India-France Letter of Intent in Public Administration and Administrative Reforms signed

1.   The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India and M/o Public Sector Transformation & the Civil Service of the French Republic signed the Letter of Intent for Cooperation in the field of Public Administration and Administrative Reforms for three years. The Letter of Intent was signed by Shri V. Srinivas, Secretary on behalf of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and H.E. Mr. Thierry Mathou, Ambassador of France to India at a ceremonial function in New Delhi today. Senior Officials of Ministry of External Affairs, Embassy of India in France, Embassy of France in India and the Ministry of Public Sector Transformation and the Civil Service of the French Republic attended the event conducted in hybrid mode.

2.    The Letter of Intent seeks to strengthen the bilateral partnership between the two countries through exchange visits focused on administrative reforms, good governance webinars, research publications, institutional exchanges, capacity building programs and replication of good governance practices. The roadmap for the bilateral collaboration will be drawn up by a Joint Working Group that will be established under the aegis of the Letter of Intent. Both sides agreed to strengthen the relationship through high level exchanges in the coming months. The Indian side presented the translation of the vision of Prime Minister Modi in adopting Next Generation Reforms being undertaken in the Amrit Kaal period with the implementation of the policy maxim “Maximum Governance – Minimum Government” under which India’s public institutions have been transformed as fully digital institutions bringing citizens and government closer using technology. The best manifestation of the “Maximum Governance – Minimum Government” policy is a “Digitally Empowered Citizen” and a “Digitally Transformed Institution”.  India’s Next Generation Administrative Reforms include Recognizing Meritocracy under the Prime Minister’s Awards Scheme for Excellence in Public Administration, Benchmarking of Governance through the Good Governance Index, improving quality of e-services through the National e-Services Delivery Assessment and technology adoption in CPGRAMS with focus on timely and quality grievance redressal. The French side expressed interest in exchanging information on Effective Public Grievance Redressal, the Secretariat Reforms adopted for the digital transformation of the Central Secretariat and in the dissemination of award-winning Good Governance Practices.