Sanjeev Sanyal Explains How India Has Been Undertaking 'Process Reforms' Like Trump's Doge | Watch

New Delhi: Hours after US President-elect Donald Trump anunced that Tesla owner Elon Musk and Indian American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will le newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Sanjeev Sanyal, ecomist and member of Ecomic visory Council to Prime Minister, pointed out that India has alrey been undertaking similar efforts in recent years.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Sanyal shared his thoughts, writing, " incoming Trump ministration has anunced a Department of Government Efficiency heed by Elon Musk. This is my talk at Republic Conclave yesterday about how India has alrey been doing a similar effort in recent years (we call m 'process reforms')." 

He also shared a video from his dress at Republic Media Network's India Ecomic Summit 2024, where he discussed how Narendra Modi -led government has been maintaining efficiency through various reforms.

Sanyal highlighted that, while Musk was promised to create a government efficiency commission in US is a new step, India has alrey been implementing such reforms grually. “Elon Musk was promised to create a government efficiency commission in US. But here in India, as I said, we have been doing this kind of reforms step by step for quite some time,” he said.

ecomist went on to explain concept of process reforms, which are smaller, incremental changes designed to improve efficiency, contrasting m with larger, structural reforms that dominate helines. "What are process reforms? w most of you will be familiar with term structural reforms. Whenever you re newspapers, you'll re about structural reforms," Sanyal ted.

He elaborated, saying structural reforms, such as liberalisation of 1991, insolvency and bankruptcy code, inflation targeting framework, and GST, fundamentally alter structure of sectors and industries. In contrast, process reforms are often smaller but essential changes that enhance operational efficiency without drastically altering system. "se are small nuts and bolts reforms that very often you may t re on front p of newspapers, but re are literally hundreds of m. se are small reforms that don't necessarily change structure of things, but make that whatever activity it is, work a little bit more efficiently. This is, lies and gentlemen, government efficiency effort," he said.

Sanyal n discussed issue of defunct government organisations, which have long outlived ir purpose. "Like any government, we have large numbers of defunct organisations. y were created at some point in time. Perhaps at time y were created, y h some utility. But unfortunately, it is quite rare that you shut down se kinds of institutions along way," he remarked.

He furr explained that in recent years, efforts have been me to identify and shut down such organisations, particularly automous bodies. "A few years ago again, an effort was me to try and find a list of se defunct organisations. Some of se are automous bodies. So I'm t here going to get into ministries and departments. That's a story in its own right. But I'm talking here about automous bodies," Sanyal said.

To locate se organisations, he recommended a careful examination of budget papers, which are w available online. "Go into each, don't look at budget at a glance, that hides all of this stuff. Go and look in real meat of those budget papers. Go ministry by ministry and somewhere re in footte somewhere, in small print, you will find a list of all se institutions. re are some really genuinely obscure ones, let me assure you. body kws why y exist," he explained.

Sanyal pointed out that central government alone has over 800 automous bodies, with many of m longer serving any useful purpose. "w some of m, of course, are useful bodies. I mean, SEBI or Reserve Bank of India, etc., we kw what y do. But re are literally large numbers of m that exist that simply need to be shut down," he said. Over last few years, India has been systematically identifying, merging, or shutting down such bodies.

Sanyal also touched upon broer efforts to clean up rules, regulations, and laws. "Rules, regulations, laws that need to be cleaned up. Again, a very big effort is being done in this direction," he ded.

Lastly, he highlighted significance of se reforms in specific sectors. "Unless you happen to be from that particular sector, you may never hear about some of se changes, but in those sectors, it makes a massive difference. More often than t, changes are very simple to do. Simple change, cost to system at all and yet imagine ease of doing business this shows," Sanyal said. 

Sanyal also stressed on importance of both structural and process reforms, ting that while structural reforms often dominate attention, process reforms are just as critical but frequently overlooked. "As I said, structural reforms are important, but very often se process reforms are igred."