Why IIS? What Makes it Unique?

Some Reflections on the Indian Information Service, on the day I complete 11 years in IIS and hence in Indian Civil Service 🙏

Hello Dear,

If you know me or if you have read some of the previous posts in this #NotJust newsletter, you would have understood that I happen to belong to the Indian Civil Service. In particular, to a service known as the Indian Information Service (IIS).

And I am happy to share with you that I have completed 11 years in the IIS today, September 3, 2023. So, the occasion sure merits some reflection, I suppose? I mean, more than what we are likely to reflect on any given day?

Yes, I am very grateful for the journey I have had the fortune to undertake during the last 11 years. Yes, I should reflect on my journey, to examine at the least, what I have and have not been doing right, to identify what to change about myself, and how. However, today, I would like to share a part of my perspective on my service (#NotJust my service, in fact), on IIS and hence of the profession to which IIS belongs.

It is my humble hope that you would be interested enough to spare some time and energy for listening to this perspective. In fact, let me say it, I believe that, as a responsible citizen and change agent, you should be interested! 😊#NotJust interested, in fact (more on this aspect in another post).

Why Does IIS exist? Should it Exist?

I have been thinking of this for many years now, and of course, discussing this and other issues concerning our service and our profession with others, especially those in the IIS (it strikes me that we should spend more energy on conversing with “outsiders” too, since wisdom resides both inside and outside). My reflections and discussions have given me quite a few answers to the question of what the mission of IIS is and should be. One way to put it is like this:

This characterization is inspired by the recognition that the processes of governance, development and communication are by default not integrated with each other. Governance and communication are not often inspired by development concerns and goals. Development programmes and governance initiatives may not have communication as a vital constitutive element (it might instead be just an appendix). And public communications (which includes public communications performed by media and citizens, not just by the government) often give a short shrift to issues that matter to the people, which includes development and governance matters which deserve our public attention and citizen engagement.

Further, since we are speaking of IIS which is an Indian Civil Service, and hence of India, we would want that all of these processes - i.e., governance, development and communication - should be guided by a resolute commitment to democratic ethos and values, guided by our North Star, by the values and principles embodied in the constitution of this great nation we call India. And hence the need to integrate with democracy as well.

Importantly, we must remember that this integration is meant to be #NotJust a matter of letter, but of spirit as well. And a lot of this has to do with our mindset, our culture - the culture of our social institutions such as the bureaucracy, but also of politics, the media and of course society as a whole. Speaking of democracy, while we pride ourselves to be the world’s largest democracy, I often find myself recalling and quoting this statement of Dr. Ambedkar, the father of the Indian constitution.

“Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realise that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.”

As such, the quest to integrate Communication, Development, Governance and Democracy is nothing but an infinite mission, or an infinite game, in the words of Simon Sinek.

I am happy to note that for a few years now, I have had this mission on my visiting card as well.😊

[Please note: I have explored this question of the integration of communication and development, at some reasonable length, in this essay I had written in May 2019. The question of integration is dealt especially but not only in a section of that essay, which is titled “The Historical Disconnect between Communication and Development”. I hope it is not unfair to say that the essay is a sort of mini-thesis on the state of government communication - its past, present and future!🙏]

Ok, but why must one seek to integrate all these complex processes? This brings us to another potential formulation of the mission of IIS.

To Maximize Governance and Development Effectiveness, by

Helping India Leverage the Infinite Potential of Public Communication

Again, like the previous one, we can see that this is an infinite mission, a mission which can never be fully accomplished, which can never be completed, which is how great and meaningful missions should be.

Let us now examine a few aspects of the above formulation in a little more detail.

The Infinite Potential of Public Service Communication

What? Infinite potential? Many people can take objection to this claim, that the potential of communication is nothing less than infinite. As if communication is a panacea for all problems. I hope to address this matter in a little detail, in a separate post; for now, let me just point out that infinity is not a single unitary concept; rather, there are smaller and bigger infinities.

That said, let me explain why I believe the potential of communication is infinite.

As the Government Communication Service of the UK says, the state has fundamentally four levers to create change - legislation, regulation, taxation and communication. Now, as pointed out by fellow IIS officer and my good friend Salman, out of these four, it is only communication that is non-coercive, that is not based on diktat. 

Isn't this a beautiful observation? Laws can perhaps ensure that you fall in line, but they cannot inspire one to go the extra mile.

Legislation, regulation and taxation seek compliance. Communication, on the other hand, seeks contribution. Inspired Contribution.

Yes, the values of democracy - participation being key among them - are ingrained into the very idea and process of communication.

And this, by itself, the quest for inspiring inspired contribution, makes the potential of communication infinite, compared to the finite potential of the three other compliance-seeking governance levers. To use an analogy, it is as if regulation, legislation and taxation wants the student to study the syllabus and just pass or score high in the exam; while communication seeks to inspire the student to discover new levels of being and becoming, without being limited by the boundaries of the exam or even of the education system and society.

Communication Everywhere: Development as Communication

Having made the claims in the previous section, I should quickly add that there is a sense in which the above distinctiveness of communication is not fully correct.

How so? We can see that communication is increasingly getting enmeshed as an inseparable component of the other three levers as well, thereby significantly altering - even foundationally and paradigmatically - the way those levers are exercised. All these three levers are becoming more communicative in nature. And they should indeed be. For instance, here is an example of communicative legislation, here is an example of communicative regulation, and this here could be an example of communicative taxation.

Which brings us to our earlier point: the integration of communication, governance and development. And of course, democracy.

In fact:

Development itself is a form of communication. And should be viewed as such.

A professional communicator can make governance more effective, through more effective public service communication. The profession can do this by improving the communicativeness of all functions of governance and development, including that of regulation, legislation and taxation; and thus facilitating a more seamless handshake between governance, development and communication.

The Government is thus dependent on the communication function to co-opt citizens into the development process, to make them active contributors in nation building.

Effective government communication can boost national growth and development. It can build, nurture, change and even save lives! 

The Role and Contribution of IIS

As the civil service which is called upon to lead the government communication function of the world’s largest democracy, most populous nation and a nation which is an increasingly important player on the global stage and hence shaper of global society, the IIS has a crucial role of national and even global significance.

Further, we can observe that the democratization of communication in recent years has made fundamental shifts in the size, scope and nature of both the supply and demand for communication from organizations of all types, especially Government organizations; both supply and demand for such communication will only continue to increase in future. This has given the communication function a pre-eminent place in the larger domain of governance – the governance of any organization in general, and that of the nation in particular.

Share or Die! This is the new mantra for organizations, especially public organizations - organizations which depend on public acceptance of their legitimacy, which are sustained by the deep engagement of the public with the organization, which grow by the active participation of the public in their operational as well as strategic affairs. 

Communication has always been a core function of every leader, every organization. However, the transformed coordinates of the competitive space of ideas has brought it into the centre, like never before in human history. An organization that gives step-mother status to communication is scripting its own obituary – slowly perhaps, but surely so. And to be effective and impactful, this communication has to be two-way, timely, sustained, personalized and engaging.

Communication as Development?

As I had noted in this article written in May 2019 (referred to earlier too in this post), in her 1984 book Development as Communication, Indian communications researcher Uma Narula examined development from a communications perspective, noting that development happens due to a particular pattern of interactions among various developmental agents. We can observe from this that development is fundamentally a communicative act.

Inverting or rather reflecting this logic, I think it is time we embraced the paradigm of communication as development; so long as the communication is authentic, the development will also be authentic. Yes, authenticity is one of the virtues which government communication professionals may need to strive to imbibe into institutional processes and systems that govern and deliver communication. As the investor Naval says, being authentic enables one to escape competition. And it may perhaps hold some hope for the elusive integration of development and communication.

Is IIS Unique? What is our “USP”?

[Please note: quite a few times in the following sections, I have used “we” to refer to IIS officers, especially since I too am found to be one of them. If you, dear reader, are not an IIS Officer, I hope this does not alienate you; I hope you consider this usage while reading this section.]

Exactly a month ago, I got the privilege to take a couple of sessions for the latest batch of IIS Officer Trainees. Here are some questions I asked them.

“Is IIS Unique? Should we be unique? Can we be unique? If yes, why and how?”

It is my humble belief that yes, the IIS is unique. I think the uniqueness of IIS Officers stems from our identity as government communication professionals in the civil service of the world’s largest democracy. We are called upon to facilitate, execute and inspire public service communication in the public good.

We are unique among civil servants, due to our values, beliefs and commitment to and practice of the public communication profession, in line with our belief in the power of communication in bringing about positive change.

We are distinct from the media fraternity, since we are called upon to leverage communication while being a part of the civil service, the government system; our role is not to serve what the public wants, but what it needs, what the nation needs, not dictated by media logic alone, but untrampled and unaffected by concerns of popularity and market pressures.

Should the IIS be unique, however? Well, I think it is best we do not take our uniqueness too seriously.

The idea is and should be to be able to shed our uniqueness over time, to create a coalition of people who share our beliefs; an ever-growing boundaryless community of people with a vested interest in a better shared future, in the collective public good of the nation and world society.

This however is yet another infinite mission, which would always be ongoing, which would never be complete. So, how do we progress towards it? The answer is multidimensional; let me share just one slice of the answer, a piece which I have hardly seen being mentioned.

A Unique Public Service Communication Perspective

It has been my long-held belief that the IIS should seek to and can develop a unique public service communication perspective to governance and development issues. Yes, this should be a core offering we make to the government, nation and society. Both collectively as a profession and community, and individually as IIS officers serving various Ministries and Departments of the government, we should be able to bring a unique perspective to the development problems, challenges and opportunities each department is trying to address - a perspective flowing from our distinctive dual identity as civil servants and public communication professionals.

Yes, as civil servants and government communication professionals who are wedded to the principles of the constitution of India, of civil service, governance, national development and of public communication, I believe there is a specific professional DNA which we have, which we should and can nurture and develop in ourselves and in our fellow officers.

What would this perspective be like? What are its contours? How would it be manifested in action? What can we do to systematically and systemically develop it - both collectively as a profession and individually as professionals? I would encourage all of us to reflect on this; and I hope to address this in a later post. For now, let me just offer an example of an effort in adopting a communication perspective.

#NotJust IIS

Let us come back to where we started. On the question of the mission of IIS, on why and whether IIS should exist.

On the latter question, hopefully, it is clear to you that I for one believe that IIS should indeed exist. [On a related note, a former Minister of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India (the Ministry which is the “Cadre Controlling Authority” for the IIS) had once argued that the Ministry itself should be abolished. And here is a reply to that, by serving IIS Officer Shri Rajesh K. Jha.]

On the first question, i.e., mission, we have come up with two formulations in this post. If you have noticed, both the mission statements lay emphasis #NotJust on communication or even government communication or public communication, but democratic governance and development as well. This is line with the recognition that the IIS functions in the larger context of the civil service, a context which is foundational to and a key element of the professional identity of IIS.

In this sense, IIS is #NotJust IIS, but also one of the Indian Civil Services. I think we should always keep this in mind, when we think of the past, present and future of the IIS, and of government communication. Indeed, there are numerous other ways in which IIS is and should be #NotJust IIS, I hope to come to that in another post. There are many other important aspects too, such as what a vision for IIS should / could be.

Ok then, let us leave this here. Thank you for your attention, especially if you are not a member of the IIS. Yes, thank you, but as I said in the beginning, I think there is a reason why you too should take interest in this matter. Hope you agree? - Dheep.

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