Adopting villages for electrification and introducing corporate-style induction programmes in ministries were some of the ideas that came up when Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal got celebrity author Chetan Bhagat to speak to his staff. In a unique move, Goyal invited Bhagat to give a lecture to the officials, with the objective of improving productivity and bringing out new ideas to streamline government processes.

After the one-hour talk by the author of bestselling novels such as 2 States and Five Point Someone — What not to do at IIT ! came the ideas, including one calling for the almost 1,000 employees in the Ministries of power, coal and renewable energy to adopt two villages each in the all 545 Lok Sabha constituencies to ensure 100 per cent electrification.

During the closed-door session, employees came out with suggestions ranging from ways to streamline processes and filing systems to starting corporate-style induction programmes for newcomers.

Sources at the session said employees narrated instances of how, without a structured induction programme, they were at sea when they joined a new department and were entrusted with responsibilities from Day One.

Bhagat sought to inspire his audience with anecdotes and personal experiences.

He elucidated on one of his articles about Indian women, where he “advised” them to relax and get a grip on their lives after a survey showed that 87 per cent of them felt stressed out most of the time.

The message to his audience was that they should work for inner happiness because monetary consideration may not encourage them.

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