"SD Shibulal (wikipedia) has reportedly been appointed chairman of a three-member taskforce to bring about 'major bureaucratic reform through Mission Karmayogi'," wrote former bureaucrats KM Chandrashekhar & K Jayakumar. "The entire hierarchy of a company is directed towards strengthening its financial bottomline." But, "The government's job is not to make a profit. It is to improve the world for everyone," said former member of the planning commission Arun Moira. And, how does one improve the world without money? "The Munich based IFO Institute said China's current account surplus, which measure the flow of goods, services and investments, more than doubled to $310 billion last year," Reuters. "Germany's current account surplus shrank to $261 billion in 2020 as demand for cars, machinery and equipment fell in many of its key markets, the survey showed. Japan came in third with a current account surplus of $158 billion." No surprise that, as measured by nominal GDP, all these countries are richer than India, wikipedia. If we see GDP per capita, India was way below Brazil, Russia, South Africa and Mexico in 2017, worldometers and even Iran, whose GDP per capita has fallen to $2,282.6, is still higher than that of India's, World Bank. This despite years of economic sanctions preventing sale of oil, which is its main export, a collapsing currency and inflation at 30%, CNBC. India's current account has been in deficit in the last 10 years, Trading Economics. There was a slight current account surplus of 0.9% in 2020-21 because of a fall in imports due to the coronavirus, but the deficit jumped to $8.1 billion or 1% of GDP in the January to March quarter of 2021 when the lockdown was eased, The Hindu. "To be eligible for appointment as Joint Secretary , an officer has to serve in various capacities with an unblemished record for a minimum of 20 years," they write. Unblemished maybe because the person has done nothing all these years and if you do nothing you cannot make any mistake or be accused of corruption. Karmayogi is one who carries out his duties diligently in service of humanity, wikipedia. How many civil servants in India can claim to be that? "Nearly 50 lakh (4.9 million) died from Covid-19 in India between January 2020 and June 2021, making it arguably the country's worst human tragedy since Partition and independence, a new US study has said, even as the Delta variant of the coronavirus is causing a fresh wave of concern across the world," Times of India (TOI). Why is healthcare so poor in India? Because, officials of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), as these two gentlemen are sure to be, can fly off abroad for treatment of serious ailments at taxpayer expense, TOI. Why were people begging for oxygen for their family members dying of the virus? TOI. The irony is that even IAS Joint Secretaries suffering from the virus would not have been allowed entry into any other country for treatment and would have had to fight to get a hospital bed like us hapless citizens. "Over the past year, the government and the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) have also been accused of withholding data about Covid and its variants that left physicians in the country flying blind, and of promoting a homegrown vaccine before it had passed key clinical trials," Economic Times (ET). "Tax authorities in India raided several offices of one of world's biggest selling newspapers (Dainik Bhaskar)," because "The paper shocked India with its reporting of dead bodies in the river Ganges during the brutal second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic this spring," CNN. Tax officials are bureaucrats. It is no use saying that they were obeying orders of politicians. If you are holding the gun you are the killer. On 16 May, "The latest data by Indian Medical Association (IMA) revealed that India lost as many as 244 doctors in the ongoing wave of Covid-19 which is wreaking havoc across the country, and a staggering toll of 50 doctors was recorded just in a day," The Statesman. Even as scores of doctors were dying bureaucrats in UP were bullying and abusing doctors already at full stretch," News18. India has the highest incidence of bribery where people have to pay to obtain legitimate service, TOI. Bureaucrats are arrogant, self serving and of little help to us, New India Express. These two gentlemen want to keep things as they are to preserve the power of bureaucrats. We hope Mr Shibulal will make real changes. Else, India is doomed.
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