New Delhi: Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, P.K. Mishra, on Thursday said that the role of civil servants is rapidly evolving, with the focus shifting from gradual change to accelerated transformation to meet the demands of modern governance.
Delivering the Plenary Session address at the UPSC’s Shatabdi Sammelan Programme in New Delhi, Mishra noted that technological advancements, rapid urbanisation, climate challenges, and recurring disasters have significantly reshaped public service responsibilities. Today, he said, governance prioritises collaboration over hierarchy.
According to him, expectations from civil services have progressed from simple adherence to procedures to ensuring tangible outcomes, from working in departmental silos to fostering interoperable digital systems, and from a state delivering services to one that partners with citizens through Jan Bhagidari.
Mishra stressed that India is positioned at a decisive moment in its path to achieving the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. He laid out three guiding principles for the decades ahead: refocusing civil services toward a development-oriented administration, reimagining recruitment to identify highly capable individuals, and promoting continuous learning throughout a civil servant’s career.
He highlighted that the shift in expectations is evident across sectors such as digital payments, social welfare delivery, healthcare, infrastructure, logistics, taxation, skilling, urban governance, and rural development. He added that these expectations now extend into emerging areas including quantum technology, space innovation, and the blue and green economies where India aims for global leadership.
Civil servants, he said, must operate across domains, adopt humility and purpose, and uphold integrity. Mishra underlined the need for balancing ethical judgments with administrative efficiency and building confidence in handling data while maintaining strong human engagement.
He also observed that UPSC has, over its century-long journey, upheld merit, fairness, excellence, and integrity, retaining its stature as one of India’s most trusted Constitutional institutions. The celebration, he remarked, honours the foresight of the nation’s founding leaders and those who shaped the Commission in its early years.
