain important for the routine part of the policy toolkit.

Comments and Questions

Ambassador Sujan R. Chinoy, complimented Shri Sanyal for his detailed presentation. He pointed out that most of the problems within the system/institutions/departments are best known by the people who are within those systems/institutions/departments which also at times offer resistance to any kind of change to the system. He asked the speaker to comment on how he deals with internal resistance from the system/institutions/departments when he undertakes process reforms in these.

Dr. Ashish Shukla asked Shri Sanyal to comment on the issues of closure and merger of several government primary schools in some parts of rural Uttar Pradesh. In this context he asked the speaker whether the government does not really need these schools?

Mr. Arvind Khare commented on the deemed ‘NOC’ (No Objection Certificate) model highlighted by Shri Sanyal in his talk. He mentioned that there are ‘n’ number of departments in the GoI, that regularly consult each other or take ‘n’ number of ‘NOCs’ from each other. Mr. Khare asked Shri Sanyal whether this same model (that if a required NOC is not issued by any concerned department within 15 days of the application, it would be automatically deemed considered as ‘issued’) could be replicated or could be applied across the entire setup of the GoI?

Shri Tarun Vijay in his comments highlighted that people are mostly impacted by reforms in four areas. These include education, judiciary, police and internet. Referring to the use of Persian language in the writing of First-hand Information (FIR) by Indian police, he pointed out that some words of the language which are still in use while writing these FIRs, are not understood by police personnel themselves. He highlighted that there is a need to undertake reforms in all these sectors.

Shri Nalin Kholi referring to the National Ease of Doing Business Committee in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) pointed out to the speaker that many of the issues that he has highlighted in his talk are looked after by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in the GoI. He requested Shri Tarun Vijay to comment on undertaking process reforms in Ease of Doing Business.

Gp. Capt. (Dr.) R.K Narang asked the speaker to comment on the issues of absence of ecosystems for R&D processes and atmanirbharta in the civil aviation and drone industry. He highlighted that if these aspects are not looked at seriously, the growth rate in these sectors would slow down in the rear future.

Shri Sanjeev Sanyal gave detailed explanations to all the questions and comments raised and the lecture ended with big round of applause from the audience. 

Report Prepared by Dr. Bipandeep Sharma, Research Analyst, Non-Traditional Security Centre, MP-IDSA, New Delhi.