PM Modi urges ministries to break dept silos, speed up reforms

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for a whole-of-government approach to ensure that Centre's schemes deliver tangible outcomes for citizens, during a nearly four-hour interaction with the Union government's top bureaucracy. He also urged officials to break departmental silos, accelerate deregulation to improve ease of doing business and ease of living, officials said.

The brainstorming session, attended by over 100 secretary and secretary-level officers, focused on "Deregulation and other reforms for Ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living" and "Promoting Aatmanirbharta." The meeting, conducted by cabinet secretary TV Somanathan, began with three-minute presentations by participating secretaries before moving to an open-house discussion where officials shared suggestions cutting across sectors and flagged implementation bottlenecks, people familiar with the deliberations told ET.

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According to officials, the PM encouraged ministries to leverage the PM GatiShakti platform for integrated planning and coordination, reiterating that the success of government programmes should ultimately be measured by their impact on people's lives.

People aware of the discussions told ET that one official proposed developing a 'Sovereign AI ecosystem' to strengthen India's technological capabilities and reduce strategic dependence. The deliberations also underscored the need to build indigenous AI capabilities while reinforcing cybersecurity preparedness against emerging threats. Officials also suggested that while school enrolment has risen significantly, the next priority should be improving student retention.

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According to officials present, Modi indicated that Tuesday's interaction would be followed by another round of discussions to take the suggestions forward.