PM Modi: India has to play bigger role in post-Covid world, develop faster

Addressing the new batch of civil servants, Modi said that bureaucrats must learn everything about data governance and artificial intelligence.

“I request the director of the academy, let there be a lab on artificial intelligence where civil servants can learn. Also, data is going to be a big power in the future. It already is. We need to learn and understand everything about data governance and also implement them wherever we go,” Modi said

He said the current batch is special because it is getting inducted in the 75th year of Independence.

“Many of us will not be around when India celebrates 100 years of Independence. But you all will be there. So, whatever development the country achieves in the next 25 years, your batch will have a role to play in it,” he said.

Modi asked the new crop of civil servants, who are about to be posted across India’s various districts for their first assignments, to write a long essay on why they joined this profession and what they hope to achieve.

“Let those long essays be kept in the cloud. When you come back to this place after 25 years, let these essays be a way for you to take stock of whether you are on course for your dream or you have got diverted,” he said.

Modi said that if the spirit of service diminishes and the spirit of ruling takes over, then both the system and the person suffers a loss.

He asked the young civil servants to continuously challenge themselves and never get into their comfort zones.

Civil servants should remember that the numbers they come across in the files are not mere numbers, Modi said, adding, “Each of those numbers is a life with dreams and aspirations and challenges. So you have to work for each and every life.”