E meetings, the new normal in work culture

Under a dynamic and astute political leadership, the country’s bureaucracy, both at the central and state levels, has demonstrated its capability in these times of crisis. It has proved, beyond doubt, that efficient planning and effective implementation, along with coordination and 24×7 monitoring, remain the hallmarks of the decentralised democracy. In this endeavour, information technology has played a crucial role in enabling and facilitating the corona warriors to discharge their responsibilities efficiently.

With the country under a complete lockdown, all life including “office work” has come to a standstill. However, government organisations are finding innovative ways and means to conduct businesses and deliver their mandated responsibilities. A case in point is the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), the apex regulator in the area of biodiversity conservation in India, headquartered in Chennai. As the lockdown kicked in, the NBA was in the midst of an extensive consultation processes with a range of stakeholders for amending certain legal provisions under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 — these pertain to the promotion of access and benefit-sharing regime under the Act.

The dialogues were in the final stages, but with a complete ban on travel, face-to-face meetings with crucial stakeholders were not possible. But an alternative was conceived and executed through a process of e-consultations.

Till the end of the second phase of lockdown, the Authority had successfully organised 16 e-meetings starting from March 25. Two hundred and seventy participants, including 147 from 28 cities/towns spread across the country, enthusiastically participated and earnestly put forth their ideas during these e-deliberations. This novel way of conducting office business has not only helped the NBA to complete their stakeholder consultation processes but has also resulted in a savings of over Rs 45 lakh in travel costs. Further, this has been a totally environment-friendly process, resulting in a huge reduction of carbon footprint amounting to 95.25 tonnes as no air travel was involved.

E-meetings would, therefore, form a very important part of the “new normal”. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has outlined in his LinkedIn post on April 19. This will result in travel cost savings (yes, the transport and hotel industry may not like it) of significant proportions on the one hand and reduction in carbon emissions on the other.

Surely, such technology-enabled work culture will raise a slew of issues, including social isolation and data privacy. But these will have to be addressed by adopting creative approaches for redefining work culture and ethos in government organisations. The time has come to move out of comfort zones and fully embrace the “new normal”, learning from the innovations adopted during the lockdown, instead of relapsing into the familiar and easy “business as usual”.

The writer is chairperson, National Biodiversity Authority