To lead the taskforce, former Infosys CEO SD Shibu Lal has been roped in. Working along with him would be Govind Iyer, Consultant at global management consulting group Egon Zehnder and Pankaj Bansal, Co-founder and Group CEO of HR tech company PeopleStrong, according to a Personnel Ministry order. Additionaly, Adil Zainulbhai, chairman designate, Capacity Building Commission, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) will be a special invitee to the discussions of the task force. 

The taskforce to help government curb the challenge of bureaucracy is part of a bigger initiative the 'National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building - Mission Karmayogi'. The aim is to affect a transformational shift from rule based training to role-based capacity development of all civil services in the country so as to enhance citizen experience for government services and improve availability of competent work force. For an effective roll out of competency driven mission, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), namely Karmayogi Bharat, would be set up as a not-for-profit company. 

The SPV will be responsible to deliver and manage design, implement, enhance and manage a digital platform and infrastructure, manage and deliver competency assessment services, and manage governance of telemetry data and ensure provision of monitoring and evaluation.

The role of the task force

The group of leaders led by Shibhu will have the power to constitute working groups, co-opt additional members/experts/special invitees, and consult national and international leaders in the field. They would be submitting recommendations on organizational structure for the SPV aligning its vision, mission and functions; policy frameworks for HR, compensation, IT, procurement and oversight functions, and staffing plans for top management including board members and key personnel with panels of potential candidates. As per the order, they are expected to work within a period of six months from the date of its constitution and submit its recommendations in the form of periodic/interim reports in respect of various terms assigned to it. 

The business leaders will be utilizing their knowledge and years of experience of leading companies, driving change and digital transformation, and developing organizational and functional structures. How will they take the best practices from the corporate world and relook at them from a different context will be key to improve and streamline all civil services in the country.