The Book “Bringing Governments and People Closer” A development practitioner’s prescription was launched through virtual mode on 20th March 2021 by the Hon’ble Vice President of India, Sri M. Venkaiah Naidu. The book wasauthored by Dr. M. Ramachandran, IAS (Retd.), Chancellor, The ICFAI University, Dehradun. The ICFAI Grouphas facilitated the book launch ceremony.

The Chief Guest, Hon’ble Vice President of India, Sri M. Venkaiah Naiduin his address lauded the author for his commendable work of bringing out such an excellent book. He also underlined that the author with his rich experience as a distinguished civil servant in various capacities has rightly portrayed the need to bring governments closer to people and illustrated various ways through which the objective can be accomplished.

He has also expressed that “bringing the government and people closer is the need of the hour and specified that it is a timely reminder for introspection”. The Vice President observed democratic governments should always be closer to the people and felt that the “gap is huge between intent & implementation and policy and practices”. Hassle free system and efficient delivery mechanism are very important in order to narrow the gaps.

“Governance should help in increasing every citizen's Happiness Quotient”.

He has mentioned that “good governance means good living for the People and improved quality of life and ease of living. Since today is World Happiness Day, he mentioned that “governance should help in increasing every citizen's Happiness Quotient”.

He invited youngsters and student population to study the impact of Covid in the villages of India. He mentioned that rural India was relatively unaffected because of open spaces and circulation of clean air, whereas Western countries were affected more because of closed spaces. Good governance means good health and openmindedness.

The Honourable Vice President Shri Venkaiah Naidu complimented the author Dr. M. Ramachandran, IAS (Retd.), Chancellor, The ICFAI University, Dehradun for writing this book which is relevant in today's day and age sharing his field experiences.

The Author Mr Ramachandran, in his opening remarks said “This is his 10th book and in this he specifically focused on the larger governance issues. He further stated that in this book he emphasized on the problems a common man is facing in dealing with Government offices in getting documents, certificates, benefits of govt. schemes, clearances etc and various ways to deal with these issues. “Distinguished guests Sri T K Arun, Editor, The Economic Times and Sri VinodRai, former CAG and Mr. Rishi Seth, Publisher, Copal Publishing House Also spoke on this occasion.

Dr Ramachandran belongs to 1972 batch of UP Cadre, served for thirty-eight years before retiring in 2010. He served in various positions including that of the District Magistrate and Collector, Rae Bareli. He rose to be the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand and was Secretary in the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. Post retirement, he is active in the urban sector and governance areas. He was associated with various national level endeavours in the capacity of Chairperson of the Indian Heritage Cities Network Foundation, Chairman of the National Urban Transport Awards Committee, Chancellor of ICFAI University, Dehradun and Advisor on the Green Buildings rating system.

Many IAS, IPS Officers, eminent academicians, student fraternity and entrepreneurs attended this event.