NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday promised a string of changes, including making the decision-making nimble and inclusive, to push his Make in India initiative, after 23 top bureaucrats suggested several initiatives and a stable policy regime to boost the anaemic manufacturing sector.

Modi told a gathering comprising his cabinet colleagues, a battery of secretaries and industry captains, who spent close to 11 hours working out the country's manufacturing agenda, that NDA is now ready to change rules and laws to speed up processes.

"Government is generally trapped in 'ABCD' culture from top to bottom.... A means Avoid , B-Bypass , C-Confuse , D-Delay . Our effort is to move from this culture to 'ROAD' where R stands for Responsibility, O-Ownership, A-Accountability, D-Discipline. We are committed to moving towards this roadmap," he said. Modi sought to make the traditional policy formulation model in government more open by saying that the public-private partnership model can be applied to the decision-making process itself.

The message of change had, however, gone down earlier with ministries and departments reworking their working style to deal with the government's new strategy. For instance, the revenue department assured the gathering that it had issued clear-cut guidelines that are consistent and predictable and will not result in tax officers going on fishing expeditions. The revenue secretary is learnt to have said that his department will work in line with the national objective of promoting manufacturing and follow a non-adversarial approach. Similarly, the defence ministry promised to change its approach in favour of the "private sector" driving defence manufacturing, giving up its pro-public sector bias. It also indicated its willingness to open more sectors for private participation. The newly-set up skill development ministry too suggested that training should be imparted from school itself, a model that is followed in countries such as South Korea and China. The PM is learnt to have suggested that the ministry consult the sectors before finalizing the skill module.

The commerce ministry said import duty on gold be pared from 10% to 2%, a move that will not just help the gems and jewellery sector but also consumers in terms of lower cost. But it wasn't just the Centre, even states spoke of areas where they had made progress, with Maharashtra reading out a list of steps to improve the Ease of Doing Business ratings. The state chief secretary said the steps would help the government meet the goal of India breaking into the top 50 rankings in terms of Ease of Doing Business compared to its 142nd place. The Chattisgarh chief secretary said there should only be random checks, adding that there should be "no line instead of online".

Modi said one of his main goals was to break down silos in government so that synergies and cooperation replaced turf wars and inertia that decrease transparency and increase scope for discretion and unaccountable behaviour. The PM expressed satisfaction at the brainstorming session, saying the suggestions exemplified his vision of "minimum government, maximum governance" and pitched for free movement of labour, machinery, natural resources and capital.

