Narayana Murthy says PM Modi should see if India needs more managers than administrators in govt

Infosys Founder N R Narayana Murthy, on Thursday, November 14, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could consider having more managers in the government rather than administrators in public services, reported the news agency PTI.

“Maybe Prime Minister Modi, who has done a brilliant job so far in terms of accelerating our economy, may want to look at whether we need more managers in the government rather than administrators,” said Murthy, as per the report. 

Murthy's suggestion came in the form of tapping into management schools rather than depending on competitive examinations to improve the overall delivery of public services.

The government needs to access the management schools for the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) talent rather than the present system where the candidates appear for the highly competitive exam conducted by the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) by giving an examination in three or four subjects, said Murthy, reported the agency.

“I hope India becomes a nation that is more management-orientated than just administration orientated,” said Murthy. 

Murthy also talked about management orientation being all about vision, high aspiration, achieving the plausibly impossible, cost control, raising the confidence of people and making things happen quickly, whereas the administrative approach lays stress on the status quo.

Murthy explained the training process; after a candidate is selected, he or she will be taken to Mussoorie at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, where he or she will be trained in specialised sectors such as agriculture, defence, or manufacturing. This is a departure from the current practice of creating general administrators.

The successful candidates will become subject matter experts once the training is over and serve the country in their respective fields for 30-40 years, he said, as per the report. 

The Administrative approach

Murthy highlighted that the roots for the administrative approach originated in 1858 when the East India Company transferred the dominion to the British crown, and the objective of the then civil servants was to go slow because the natives were to be kept under control and delay implementation.

The benefits of managers will be to get speed, imagination and excellence in decision making, and also in implementation in the public governance system, he said according to the report.

Murthy also recalled his conversation with a retired UK Cabinet Secretary, who stated that evolving with the times has helped Britain deliver timely services to the population.

There is a need to reduce government, reduce latency of action, reduce fat and reduce inefficiency in any country, said Murthy as per the report.