Bhaskar
role
model for younger Civil Servants
Vanam
Jwala Narasimha Rao
The
Pioneer (06-08-2020)
Venkataramani Bhaskar, a 1981 batch
IAS officer and an Independent Public Policy Analyst, breathed his last on
Tuesday night following a brief illness. His passing is a shock, and he is
mourned by one and all who know him.
Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan
and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao mourned his death by recalling his
services in various capacities in undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Bhaskar contributed several thought-provoking
articles on taxation, public finance, governance, energy regulations and
policymaking for prominent journals and I have known him personally for over 45
years, right from the days when I was working as a librarian in BHEL Higher
Secondary School.
His mother, Y Padmavathy madam, the
illustrious principal of the school, introduced me to him while he was about to
enter into State Bank of India service as a probationary officer in which
capacity he served until he joined the IAS.
We used to participate together in
quiz competitions couple of times. He was younger to me by five years. Bhavan’s
Public School former principal Manyam Jaganmohan Rao was also shocked on coming
to know of Bhaskar’s demise.
It was only a month ago I called
Bhaskar to introduce my daughter, who wanted to do an interview with him on
Coronavirus and economic ramifications, with him. The last time when I met
Bhaskar was three years ago at my house when I hosted a dinner in honour of
Duvvuri Subba Rao, former RBI Governor.
Bhaskar had experience in
international, national and regional settings besides extensive experience in
both policy formulation as well as implementation, economic analysis and power
sector issues.
He had played key role in the
Thirteenth Finance Commission which suggested the GST reform in first place.
His focus had been on fiscal federalism, state and central finances, goods and
service tax, problems of the power sector, challenges of regulation, disaster
management and growth-related issues.
Bhaskar was Chairman AP Electricity Regulatory
Commission, Special Chief Secretary Finance, Joint Secretary 13th
Finance Commission, Chief Electoral Officer in united AP, Advisor International
Monitory Fund, Joint Secretary in the Union Finance Ministry. MD Metro Water
works besides serving as Collector of Vizag and Anantapur districts. Bhaskar was appointed
for a period of three years to advise the present AP government in mobilising
finances and resources for revenue deficit state which he declined.
Bhandaru Ramachandra Rao former Chief
General Manager of State Bank of India on hearing the death news recalled his
association with Bhaskar when he visited New York 25-30 years ago. BR Rao who
was working then as SBI Head of New York Branch, invited him and his mother to
be his personal guests. He took them around the city and he says that what
impressed him most in Bhaskar was his flair to understand new things about
places of interest. Rao was also equally impressed with Bhaskar’s understanding
of traffic, water and power management practices in New York.
Former Governor
Reserve Bank of India and former Indian Administrative Officer who was a
colleague of Bhaskar in the united AP Government was shocked on hearing the
news. Subbarao who was aware of Bhaskar’s hospitalization was in fact expecting
that he would fight his way out of the deadly virus as he did out of the many
personal and professional battles all through his life.
Subbarao said that “fantasizing
is a common human frailty. One of my fantasies is this. If the PM or the CM
were to assign me a special time bound task, and offered that I could choose my
team, who would I enlist. That list changed as I moved on in my career and in
life, but Bhaskar was always invariably on it. It is never the case that a
single IAS officer embodies all the virtues required of an ideal civil servant.
Bhaskar came close”.
Subbarao further said
that, intelligent, competent, personable, organized, mature and result oriented
Bhaskar was the type of officer a Chief Minister or a Chief Secretary would
turn to if a challenging task had to be accomplished. No wonder minsters and
senior officers vied for getting Bhaskar on their teams. Recalling from his own
experience Subbarao said that IAS is a generalist service and the officers
struggle to acquire domain knowledge as they shift from one job to another but
Bhaskar was an exception. According to him in every domain he was posted in, he
was soon recognized as an expert.
“While in the IMF, he
was on top of the nitty gritty of international political economy; as joint
secretary in the Finance Commission, he understood the nuances of fiscal
federalism better than any professional economist; as commissioner of
commercial taxes, he mastered the indirect tax system so well that he became
the ‘go to’ person for any design decision on the GST; as finance secretary of
the combined state of Andhra Pradesh, he had a very mature understanding of the
politics that drive economic decisions” said Rao.
Subbarao recalling
one of his experiences with him narrated one interaction with Bhaskar. As Finance Secretary of Andhra Pradesh for
nearly six years Subbarao had to learn to say ‘no’ to even very worthy
proposals just because there was no money. Bhaskar was for some time during
that period, head of the Hyderabad Metro Water Works. One morning, when
Subbarao guillotined one of his proposals he came to him to argue his case once
again. For over two hours, he explained why the decision to deny funding his
proposal was short-sighted. He was so persuasive that Subbarao had no option
except to approve it.
In the early 2000s when Bhaskar was working for IMF Subbarao was with World Bank in Washington during which time they used to meet often for lunch or for an early evening meal. Again, to put it in Duvvuri words, “Bhaskar was well regarded by the political executive across the spectrum, prized by senior colleagues, loved by his peers. Bhaskar will easily go down as a role model for a generation of younger civil servants”.
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