UPSC lecture series on Governance:
INAUGURAL LECTURE BY PRESIDENT ON GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC SERVICE TOMORROW

The UPSC has started Foundation Day lecture series on Governance. The inaugural lecture will be on the theme ‘Governance and Public Service’ and will be delivered by the President of India Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil here tomorrow. Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Shri Prithiraj Chavan will preside over the function. It is in furthering UPSC central role in the governance structure that the commission thought of holding an annual lecture series, focusing on different areas of governance each year. This lecture series aims at providing a forum for raising issues of contemporary relevance to governance and public administration. It is hoped that it would generate ideas and fresh thinking that will help not only the UPSC, but concomitantly all other different units of governance as well.

It has been said that there is a need to reorient the governance structures so as to make them more accountable and transparent. There is a rising tide of expectation from the predominantly young population for a just, equitable, and humane society. Administrative systems have to keep pace with aspirations. There is also an acknowledged need for modernizing the administrative mechanism. The central role of the public service in reorienting the administrative mechanism is also agreed upon. There have been many initiatives in recent times to address the pressing matter of administrative reform, and this lecture is expected to add an important and timely input to the process.

The founding fathers of the Indian Republic envisaged an important role for the UPSC as the bedrock in the vital machinery of governance. The responsibility for recruiting the finest talent for manning the civil services and protecting their just interests so that they may act impartially and fearlessly are some of the tasks given to the Commission under the Constitution. UPSC is also responsible for advising the Government on related matters of service that actually cover personnel policy and human resource management.

Courtesy: Press Information Bureau