“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
— Ronald Reagan
Gfiles believes in this dictum and this is the reason the gfiles Governance Awards were instituted in 2012 to recognise those civil servants who are doing commendable work in their respective fields without caring about recognition. gfiles’ cover story is all about Governance Awards 2015 organised by the publication on November 28, 2015, in New Delhi. gfiles has given Governance Awards to 35 civil servants who have worked and implemented government policies to ameliorate the condition of the common man of India since 2012. There are four Secretaries and one CMD of a PSU among these 35 awardees. Amid a plethora of awards being instituted and given away, why should gfiles have thought of Governance Awards? After publishing gfiles for five years and interacting with senior as well as junior civil servants, we observed that there are many civil servants who are putting in hard work but their efforts are seldom recognised. gfiles decided to celebrate the work of such civil servants by giving them Governance Awards. The Governance Awards would not have become an instant success, had the government not allowed its officers to receive the awards out of the government domain. I thank all Central Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries for making the awards a success.
Narendra Kaushik writes in the cover story, “Right from Jammu & Kashmir to Tamil Nadu, from nuclear science to radio regulatory service to renewable energy to policing to animal husbandry and to finance, the recipients of gfiles Governance Awards 2015—picked by an independent jury comprising former Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar, former Power Secretary Anil Razdan, former Chief Secretary of Haryana Vishnu Bhagwan and former Secretary (Internal Security) MB Kaushal—represented a wide spectrum of services the governance impacts on a daily basis.” I am very thankful to the jury for reading voluminous material and selecting these able officers. I must emphasise to our readers that it’s the jury which is the lifeline of the Governance Awards.
Governance Awards 2015 is unique in many senses. The Lifetime Achievement Award was given by Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister for Steel and Mines, to a prominent scientist, Dr Anil Kakodkar; both hail from Madhya Pradesh. Dr Kakodkar was chosen for his stupendous work in utilising thorium as a fuel for nuclear energy. Dr Kakodkar clarified the myth that nuclear scientists get sanctions from the top in no time as they have access to the Prime Minister. He said that he had seen the files of Homi Jahangir Bhabha while he was working as a Secretary in the government. His file notings proved that he meticulously followed the rules. Dr Kakodkar added, “Where there is a will, there is a way. One can do one’s job in full compliance with the rules.” I must also thank Minister for Mines and Steel Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu and Ambassadors of half a dozen countries who spared time and shared the bonhomie at the ceremony. The young Finance Minister of Haryana, Capt Abhimanyu, drove all the way from Chandigarh to Delhi to give away the awards. Happy New Year!
ANIL TYAGI
editor@gfilesindia.com
