By J P GUPTA
JAIPUR : In just over ten weeks at the helm of Rajasthan’s bureaucracy, Chief Secretary V. Srinivas has done something rare in Indian administration: he has changed the tempo of governance.
Since assuming office on November 17, 2025, the 1989-batch IAS officer has injected a level of urgency, digital discipline, and cross-sectoral coordination that many within the system now describe—quietly but consistently—as making him one of the most active chief secretaries in the country. The result is an administration operating less like a traditional secretariat and more like a high-velocity command centre—where priorities are sharply defined, execution is closely tracked, and outcomes are non-negotiable.
Known nationally for his academic rigor and technology-first approach, Srinivas is not merely occupying the state’s highest bureaucratic post. He is actively redefining what effective state governance looks like in the digital age.
A Secretariat on Notice
In the hushed corridors of the Rajasthan Secretariat, the shift has been unmistakable. Meetings are no longer longer—they are more focused. Agendas are tightly structured, preparatory data is expected in advance, and outcomes are reviewed in real time. Casualness—once tolerated—has quietly disappeared.
Officials say Srinivas’s insistence on punctuality, data-backed decision-making, and visible accountability has pushed departments into a culture of sustained readiness. His pace of engagement—across departments, districts, and sectors—has earned him a reputation as an unusually hands-on and constantly present administrator.
“Governance, for him, is not abstract,” said a senior official. “If a dashboard is incomplete or a presentation lacks clarity, he treats it as a governance gap, not a clerical lapse.”
The RAJ-UNNATI Reset
That philosophy came into sharp public focus during a recent RAJ-UNNATI meeting, the Chief Minister’s flagship project-monitoring platform. When technical glitches and informal conduct disrupted the video conference, Srinivas responded with a stringent protocol that has since become a reference point for administrative discipline.
The directives were clear and uncompromising:
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One Officer, One Frame: Cameras must focus solely on the officer addressing the Chief Minister.
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Total Presence: Officers must remain logged in until the meeting formally concludes.
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Zero Tolerance for Lateness: District Collectors and Divisional Commissioners must log in at least ten minutes early.
Within days, the guidelines circulated beyond Rajasthan, reinforcing Srinivas’s image as a chief secretary who monitors execution as closely as policy.
Energy and Infrastructure: Powering a Surplus Rajasthan
A major thrust of Srinivas’s early agenda has been the energy sector, with a clear objective: positioning Rajasthan as a power-surplus state. Officials say he has accelerated energy-sector reforms with a particular emphasis on solar power, leveraging Rajasthan’s natural advantage and scaling up implementation under the PM KUSUM scheme. The focus is on decentralised solar generation, farmer-centric energy solutions, and grid stability—areas Srinivas is personally reviewing through inter-departmental coordination and progress dashboards. The energy push, senior officials note, is being treated as an economic enabler rather than a standalone sectoral reform.
Public Grievances: From CPGRAMS to Jan Sampark 2.0
Drawing from his tenure at the Centre as Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Srinivas is now extending Next-Generation CPGRAMS principles to Rajasthan’s public interface. Officials say his focus is on transforming Jan Sampark into a next-generation grievance redressal platform—time-bound, data-driven, and outcome-aware. The emphasis is not just on disposal numbers, but on the quality of redressal and citizen satisfaction, with escalation protocols being tightened. “Grievance redressal is governance in its most visible form,” Srinivas has told officials, underscoring the need for credibility and closure.
Healthcare: The ‘Digital AIIMS’ Playbook
In healthcare, Srinivas is replicating what many describe as a “Digital AIIMS” blueprint for Rajasthan. Drawing on his role in pioneering the e-Hospital system at AIIMS New Delhi, he has prioritised the elimination of physical queues through unified patient dashboards, digital OPD registrations, and interoperable hospital systems. What sets his approach apart, officials say, is follow-through. Srinivas has conducted surprise digital walkthroughs of medical facilities to ensure technology is serving rural patients—not just fulfilling procurement targets.
Fiscal Discipline and the Viksit Rajasthan 2047 Roadmap
Few state chief secretaries speak macroeconomics as fluently as Srinivas. A former Technical Assistant at the IMF and ex-Chairman of the Rajasthan Tax Board, he has brought a “revenue-first” lens to state finances. Crucially, he has begun operationalising the Viksit Rajasthan 2047 vision by constituting Sectoral Groups of Secretaries, tasked with converting long-term goals into measurable implementation roadmaps. Officials describe this as a move to institutionalise continuity beyond individual tenures. The aim, according to senior officials, is to align Rajasthan’s fiscal and sectoral priorities with the national Viksit Bharat vision while preserving state-specific strengths.
Civil–Military Coordination: A Strategic Pivot
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Srinivas’s early tenure has been his proactive engagement with the Armed Forces—an unusual move for a civilian administrator so early in office. Recognising Rajasthan’s strategic importance as a border state, he has held high-level briefings with Army commanders on border-area development, disaster preparedness, and civil–military coordination. His “one-window” approach for military logistical requirements has been described by defence officials as efficient and outcome-oriented.
A National Benchmark in the Making
Among administrators and governance analysts, the emerging consensus is that the “Srinivas Model” rests on three pillars: punctuality, precision, and protocol. His insistence on focused reviews, real-time dashboards, and uninterrupted engagement has made him a reference point in bureaucratic circles nationwide.
“He is setting a new bar for what an active chief secretary looks like,” said a senior analyst at the National Centre for Good Governance. “This is governance that blends field sensitivity with institutional rigor.”
With superannuation due in September 2026, V. Srinivas is widely seen as a man in a hurry. But for Rajasthan’s officers, the message is unmistakable: business-as-usual has ended. Under one of the country’s most active chief secretaries, governance is disciplined, visible—and relentlessly outcome-driven.
