Retired employees' observations ensure better service delivery: Jitendra Singh

New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) Retired employees' observations can help the government course-correct policies and ensure better service delivery, Union minister Jitendra Singh has said.

He said that candid feedback from retirees provided valuable insights for improving transparency, citizen-centric governance, and human resource management.

“Those who have lesser stakes after retirement can speak more boldly, more candidly. Their observations help us course-correct our policies and ensure better service delivery,” said Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel.

The assertion came during the 8th National Anubhav Awards ceremony and the 57th Pre-Retirement Counselling Workshop held at Vigyan Bhawan here on Monday.

Singh underlined the importance of drawing upon the wisdom and experience of retired government employees, calling them "partners in nation building even beyond superannuation", according to a Personnel Ministry statement issued on Tuesday.

Addressing the gathering, he said the Anubhav Awards, launched in 2015, were conceived not only to honour retiring officials but also to build an institutional memory of governance through their recorded experiences.

A dedicated website -- Anubhav portal -- was launched in March 2015 at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for retiring government officials to leave a record of their experiences while in government service.

In order to encourage submission of write-ups by retired government servants, an annual award ceremony was started in 2016. It is envisaged that this culture of leaving notes by retirees will become the foundation stone of good governance and administrative reforms in future, the statement said.

During the event, the minister also highlighted efforts to integrate technology with institutional learning.

He said artificial intelligence would be increasingly deployed to analyse memoirs submitted on the Anubhav portal, helping identify systemic gaps in areas such as transfers, promotions, and grievance redressal.

“We are moving towards a hybrid model, where human intelligence and artificial intelligence together will guide policy reforms,” Singh remarked.

He urged the awardees not to consider retirement as the end of their service but as the beginning of a new chapter.

The minister cited examples of senior citizens leading successful start-ups in the food and agriculture sector, encouraging retirees to channel their skills into entrepreneurship, advisory roles, or social service.

“You may retire on paper, but you never retire from serving the nation,” Singh added.

The day-long event also included pre-retirement counselling sessions on pension procedures, health benefits, investment options, and income tax matters, aimed at equipping soon-to-retire employees for life after government service.

This year’s awards mark a decade of the initiative, with more than 12,500 memoirs published on the Anubhav portal so far.

Fifteen awardees from 11 ministries and departments were felicitated, including for the first time officers from a public sector bank and a central public sector enterprise.

According to the statement, one-third of the awardees this year were women, reflecting a growing presence of women officials in governance.

Prominent National Anubhav Award winners were M Venkatesan who, superannuating after 35 distinguished years as civil servant, documented his services during critical times including the 2014 Kashmir floods and the Ukraine evacuation of 2022; Hukum Singh Meena, who spearheaded the digitisation of land records in over 6.4 lakh villages; Shalini Kacker of SBI, who drove Direct Benefit Transfer, pension reforms and digital life certificate campaigns in banking, the statement said.

The winners also included O Virupakshappa of the Department of Posts, who expanded postal savings and insurance schemes to rural communities, and Saju P K of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), who served in sensitive operational areas ranging from Assam to Pulwama.

The jury awardees included Jai Prakash Srivastava (BHEL), Vinod P and Sabu Sebastian (DRDO), Jolly Dhar (ISRO), Sunitha Cherodath (Telecom), S Meenakshi Sundaram and Balam Singh Rawat (CRPF), Velaga Kumari (CWC), Sheela Rani Poddar (CRPF), and Santosh Gawli (ITBP), reflecting the wide range of services represented, the statement said.

The ceremony was attended by senior officials including V Srinivas, Secretary (Pension); Vitul Kumar, Special Director General (DG), CRPF; Roli Singh, Additional Secretary & DG, Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS); Raj Kumar Arora, Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA); and Dhrubajyoti Sengupta, Joint Secretary (Pension), among others.

They joined the minister in felicitating the awardees and releasing new initiatives such as the guidelines for the nationwide digital life certificate campaign 4.0 and a coffee table e-book of success stories from special campaign 2.0. PTI AKV AKV KVK KVK