Context: The Union Government plans to launch a three-month “Reform Utsav” campaign, likely from October 2, 2026, to systematically capture citizens’ suggestions and translate them into actionable governance reforms.
About Reform Utsav:
What It Is?
- Reform Utsav is a proposed citizen-driven governance reform campaign aimed at creating an institutional mechanism through which citizen feedback is identified, deliberated upon and converted into implementable reforms.
- It seeks to establish a continuous pipeline connecting citizen voice → actionable reform → implementation or committed roadmap.
Organisation:
- Coordination Committee: To be headed by Cabinet Secretary T. V. Somanathan.
- State Participation: Chief Secretaries are being consulted to establish State-level bodies and designate nodal officers.
- The campaign is expected to run for three months, beginning on October 2, 2026, coinciding with Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary.
Aim: To institutionalise citizen participation in governance and create a responsive mechanism for identifying, prioritising and implementing administrative and structural reforms.
Key Features:
- Jan Manthan – Discover: Citizens will submit reform suggestions through a dedicated portal, supplemented by public meetings, webinars and outreach programmes.
- AI-Assisted Feedback Processing: Artificial Intelligence will help classify and organise citizen suggestions, while a multilingual call centre may improve accessibility.
- Vimarsh – Deliberate: Suggestions will be evaluated to identify “quick-win” reforms and develop roadmaps for more complex structural reforms.
- Samadhan & Sankalp Siddhi – Resolution: A coordination committee will undertake bi-weekly reviews to track implementation and progress on identified reforms.
Significance:
- Creates a structured channel for citizens to move beyond being service recipients to becoming active participants in policy and administrative reform.
- Converts public feedback into measurable reforms, strengthening accountability, transparency and citizen-centric governance.
Relevance in UPSC Examination:
- GS Paper II:
- Government policies and interventions; governance; transparency and accountability; citizen charters; e-governance; role of civil services in democracy.
- GS Paper IV:
- Responsiveness, accountability, participatory governance, citizen-centric administration and ethical governance.
- Essay:
- Participatory democracy, good governance, technology in governance, citizen–state relationship and administrative reforms.
