G2G consultancy is in; Saarc may announce an award for innovation in government performance

YOU may have heard of B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to customers), but neither of these may have had any direct impact on you and your life so far. If you are a government servant, what may excite you is G2G instead.

In fact, Saarc nations are contemplating to set up a region-wide government performance management network to spot regional best practices and put in place a system to facilitate government to government (G2G) consulting services in the entire region. What’s more, the member countries have also proposed to institute a SAARC award for Innovations in Government Performance Management which would be taken up for consideration at the next Saarc summit to be held later this month in Bhutan’s capital Thimpu.

In fact, India’s cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar in a recent Saarc workshop argued that the race among nations would finally be won or lost not on the basis of comparative advantage arising from resource endowment, but by the competitive advantage created by effective governments. The workshop was attended among others by secretary general of Saarc Sheel Kant Sharma, senior officials from India, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Action and Appointments

a) Former IPS officer and Governor of West Bengal MK Narayanan will discharge the functions of the Governor of Sikkim, in addition to his own duties, during the absence on leave of Balmiki Prasad Singh, Governor of Sikkim. Mr Singh was a former IAS (1964 batch) who also served as home secretary in 1997-99 and executive director and ambassador at the World Bank between 1999 to 2002.

b) Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla launched e-Office developed by National Informatics Centre in New Delhi on Monday. e-Office provides a platform for personalized, role based, secure access to internal information for the employees that is accessible through any browser. The implementation of this system is expected to improve the employee productivity and pave the way for a paperless office.

c) A new Indian Air Force (IAF) airfield, replete with modern infrastructure will be inaugurated by Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik, at Phalodi in Rajasthan, on Tuesday. Besides the Air Chief, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Western Air Command (SWAC) will also be present on the occasion.