IIM Ranchi: Celebrating the 98th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, IIM Ranchi observed Good Governance Day on December 25 2022. The day, celebrated in honour of the country’s late prime minister, raises public awareness of government accountability.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Centre for Leadership, Policy, and Governance (ABVCLPG), a centre of excellence at IIM Ranchi, took the initiative to organise the event. ABVCLPG was established to conduct multidisciplinary research in leadership, policy, and governance. It aims to create a pool of managers, administrators, and leaders with solid backgrounds in governance and policy.

Shri Bharat Lal, Director General, National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), Govt. of India was the Chief Guest for the program. NCGG is an autonomous apex institution of Government of India, which works on good governance, reforms, capacity building and training of civil servants of India and other developing countries. Prior to joining NCGG, since January, 2022, he was working as Secretary, Lokpal of India, the anti-corruption body of the country. Prior to this, he worked as founder Mission Director of ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’, a flagship programme of Government of India.

Prof. Aditya Shankar Mishra, Co-Chair, ABVCLPG, delivered a speech on the day’s importance and the virtues of good governance portrayed by various thinkers. He further cited examples from ancient Indian scriptures and the values of good governance it speaks about.

Director of IIM Ranchi, Prof. Deepak Kumar Srivastava, then addressed the audience about the different dimensions of good governance, the relevance of good governance in management, and the difference between governance and management.

The Chief Guest, Shri Bharat Lal, elaborated on the difference between governance and management with thought-provoking examples of what governance is from his experiences. He also interacted with the participants and spoke about the significance of good governance in our lives by narrating different anecdotes. He appealed to the students to look beyond earning a good livelihood and realise that they carry the leadership responsibility. He also retrospected the pandemic and how India made it through the difficult situation because of good governance. Shri Lal talked in detail about the Jal Jeevan Mission which is the flagship programme of the Government of India. He also talked about transparency in governance.

The event ended with a vote of thanks delivered by Prof. Angshuman Hazarika and the singing of the National Anthem.