In this context, knowing about this assessment and other initiatives taken by the government to make the civil services more efficient and responsive becomes essential.
Key Takeaways:
1. The scorecards assess the Secretaries and their departments on about a dozen parameters, with a total of 100 marks, and include “negative marks” and “discretionary marks”.
2. It is learnt that Cabinet Secretary Dr T V Somanathan sent the first set of these “administrative scorecards”, for the months of September, October and November 2025, to the Secretaries in the first week of January this year.
3. Among the parameters, file disposal carries the maximum marks of 20, followed by output/ activities, and expenditure on schemes and capital expenditure, both with 15 marks each. The other parameters include public grievance redressal, Cabinet notes, timely completion of projects being monitored by the Project Monitoring Group (PMG), timely disposal of bills by Pay and Accounts Office (PAO) and Chief Controller of Accounts (CCA).
4. The scorecards also carry 12 negative marks, which, it is learnt, would be imposed for “excessive expenditure” on foreign visits or events, abnormal pendency of files at the level of Secretary and above, and delayed payments to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
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5. Besides, the scorecards also have a provision for 5 “discretionary marks”, which will be awarded by the Cabinet Secretary for exceptional work or contributions made by a Secretary or department.
Recent Civil Service reforms and initiatives
Civil service reforms began with the Constitution, continued with the first Administrative Reforms Commission (1966), focused on training and promotions with the second ARC (2009), and were furthered by the Right to Information Act. Over the last decade, the government has also made several attempts to bring the bureaucracy up to speed through digitisation, Mission Karmayogi , lateral entry and PRAGATI.
Mission Karmayogi
1. Dubbed as the biggest bureaucratic reform initiative at the time of its launch,‘Mission Karmayogi’, also known as the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building, is a capacity-building scheme for civil servants aimed at upgrading the post-recruitment training mechanism of the officers and employees at all levels.
2. It aims to transform India’s civil servants into citizen-centric, future-ready and result-oriented karmayogis. As part of Mission Karmayogi, the Capacity Building Commission (CBC) was constituted in 2021 to provide policy guidance and tools to enhance the capabilities of all levels of India’s vast civil services. Later, Karmayogi Bharat Special Purpose Vehicle (KB-SPV) was set up in 2022 as part of the implementation of Mission Karmayogi.
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3. A key component of this initiative is the iGOT Karmayogi digital learning platform, which provides access to online training courses across behavioural, functional, and domain competencies, enabling anytime-anywhere learning for government employees.
Lateral Entry
1. Lateral entry refers to the practice of recruiting individuals from the private sector for administrative positions within the government, even if they have not been part of the traditional bureaucratic setup.
2. Under the lateral entry policy, the government recruits some prominent persons for specific assignments in government, keeping in view their specialized knowledge and expertise in the domain area. Generally, these recruitments are made at the level of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary. The officers at these levels play an important role in policy-making.
| Do you know? |
| A Joint Secretary, appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), has the third-highest rank (after Secretary and Additional Secretary) in a Department, and functions as the administrative head of a wing in the Department. Directors are one rank below Joint Secretaries, and Deputy Secretaries are one rank below Directors, although in most ministries, they perform the same job. While Director/Deputy Secretaries are considered middle-level officials in a department, the Joint Secretary-level is where the decision-making starts. |
PRAGATI
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1. PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) was launched in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is a flagship platform for fast-tracking projects, schemes, and grievance redressal through direct, real-time review.
2. It combines leadership with video conferencing, drone feeds, and data management to enable oversight of critical infrastructure. Projects under the PRAGATI framework are monitored at multiple levels, including by the Prime Minister and the Union Cabinet Secretary.
3. The platform’s impact has helped complete long-delayed projects like segments of National Highway 8 in Maharashtra, the Chenab Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir, which is now the world’s highest rail bridge, and the Bogibeel Bridge in Assam, which had languished for more than a decade before being completed within three years of coming under review in PRAGATI.
BEYOND THE NUGGET: What is Good Governance?
1. According to a Good Governance Index Report submitted to the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, “Good governance can be referred to as an effective and efficient process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented), keeping the amelioration of citizens as the topmost priority. Resource allocation, creation of formal establishments, setting up rules and regulations, etc., are part of achieving this goal.”
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2. Every year, Good Governance Day is celebrated on December 25th to raise awareness among citizens about government accountability and effective administration while promoting the practice of “good governance” among civil servants.
Post Read Question
Consider the following statements with regard to the Mission Karmayogi:
1. It is a capacity-building programme for civil servants at all levels
2. It is a central Sector Scheme.
3. The Capacity Building Commission was constituted in 2021 to provide policy guidance.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
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(Sources: Exclusive: From file disposal to output, Union Secretaries now get a report card each, A report card for civil servants is a good idea, UPSC Issue at a Glance | Lateral entry and civil service reforms)
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