ABSTRACT
Effective public administration involves a high level of synergy and commitment of both politicians and bureaucrats to deliver what the people want. Unfortunately, public administration has often been top-down and not adequately people-centric. If administrators could demonstrate heroic and protective qualities of a raja and the wisdom and detachment of a rishi, effective administration would follow.
This chapter raises the key question: what do we need to do if we want to have a more ethical administration based on wisdom? The chapter concludes that people’s values of society matters for a people-centric administration to be effective, not for mere implementation of administrative reforms. Governance cannot improve without setting up appropriate institutional arrangements to sensitise better conduct from all citizens. The leverage point of change comes from other dimensions of society, hence, only a society with a well-defined and accepted value system will ensure a continuous stream of rajarshi statesmen and virtuous administrators.
