Welcome Remarks by Dr Arvind Gupta, Director VIF during the Vimarsh talk on “New Paradigms in Governance 2019-2024” by Shri V Srinivas, Secretary to Government of India, Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, on 07 Nov 2023

Dear Friends,

I would like to welcome you all to today’s Vimarsh by Shri V Srinivas, Secretary to the Govt of India on a very important topic “New Paradigms in Governance 2019-2024”. I would like to thank Srinivas ji for accepting our invitation to deliver the talk.

Some of you would remember that Srinivas Ji had spoken on the subject of Administrative Reforms in an earlier talk given at the VIF in Aug 2021. Since then the process of Administrative Reforms has deepened and acquired the requisite scale, size, speed and breadth.

Mr Srinivas currently hold the charge of Secretary in the Dept of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and Dept of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare and the additional charge of Director General for National Centre for good governance. He represents India on the Council of Administration of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences.

He belongs to the 1989 batch of the Indian Administrative Service. He was assigned to the Rajasthan Cadre. In his career, he has held several important assignments including in the Ministry of Petroleum and Gas, Ministry of Textile, Ministry of Culture, Health and Family welfare.

He was also Private Secretary to the Finance Minister and Private Secretary to the External Affairs Minister and Adviser to the Executive Director India in the IMF. He also held the additional charges of Director General of National Archives.

Mr Srinivas is a recipient of many awards including the Digital India Award 2020 for implementation of e-office.

He is the author of two books, one on the IMF and the other on G20. He has authored three books, published 200 papers and articles and delivered over 100 orations.

V Srinivas ji has a Master degree in Chemical Engineering, College of Technologies. Osmania University.

Dear friends,

India is at the cusp of a rise which will see it emerging at 3rd largest economy in not to distant a future. India has shown how technology is playing a vital role in Good Governance, which includes sound policy formulation, good execution, rapid delivery, inclusivity, transparency, accountability, accessibility and building trust and confidence between the government and the citizens. It is to the credit of Prime Minister Modi and his government that the administrative system of the country has undergone a rapid transformation and bridged the gap between the government and the citizen.

Our experience in managing the Covid pandemic, in crafting a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in making health services affordable for the poorest section, in making huge infrastructure to health growth and development is being appreciating globally.

In his talk today, Mr Srinivas will speak to us about how this transformation is taking place. As a Secretary to the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, he is well placed to do so as someone who has been a part of the ongoing transformation.