The United States President, Donald Trump made headlines when he announced the US Government’s Efficiency Department (DOGE), mainly focused on cost reduction. Nevertheless, this is a step that opens a comprehensive discussion on streamlining government functions in developing economies through efforts dedicated to run efficiency in governance.
Beyond the narrow, cost-centered American proposal, India can resume the efficiency of the government through extended service distribution and government lenses. While India has made significant progress in furthering its economic and social agenda, the country is still facing continuous challenges in addressing the misunderstandings of bureaucracy, highly regulatory red tape and resources in public spending. The ‘minimum government and maximum governance’ is still far from reality. Often government departments have old practices embedded in standard operational procedures (SOPs). Many of these non-valuable activities, originally designed for legitimate operational contexts, have lost relevance in view of digitization or changes in upstream and downstream processes. Now, despite not serving their intended purpose, they continue to perform, which leads to unnecessary delays and inflated costs. Such disability not only slows the execution of important government programs, but also reduces their overall impact and cost-effectiveness.
To deal with these issues, India can benefit from the establishment of a dedicated government proficiency department – a body that will focus on identifying disabilities, cutting waste, ending work and increasing accountability at all levels of governance. How does this comprehensive mandate interact with government services to citizens while modernizing administrative processes.
Lesson from within India
There are lessons learned from within the country. There has been a notable change in the private sector of India in the last decades. Many Indian companies have demonstrated world -class efficiency standards, which often perform better than global contestants. These organizations have successfully implemented modern management techniques, digital changes, industrial engineering and lean operation while working within Indian context. Similar changes are not seen in public governance, many government departments are still working on heritage systems and procedures designed decades ago. While private companies have dedicated departments focusing on continuous improvement, digitization and satisfaction of customers, government departments often lack structured mechanisms for service growth.
As India’s purpose is to become a developed economy, the quality of government service distribution and the ease of civic dialogue with the administration will play an important role. Such a dedicated efficiency department can provide the necessary structured approach to change government operations, not only focus on how efficiently services are provided, but also on the fundamental improvement to citizens.
India’s bureaucratic machinery based on weberian models, despite well, is often considered cumbersome and slow. This disability turns into delay in execution of projects that are important for economic growth and development. Public expenses in India are often plagued by disabilities, which contains an important part of the budget allocated for welfare programs, subsidies and public services. A efficiency department can focus on reducing waste and maximizing the impact of these programs. By applying a systematic approach to detecting and preventing leakage, disabilities, and misuse of money, this department can ensure that rare public resources already are directed by India where they need the most.
In today’s digital age, technology can play an important role in driving efficiency in government operations. India has already demonstrated notable success with several large -scale digitization programs, such as direct profit transfer (DBT), Aadhaar, land record digitization and passport service project in many states with many large -scale digitization programs. These initiatives have streamlined processes, reduced disability, and service distribution has increased significantly. However, despite their success, these programs have largely operated in silos, which lacks mechanisms for a cross-pollination of ideas, expertise, and best practices. Each new government initiative often starts with scratches and often depends a lot on the private sector to create systems and framework. This not only leads to high cost, but also disappears opportunities to delay in implementation and existing projects to take advantage of proven solutions.
A Centralized Government Efficiency Department can act as a store for institutional knowledge, technical expertise and reusable digital infrastructure. By facilitating the best practices and sharing of standardized processes in ministries and departments, this body can reduce excesses, low cost, and accelerate the implementation of new initiatives. By making digital changes in ministries a champion, a department of efficiency can help India to keep pace with technological progress, while cutting the cost and delays associated with manual procedures.
Amending a department that exists
Interestingly, there is no need to make such an outfit from scratch. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievance (DARPG) of the Central Government under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance and Pension is already. While the current mandate for DARPG mainly focuses on administrative reforms, spreads successful good governance practices and grievances, PM Gatishkat like the National Master Plan (for multi-modal connectivity, integrated for integrated and integrated implementation for an integrated plan, together for integrated implementation for an integrated plan, a platform to bring 16 ministries together for integrated implementation for an integrated plan and to bring 16 ministries together for an integrated implement
Taking inspiration from the private sector, where the centralized efficiency team often serves as a innovation hub to streamline operations and implement transformative practices, DARPG can adopt a similar role in rule. In corporations, such teams focus on eliminating waste to integrate technologies, optimize workflows and improve both financial and operational performance. Translating this model into a public sector, Darpg can take initiative to identify disabilities, benchmark performances and implement solutions that increase cost savings and increase service distribution in departments and states.
By taking advantage of its current structure and expertise, the department can serve as a centralized body to standardize processes, eliminate excess and promote cross-departal cooperation. It can develop and give home the best-in-in-class digital abilities for governance, reusable outlines, platforms and equipment that can be cross-letters by various ministries and state governments. Additionally, the Darpg process improvement can institutionalize the use of mathodology such as lean, six sigma and data-powered decision-making tools. By embedding these practices in governance, the department can enable continuous improvement in efficiency and accountability, paving the way for a government that is both agile and civil centenary.
Indian bureaucracy
Unlike political appointments for executive administration in the US, India works under a system of permanent bureaucracy, in which civil servants hold independent long -term positions from political leadership, which ensure consistency, institutional memory and stability in governance. Instead of uprooting the system, India’s challenge lies in strengthening and expanding the mandate of such institutions, which is to run efficiency without compromising stability and stability that provides permanent bureaucracy.
The path to turn on this setup faces two formidable and mutual challenges. First, depth -surrounded bureaucratic structures that have developed over decades, often oppose transformational changes that can change existing electrical mobility and administrative processes. Customers, accustomed to traditional hierarchy and established workflows, can see such an initiative as threats to their autonomy and discretionary powers. Second, India’s federal structure adds another layer of complexity, where the delicate balance between the central and state officials must be carefully maintained with the spirit of cooperative federalism. Any efficiency initiative will need to navigate the highly sensitive and political constitutional division of powers and respect state autonomy. Success depends on creating a structure that not only addresses bureaucratic concerns through meaningful engagement and clear encouragement, but also provides sufficient freedom and flexibility to the states to customize the implementation for its local references while maintaining the main proficiency standards. Political will and public trust will be important to enable the success of such a program.
While traveling towards such reforms will certainly be challenging, potential benefits make it an opportunity to find. As India progresses in the 21st century, a commitment to government efficiency can be one of the most powerful tools to achieve a precursor to sustainable development and inclusive development.
Milind Kumar Sharma is a professor in the Department of Production and Industrial Engineering at MBM University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Sharad Sharma works with “Big 4” and MDI is an executive PhD scholar in Gurgaon. Expressed views are personal
Published – May 29, 2025 03:00 AM IST