NEW DELHI: Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu emphasized that the ultimate aim of governance should be to empower the people and to move towards minimum government, which according to him, will happen only when the last mile has been traversed and the people at the bottom of the pyramid have been reached. He also said that the success of good governance lies in including and making the toiling masses equal stakeholders in the process of development.

Addressing the participants of 48th Advanced Professional Programme in Public Administration (APPPA) conducted by Indian Institute of Public Administration in New Delhi, the Vice President said that the key to good governance lies in inclusivity, use of technology and maintaining high moral standards. “Technology fosters transparency and hence accountability, which is the basic feature of good governance, while moral standards impart legitimacy,” he added. He hoped that these two together will usher in a new political culture preparing the ground for bringing in transformational reforms.

Underlining that people’s participation is very important for inclusive and responsive governance, Naidu said that reforms are only initiated by the Government but actually bear fruit only when people proactively work for the future of their country. 

Referring to the ongoing celebrations of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Vice President urged every Indian to work with an aim of building a happy, healthy, prosperous and developed nation when we enter the 100th year of our Independence.

Observing that the focus today is shifting from government to governance, the Vice President said that India is on the move, shedding the baggage of its past and embarking on a journey towards hope and the fulfilment of its ultimate destiny which is to lead the world.

On this occasion, Naidu also stressed the need to get out of the colonial mindset and asked the administrators to use people’s language while discharging their official duties. “You should interact with the people in their own language,” he told them. Referring to the adage -- ‘service to man is service to God’, the Vice President wanted all officials to make ‘people’s service’ their main motto.

Lauding IIPA’s contribution to national development, Naidu said that he is happy to see IIPA today is adapting itself to the needs of a dynamic and fast changing era, and to the rapidly changing socio-economic milieu. Calling for arresting the trend of falling standards in public life, he wanted the administrators and leaders to set examples in integrity and ethics.

Referring to the concept of Ram-Rajya, so often espoused by Mahatma Gandhi, he said that in Indian tradition, it is a metaphor to define how a well governed welfare state should look like and exhorted the administrators to follow these lofty ideals to build a society free from poverty, discrimination and inequality.