Modi Woos Return Fire (Some) Muslims Pg 1 6 Pg 1 7
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
OC www.indiatoday.in OCTOBER 1, 2018 `60 9 770254 839909 REGISTERED NO. DL(ND)-11/6068/2018-20; U(C)-88/2018-20; LICENSED TO FARIDABAD/05/2017-19 POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT REGISTERED NO. RNI NO. 28587/75 RNI NO. BATTLING BABUDOM Political interference, endemic corruption and outdated procedures have crippled India’s bureaucracy. How to fix it DIGITAL EDITION OC FREE WITH YOUR TALE OF THE WARRINGSINGHS DECODIING RUPEENOMICS www.indiatoday.in OCTOBER 1, 2018 `60 9 770254 839909 DIGITAL EDITION AUGUST SEPTEMBER 2018 HOME Making a difference LEARN TO LOVE YOUR BODY INSIDE NEW WAYS Nivah, a heritage TO DRESS building in FOR WORK Moradabad IN CONVERSATION With architect Akshat Bhatt REGISTERED NO. DL(ND)-11/6068/2018-20; U(C)-88/2018-20; LICENSED FARIDABAD/05/2017-19 TO POST WITHOUT REGISTERED PREPAYMENT NO. Scent of Success CHARGE OF ELEVEN WOMEN WHO HAVE THE LIGHT MADE THEIR MARK Ekta Kapoor, BRIGADE Creative director, Balaji Telefilms New collections, iconic designers, quick tips and clever hacks. Your guide to the best in lighting RNI NO. 28587/75 RNI NO. BATTLING BA Politic pr e India’s b . How to fix it EXCLUSIVE MULTIMEDIA CONTENT ONLY FOR IPAD COVER STORY LORDS OF THE FILES SPECIAL REPORT BALLET WITH THE BEAR THE BIG STORY SLIP SLIDING ON THE RUPEE THE BIG STORY BIHAR'S HORROR HOMES STATES COALITION ARITHMETIC #BattlingBabus SUBSCRIBE NOW www.indiatoday.in/digitalmagazines FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF nApril2008,IthoughtIhadrunoutofwordsto ruption Act whereby no bureaucrat can be prosecuted with- describe the abysmal state of the Indian bureaucracy out the government’s permission, there will be no excuse when I wrote an eighth letter on the subject in 19 for inaction. But it could also further strengthen the unholy I years.Adecadeandaninthcoverstorylater,things nexus between politicians and the babus. are where they were. In fact, a time travelling civil servant These problems directly impact the quality of gov- from the British Raj a century ago would feel at home in a ernance. Think of the billions the government would government oice near the end of the second decade of 21st addtotheeconomy if it speeded up decision-making, centuryIndia—armiesofpeons,mustyoicesandtheslow, removed regulatory hurdles and made it genuinely easy enervating pace of decision-making to do business in India; if it turned the where the march of a nation’s progress bureaucracy from a power hoarder into ismeasuredonefileatatime. a process enabler. The failure to transform the A 2017 World Bank study on gover- Indian civil service from a colonial nance, which assessed the quality of a rent-seeking institution of the Raj country’s civil service, its independence eraintoonefocusedondevelopment, from political pressure and the quality poverty alleviation and transforma- of policy formulation and implementa- tion is one of the biggest hurdles on tion, ranked India in the 45th percentile India’s road to progress. globally. That this figure marked a nearly The Indian bureaucracy is an 10 percentage point decline over the past anachronism. A bullock cart of stat- two decades tells its own story. ism in an age where even automobiles The answer obviously is massive are poised to go driverless. Prime reform. Over the years, several commit- Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s comment tees have suggested various measures about just 15 paise of every govern- for overhauling the bureaucracy, from mentrupeereachingthecommon Our February 16-28, 1979, cover setting up institutes of governance to manwasalsoanobservationonthe train specialists to inducting a rigor- multiple layers of bureaucracy spong- ously trained lower bureaucracy selected ingoffunds.Today,withadvances through a merit-based recruitment in digitisation, the Aadhaar scheme system. Nothing has been implemented. claims to have eliminated over two Our cover story, put together by Edi- million ghost beneficiaries. But the tor (Research) Ajit Kumar Jha, exam- system supposed to translate the gov- ines the state of India’s bureaucracy in ernment’sslogansandpromisesinto the light of some recent changes. These actionstillrunsonpaper.Ifrequently include a 360-degree empanelment hear ministers proudly say how they cadre review process, an emphasis on clearsomanyfilesinadayasevid- merit rather than seniority, the Preven- enceofhowhard-workingtheyare. tion of Corruption (Amendment) Act, In fact, this highlights how stuck they 2018, and the lateral entry of a small areintheoldlicencerajmindset.The number of specialists into the top rungs job of a minister is to decide policy of bureaucracy. These measures, how- and strategy. They should be seeing Our February 5, 2001, cover ever, amount to mere tweaks, like put- how files can be reduced and govern- ting rubber tyres on a bullock cart when ment control minimised. Sadly, the what's required is a change in vehicle. In attitude of the bureaucracy is still one June this year, Prime Minister Narendra of control and not of facilitation. It is process-driven and Modi spoke of India soon becoming a $5 trillion economy. not result-oriented, and mistakes movement for action. This will remain a pipe dream unless the prime minister India, with 51 ministries, has among the highest num- undertakes a fundamental reform of the bureaucracy. So ber of ministries in the world, not counting the 53 depart- far, he has only expanded the role of the government. What ments and 83 commissions, each clinging to an obsession he needs to do is implement his 2014 slogan of Maximum with paper and inordinate delays in decision-making which Governance, Minimum Government. The country waits. in turn has bred the culture of greasing the bureaucratic wheel. Besides the corruption in the bureaucracy, it is the paralysis of indecision which causes the most damage. Hopefully, with the amendment to the Prevention of Cor- (Aroon Purie) OCTOBER 1, 2018 INDIA TODAY 1 UPFRONT LEISURE RIVAL ARMIES BURDENS AND www.indiatoday.in OF BHIM PG 3 BAGGAGE PG 59 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aroon Purie GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Raj Chengappa POV: DEATH Q&A: R. EDITOR: Ajit Kumar Jha (Research) GROUP CREATIVE EDITOR: Nilanjan Das; GROUP PHOTO EDITOR: Bandeep Singh IN A SEWER MADHAVAN MANAGING EDITORS: Kai Jabir Friese, Rajesh Jha PG 12 INSIDE PG 68 EXECUTIVE EDITORS: Damayanti Datta, S. Sahaya Ranjit, Sandeep Unnithan DEPUTY EDITORS: Prachi Bhuchar, Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop MUMBAI: M.G. Arun HYDERABAD: Amarnath K. Menon CHANDIGARH: Asit Jolly SENIOR EDITORS: Shweta Punj, Sasi Nair, Alokparna Das JAIPUR: Rohit Parihar SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Kaushik Deka, Ashish Mukherjee MUMBAI: Suhani Singh, Kiran Dinkar Tare; PATNA: Amitabh Srivastava ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Shougat Dasgupta, Chinki Sinha COVER STORY KOLKATA: Romita Sengupta; BHOPAL: Rahul Noronha; THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Jeemon Jacob; BEIJING: Ananth Krishnan ASSISTANT EDITOR: PUNE: Aditi S. Pai PHOTO DEPARTMENT: Vikram Sharma (Deputy Photo Editor), Rajwant Singh Rawat, Yasir Iqbal (Principal Photographers), Chandra Deep Kumar (Senior Photographer); MUMBAI: Mandar Suresh 20 Deodhar (Chief Photographer), Danesh Adil Jassawala (Photographer); KOLKATA: Subir Halder (Principal Photographer); CHENNAI: N.G. Jaison (Senior Photographer) PHOTO RESEARCHERS: Prabhakar Tiwari (Chief Photo Researcher), WHAT Saloni Vaid (Principal Photo Researcher), Shubhrojit Brahma (Senior Photo Researcher) AILS THE CHIEF OF GRAPHICS: Tanmoy Chakraborty ART DEPARTMENT: Sanjay Piplani (Senior Art Director); BABU? Angshuman De (Art Director); Devajit Bora (Deputy Art Director); Vikas Verma (Associate Art Director); A bloated Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma (Senior Designer) and corrupt Siddhant Jumde (Senior Illustrator) administrative PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT: Harish Agarwal (Chief of Production), Naveen Gupta (Chief Coordinator), culture Vijay Kumar Sharma (Senior Coordinator) borrowed PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Manoj Sharma from the Raj ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Anil Fernandes (Impact) era is choking IMPACT TEAM the Indian Senior General Manager: Jitender Lad (West) administration. General Manager: Mayur Rastogi (North), Upendra Singh (Bangalore), How can this Kaushiky Gangulie (East) malaise be GROUP CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: Vivek Malhotra Assistant General Manager: Garima Prashar (Marketing) fixed? SALES AND OPERATIONS: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager Deepak Bhatt, General Manager (National Sales) Vipin Bagga, Deputy General Manager (Operations) Rajeev Gandhi, Regional Sales Manager (North) MIND ROCKS BECA RUPEE A NIGHT TO BALLET WITH IN FREE 54 REMEMBER 40 THE BEAR 32 FALL Volume XLIII Number 40; For the week The India Today Mind Much to the US’s The government’s Sept 25-October 1, 2018, published on every Friday Rocks Summit had the chagrin, India’s recent eorts to ● Editorial/Corporate Office Living Media India Ltd., India Today Group Mediaplex, brightest stars from strategic and arrest the rupee FC-8, Sector-16A, Film City, Noida - 201301; Phone: 0120-4807100 ● Sub scriptions: For assistance contact Customer Care India Today Group, B-45, entertainment, politics defence ties with slide are yet to Sector-57, Noida (UP)-201301; Phones: Toll-free number: 1800 1800 100 (from BSNL/MTNL lines); (95120) 2479900 from Delhi and Faridabad; (0120) 2479900 and sports Russia look intact inspire confidence from Rest of India (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.); Fax: (0120) 4078080; Mumbai: 022-66063411/3412, Kolkata: 033-40525327, Chennai: 044-24303200; e-mail: [email protected] ● Sales: Direct all trade enquiries to General Manager (Sales), Living Media India Limited, B-45, Sector 57, Noida-201301 (UP) ● Regd. Office: K-9 Con naught Circus, New Delhi-110001