The Great Ministry called HRD Ministry

Mr. Rajiv Gandhi wanted to be Mr. Clean and wished that the new portfolio that he created in his cabinet was Ministry of Human Resource Development. This Ministry has been assigned the following tasks. The brain behind this ministry might be great but in reality the functioning is like any other Ministry. 

1. Educational research
2. Publications, information and statistics
3. Development and propagation of Hindi, including multi-lingual dictionaries.
4. Grant of Financial assistance for the teaching and promotion of Hindi
5. Propagation and development of Sanskrit.
6. Rehabilitation and other problems relating to displaced teachers and students
7. Central Advisory Board of Education.
8. UNESCO and Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO.
9. Matters relating to all scholarships, including those offered by foreign countries and foreign agencies, in subjects dealt with by this Department but excluding scholarships to students belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes and General Scholarships Schemes and scholarships to foreign students and different schemes.
10. Education and Welfare of Indian Students overseas; Education Departments of Indian Missions overseas; Financial assistance to education institutions and Indian Students’ Associations abroad.
11. Educational Exchange Programmes, exchange of teachers, professors, educationists, technologists, etc.; programme of exchange of scholars between India and foreign countries.
12. Grant of permission to teachers of Universities, colleges and institutions of higher learning to accept assignments abroad.
13. Admission of foreign students in Indian Institutions.
14. Charities and Charitable Institutions, Charities and Religious Endowments pertaining to subjects dealt within this Department.
15. Adhoc scientific research, other than research in higher mathematics, nuclear science and atomic energy, in universities and educational institutions.
16. Vigyan Mandirs.
17. General Policy regarding partial financial assistance to Scientists going abroad for studies in fields other than mathematics, nuclear science and atomic energy.
18. Expansion, Development and Coordination of Technical Education..
19. School of Planning and Architecturt.
20. Regional Schools of Printing.
21. Grants-in-aid to State Government institutions, non-Government institutions, professional bodies and technical institutions of UnionTerritories for technical education. Grants-in-aid for post-graduate studies in basic sciences, grants-in-aid for development of higher scientific and technological education and research in educational institutions; Grants-in-aid for fundamental research in science and technology, grants to individuals for fundamental research.
22. All Indian Council for Technical Education, including conduct of its National Diploma and National Certificate Examinations.
23. Practical training facilities for students of engineering and technological institutions.
24. Recognition of professional technical qualification for purposes of recruitment to posts under Government of India.
25. National Research Professorships and Fellowships.
26. Holding of Foreign Examination in the fields of professional and technical education in India
27. University Grants Commission.
28. National Book Trust.
29. Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad.
30. Indian School of Mines and Applied Geology, Dhanbad.
31. Indian Institutes of Technology at Kharagpur, Mumbai, Kanpur, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati and Roorkee.
32. Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
33. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
34. International Students Houses in India and abroad.
35. Schemes for grant of financial assistance to voluntary organisations for promotion of modern Indian languages.
36. Regulation of Engineering Professional Services.

We have not seen any simple and yet objective performance report of this Ministry on all the above 36 activities that come under the concept of HRD, year on year ever since this Ministry was formed. How can this ministry function without having a similar ministry in all the states of India. This is a fundamental flaw in its organogram. For all the ministries we find their counter parts in many state cabinets. How the Human Resource Development is achieved year on year by having a base level data and a bench mark (yearly targets, plans, schemes, etc) is another flaw in its functioning.

What this Ministry has achieved is enhancing the controlling power and thereby creating more avenues for black money generation by institutionalizing corruption in a skilful manner! The HRD has indeed happened in training the Personnel of the Ministry and the staff of its affiliated bodies.

What are the performance metrics of this Ministry? For what the Cabinet Level Minister of HRD is accountable? No body knows and no one cares for them. Just like any other Ministry this Ministry too had evolved its work processes thought it shall work for a superordinate goal and articulate very unique Vision and Mission statements and the Values the Ministry wishes to reflect.

The Ministry is silent on its role in supporting the HRD Function in both Public and Private Sectors. Ideally the Ministry should have two sets of roles:

Financial and Administrative

Core HRD and Institutional Building

The Ministry is now busy with all transactional issues than strategic ones. The ministry shall be the pole star for all HR initiatives in this country at various levels from a small organization to a large organization like Govt of India. The ministry shall collaborate with all the Ministries, particularly the Ministry if Industry, Law and Labour. In fact this Ministry shall have all Labour related and Govt Personnel related matters in its purview as a sub-group activity. Thus we would find more cohesive and inclusive approach towards HRD. Unless this Ministry role is dove-tailed with all other Ministries that function purely with the help of its Human Resources, the HRD Ministry would become another run-of-the-mill type Ministry in the Central Cabinet. In fact we need to look at the organizational design of the Central and State Governments and ensure a seamless coordination and interdependence among them. 

Creation of a Ministry shall not become a whimsical activity of the political party that runs the Govt at both Central and State level. There shall be a legislation giving a constitutional status to the design of the State and Central Govts. India is bubbling with energy and creativity. The Central Govt shall engage the best talent available in a very participative manner and fianalize its design. This must also include:

• Performance Metrics for each Ministry
• Compulsion of the ruling political party to declare its goals under each Ministry as a part of its political agenda. Meaning the Political Parties can add and supplement to this already designed structure and work processes.
• There shall be a review of this organizational design every 3 years by an expert committee whose members shall be chosen from the Industry, Academia and other expert agencies.
• Progress report in a crisp and to the point manner against each performance goal.

Imagine a situation where each Ministry spells out its performance goals after the new govt assumes the office of the Govt of India. What gets measured is what gets improved, as Dr. Deming rightly pointed out. The 6 sigma and other quality tools, Alas, are confined to the Industrial activity or the private production of goods and services. What about the Govt Ministries? This is high time that each Ministry shall become a role model for all the units operating under that Ministry. This is the only way we can seamlessly integrate the efforts at all levels from Central Govt to the small scale organization.

This is briefly the role of the Central Ministry of HRD. We need to urge the next Govt at the Centre to work on this. 

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