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1. In Defence of the Indefensible
Transformational Leaders Inside Government
Srivatsa Krishna, IAS
Twitter: @srivatsakrishna
Thinkers 50
August 30, 2013

2. The Majority Can Do Wrong
“James the 1st and Louis XIV taught that the King could
do no wrong, and their successors lost their heads;
Hegel and his disciples taught that the State could do
no wrong, and plunged the world into war;
Our doctrinaire democrats teach that the majority can
do no wrong, and bid fare to wreck civilization”.
W.N.Inge, Outspoken Essays

3. Dream or a Nightmare? Challenges Inside Government
 Direct reporting to a political executive with a very different ethos
and values including very often, reporting to criminals.
 IAS is often a shield between the rapacious politician and an
illiterate citizenry. E.g. Durga Shakti’s case.
 Expect to deliver market-like efficiency, market-like performance,
with a non-market like pay and other ecosystems.
 Always under a „microscope” of judicial and media scrutiny.
 Unionized subordinate staff, hard to discipline.
 The Distribution of honesty and dishonesty is not very different
across professions.

4. Government’s DNA:
Why Private Sector CEOs Often Fail Inside Government:
The Fable of Tenali Raman & the Poet
• Krishnadeva Raya’s Court Tenali Raman poet who
came and sublime poetry. Impressed, he
appointed him as a Minister in his Cabinet.
• Tenali Raman invites the King and his Cabinet for a
banquet at his house and has the best carpenter
for two tasks.
• Prepare the most beautiful dining table ever made
by man! And prepare dinner to be laid on it.
• Dinner is Served and the King spits it out.
• Tenali Raman falls at his feet and apologizes and
reminds the king of his action of appointing a poet
as a Minister and that he merely followed suit!!
• MORAL: One who is good in one field, need not
always be the best in another field also
1.Robert McNamara- Ford Motor
Company to Defence Secy. USA.
1.Paul O’ Neil – From Alcoa to US
Treasury Secretary

5. 1. Rusi Mody
1. Yogi Deveshwar
1. TTK
1. Robert McNamara- Ford Motor
Company to Defence Secretary of
USA.
1. Paul O’ Neil – From Alcoa to US
Treasury Secretary

6. R.Chandrashekhar, J.Satyanarayana,
Ajay Sawhney, Srivatsa Krishna
Creating the AP Software Cluster & E-Governance
• Under Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s leadership
AP became one of Asia’s foremost investment
clusters, yet it is intellectually fashionable to talk of
the IT Sector having grown because there’s no govt!
• Creating Brand AP and invited private investments
• Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, Google, GE, HSBC, JP
Morgan etc have development or analytics centers.
• Exports: Rs. 35,000 crores (’10)- (Rs.65 crores in ‘96).
• Employment: 64000 (‘00) to 2.5 million (2010)
• Companies: 31 (‘95) to 1100 (2010)
• Goldman Sachs: Value of Hyderabad Cluster is $5b
• Egovernance: Point of Decision of a Government vs.
Point of Delivery of a Government Service

7. V.V.Lakshminarayana, IPS &
Dr.U.V.Singh, IFS, Bishwajit Mishra, IFS
Enforcing the Law
• Enormous threat to life while bringing
down G.Janardhana Reddy’s empire.
• Rs.12228 crores loss to the exchequer
as per Lokayukta report.
• Dr.U.V.Singh and Mishra went through
40 lakh entries!
• In 10 working days Bishwajit Mishra
recovered Rs.20 crores past dues from
the miners!
• CBI under VV Lakshminarayana’s
leadership is now going after the
politicians, IFS/IAS/IPS officers who
colluded in the crime.

8. R.K.Raghavan, IPS
Special Investigation Team
• Heading the SIT on Gujarat riots, Karnataka court violence&
national anti-ragging committee.
• Guarded late Rajiv Gandhi’s body and the crime scene
unarmed in Sriperumbudur even as mobs attacked him.
• Routinely gets threats to his life from almost every group
who has an axe to grind.
• Former Director, CBI and member of international advisory
groups at Cambridge University and Mexican government
• Handled many sensitive cases at CBI, including Bombay
Blast (1993), match fixing scandal & Indian Bank Fraud

9. N.Rangachary, IRS
Shaping the Insurance Sector
• IRDA set up in 2000: Broad based, publically
accountable insurance sector with
infrastructure to be developed for
channelizing long term savings.
• Penetration Levels: Premium as % of GDP has
grown from 2.3% (‘01) to 6.7% (‘10).
• Premium grew at a CAGR of 21.45% (‘01-’10)
• Total FDI in Insurance Sector is> INR 50b today
• Ownership separated from regulation.
• Industry has grown 50 fold in the last 10 years.
• Gross Premium of LIC grew from Rs.16000
crores to Rs.120,000 crores and we have 44
companies in all in the industry today.

10. S.V.Ranganath, Vandita Sharma ( and Team GAIL)
The Karnataka Gas Pipeline
• 1000 km of which 800 km in Karnataka crossing the Western Ghats
and 17 rivers.
• 4000 government clearances: GOK, Environment, Forests, GOI,
Railways, NHAI
• MOU signed May 2010. Construction begun November 2010.
• 4000 approvals in record time between May 2010- Oct 2010.
• Toyota became the first customer to buy gas on February 19, 2013.

11. Manjula Subramaniam
24 x 7 Power in Gujarat
• Gujarat Power Sector: Only
state to have 24x7 3-phase
power in all 18000
villages, completed in 1000
days flat.
• In 2001: (2246) crores, In 2011:
+ 2114 crores; T& D losses
down to 20% now
• Feeder Separation of
agricultural and household
feeders.
• Set up Power Theft Police
stations and filed over 100,000
FIRs.
• Smart metering

12. Padma Shri S.R.Rao
Saving Surat
• 1994 outbreak of Plague in Surat, 300
year old city; 2.5m threatened to be
infected, 130 sq km, 56 people died.
• Water supply coverage up from 60 to 98%
, Sewerage up from 30% to 88%; Storm
water drains from 0% to 100%
• 40% slum population provided basic
facilities.
• Disease burden fell dramatically from and
doctors migrated to other professions!
• Disease surveillance program picked up
by World Bank as a global best practice.
• Self-Demolition of
temples, mosques, illegal buildings
belong to the rich and powerful.

13. Dr. I.V.Subba Rao
Serving the Lord
• The richest temple and one of the busiest
in the world: Between 25,000 to 1 lakh
per day; Rs. 1 crore a day collections.
• Queues would last for 1 to 2 days in the
past inside inhuman cages.
• “Sudarshanam” or bar-coded
wristbands, with an algorithm, which
ensured entry in an hour or so. Rs.1 per
wristband cost!
• The quality of the waiting time reduced
not the waiting time per se.
• Despite huge obstacles from employees
and other vested interested it was
implemented successfully.
• Change that is Desirable, Do-able and

14. Pradeep Kharola
E-Sugam: Computerizing Commercial Taxes
• It is an indirect tax and each sale transaction needs to be
captured. The traders act as agents of government for tax
collection.
• 4.5 lakh returns per month, Rs.32000 crores/ annum
collection in ‘12-’13 (up from Rs.18000 crores in ‘09-’10).
• 100 lakh visits by traders every single day and attendant
corruption eliminated.
• PM’s Award for Public Administration in 2013

15. N.Sivasailam
Creating Bangalore Metro
• In May 2008 Less than < 0.1% Rs.400
crores of Rs.11609 crores total
project cost.
• Bangalore: 2.5 million vehicles + 1000
being added every single day
• As of December 2010 Rs.4000 crores
spent and Line 1 (37%) 7.5 kms
complete.
• Line 2 ready on 12.12.12.
• Ridership: Designed for carrying 1m
passengers a day.
• In sharp contrast, private metros in
Mumbai and the Airport line in
Delhi, both delayed and over budget

16. V.J.Kurien
India’s First PPP Commercial Airport-Kochi
• Rs.300 crores including cost of land. 4.5
million passengers in 2011. Rs.100 crores
profit every year!
• No user fee at all. Landing low is minimum
10-20% lower.
• Rs.250 crores total revenue of which Non
aeronautical is about 52%
• From Concept to First Landing: 6 years
including 1300 acres of land and 822 houses
were demolished and rehabilitated.
• Most functions are outsourced. 500
employees in all. Total 5500 employees in
all.
• No concession agreement or MCA!
• Tenure : 1993-1999 and 2003-2006, 2011-

17. Pratyay Amrit
Building Roads & Bridges in Bihar’s Badlands
• MD, BRPNN From 2006-07 till date has built
13,322 kms of roads.
• Outsourced DPRs to IITs.
• BRPNN, which had completed 314 bridges during
the first 30 years of its inception, successfully
executed 336 bridge projects in just three years.
• PM’s Award for Public Administration in 2011

18. A Fundamental Tenet:
Every Society gets the
Leader
that it deserves!
IT IS ALL ABOUT LEADERSHIP

19. IT ALL SEEMS SO CHAOTIC FROM OUTSIDE...
But Somehow it all works!!

20. LORD GANESHA DRINKS MILK ONLY IN INDIA &
INDIA is @66 and the Rupee is also @66 too!
(or is that75 now?)

21. MY BIG DREAM:
Transformational Leaders Inside Government
Creating a Transformed India
THANK YOU