oppn parties Ministers Divided Into 8 Groups, To Look For Technology-Based Resources And Professional Help

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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Ministers Divided Into 8 Groups, To Look For Technology-Based Resources And Professional Help

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-11-15 14:38:01

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

After a series of Chintan Shivirs (brainstorming sessions) each of which lasted five hours or more, Prime Minister Modi today divided 77 ministers of his cabinet into 8 groups with each group headed by a senior Union minister. These groups will focus on developing technology-based resources, creating a pool of professionals for recruiting in their teams and other similar initiatives to be adopted in the offices of all ministers to bring more transparency and further improve the efficiency of the NDA government.

Although India has always seen cabinet ministers formed into groups called Groups of Ministers (GoM), the work assigned to these groups in the past was different from what has been assigned this time. The very fact that the groups are to strive for developing technology-based resources and think of recruiting professionals in their team means that the government is trying to focus on delivery. The failure of governance in India is not due to paucity of good schemes. It is mostly due to unsuccessful or faulty delivery of the benefits of these schemes to the intended beneficiaries due to various reasons. If the government makes use of technology, existing or emerging, and employs professionals, young or old, to help implement its schemes and makes sure it reaches the intended beneficiaries without any leakages, it will win the battle.

In this respect, Prime Minister Modi's initiative gets full marks. But a lot depends on how these groups function. Often, it is seen that a privileged few are allowed to share their plans and make presentations before these groups and only a certain section of the experts and professionals are called up. If that happens now too, the very purpose of the exercise will be defeated. Hence, it is expected that the groups will not discriminate among people based on ideology or play favourites. The country needs to get the best technology and the best experts and professionals to help in governance. These groups should strive to discover them and put them to use, as per the Prime Minister's vision.