Reforms have transformed bureaucracy, says PM’s Principal Secretary P.K. Mishra

Technical skill alone is not sufficient, and a student should have the qualities of attitude, teamwork, openness, mutual respect, humility, ethics, transparency, and objectivity to succeed both in career and life, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Principal Secretary P. K. Mishra said. Addressing the convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Management, Mumbai on Saturday (September 20, 2025), Mr. Mishra said teamwork was probably a much more important than individual brilliance. 

On human resource development, Mr. Mishra urged the fresh graduates to embrace continuous learning, noting that knowledge quickly becomes obsolete in a fast-changing world. He underscored the challenge of instilling values in large organisations, and the need for sustained motivation. On the evolving architecture of administrative reforms, Mr. Mishra said the strategic shift in personnel management since 2014 was aimed at building a “21st century civil service”.

“A key reform has been the overhaul of the empanelment process for senior positions such as Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary, and Secretary to the Government of India,” he said. Moving beyond the limitations of annual assessment reports, he said the government had introduced a multi-source feedback system in 2016. “This system incorporates evaluations from seniors, juniors, peers, and external stakeholders, assessing attributes such as decision-making, ownership, delivery, proactiveness, and reputation for integrity,” Mr. Mishra said. 

Reform in the government services had widened the talent pool, with strong credibility in the fairness of selections, he added. “Domain expertise, aptitude, and reputation now guide appointments across the Central government and PSUs (public sector undertakings),” he said. 

Such changes, the senior bureaucrat said, had been sustained for nearly a decade, quietly reshaping governance to meet the aspirations of a swifly evolving India. The discontinuation of personal interviews for Group B and C posts in 2016 had reduced bias and subjectivity, he said, and claimed that the ‘Mission Karmayogi’ platform had transformed civil service capacity building by hosting more than 3,300 courses and serving over 1.3 crore users.