Welcome to the 24th Foundation Day of the Center for Public Policy at IIM Bangalore.

The Center for Public Policy was established in the year 2000 with the collaboration of UNDP, Government of India and IIM Bangalore with the objective of influencing public policy discourse and development outcomes in India through evidence-based policy research, capacity building and outreach.

Since then, the center has initiated several activities.

The center has been a pioneer in offering the first of its kind post-graduate program in Public Policy and Management in the year 2002 aimed at building capacity among the civil service officers.

18 batches of this program have graduated nearly 500 officers.

Many of them have reached highest level in their respective department, ministry and contributed in terms of improving governance in India.

This program is being relaunched this year.

Another important role the center has played is in designing various in-service long duration training programmes for civil service officers, particularly mid-career training of IAS officers.

Several such programmes have been conducted by IIM Bangalore since then for officers in the Forest Service, Foreign Service, Revenue Service, Economic Service, CBI officers, CAG officers, and including programs for elected representatives.

The center carries out research studies in the areas of health, education, environment, ecology, gender, inclusion, agriculture, rural development, legal studies, technology, policy, regulation, public-private patent partnership.

The output of these studies is published widely in professional journals, books, as well as in periodicals.

Another important activity, the center has been organizing the annual international conference on public policy and management, where nearly 40 to 50 research papers on various public policy issues are presented and discussed by national and international researchers.

This year, the 18th conference is scheduled to be held during August 22nd to 24th, focusing on themes such as urban planning, inclusion, water resources and health.

A number of seminars, workshops are also conducted on various public policy issues throughout the year.

We conduct Foundation Day Lecture every year on July 10th to mark the occasion of signing MOU between Government of India, UNDP and IAMB by organizing a public lecture, inviting eminent persons who have made a remarkable impact on public policy.

Today, we are delighted to have Justice Santosh Hegde deliver this year's Foundation Day Lecture.

I extend a warm welcome to Justice Santosh Seghade.

Justice Seghade is admired by the people, both within and outside Karnataka for his work on low-cost of Karnataka and as a Supreme Court judge.

He joined the bar in the year 1966 and was appointed Advocate General in February 1984.

He was designated as Senior Advocate in May 1984 and continued as Advocate General till 1988.

He was appointed as Additional Solicitor General of India in November 1989 and held that office for 11 months.

He was appointed Solicitor General of India in 1998.

He was appointed directly from the bar as Judge of the Supreme Court of India in 1999, which is rarely done.

After his retirement from the Supreme Court in June 2005, he was appointed as Chairperson Telecom dispute settlement appellate tribunal, New Delhi and functioned in that position till August 2006.

He was appointed as Lokayat of Karnataka in 2006 for a term of 5 years.

He has been conferred many awards such as Honorary Doctorate of Law by the University of Mangalore in 2005, by Karnataka State Open University, Mysore in 2009, by Tumkur University in 2010, Karnataka Law University, Dharwad in 2011, Alliance University Bangalore in 2011 and he received NADOJA award from Hampik, Kannada University in 2016.

He was awarded Man of the Year by Times of India twice in 2010 and 2011, Vijay Karnataka twice by Vijay Karnataka twice in 2006 and 2010, NDTV Indian of the Year in 2010, Bangalore Hall of Fame Award for 2010, Paul Harris Award by the Rotary.

He received Public Service Excellence Award in 2011 from the All India Management Association, Sitaram Jindal Foundation Honour for exemplary services in the field of social development.

And in 2011, he was awarded Chunchashri Award from Adi Chunchinagiri Mart.

Cash prize money received from these awards amounting to more than a crore has been donated by Justice Higde to various social service organizations.

The sports enthusiast in the audience today will be happy to know that in his younger days, he was a hockey player and represented the state of Mysore and University of Mysore.

I once again welcome Justice Segede and request him to deliver the Foundation Day lecture.

Dignitaries in the dais, Director of this institution, Professor Rishikesh Krishnan, Chairperson CPP, Professor Gopalanayak, the other office bearers and lecturers present here, and my dear students of the institution.

I do it an honor to be present here to deliver the foundation lecture today.

And for me to comment on the achievements of this institution is like carrying coal to Newcastle.

So, I wouldn't make an attempt to do that.

I do go in explanation for choosing the subject of this evening's program.

I have worked in many positions, but when I came to the institution of Karnataka Lokayaktha, I felt till then I was a frog in the well.

I did not know the sufferings of the people.

I was comfortable in those positions and I thought many were so comfortable.

But in Lokaikta I realized that my thinking was wrong.

That too, in the hands of an institution created under the constitution of India to serve the people called the governance.

I'm not a political person, never been 1, and at my age I'm 85 now, it's too late to be 1 too.

But I thought for all these things, we can't blame individuals.

The fault lies with the society in which we are.

For example, when I was young, in my village, if somebody was sent to jail, my parents would tell me, don't go near that house.

At that time, I'm talking about 70 years back, there was a social punishment of people who committed social errors.

That punishment is not that of the court, but imposed by the society itself because of the thinking of the society at that point of time.

Today, that society's thinking is totally changed, ladies and gentlemen.

In my opinion, today's society respects only money and power, nothing else.

If an honest man is pointed out to you, the answer given is a useless chap.

He doesn't take, he doesn't allow others to take.

This is the definition of honesty in today's society.

It's in this background, When I realized what was happening in the society, I thought I should do something to bring it to the notice of the people in the society.

Not that they're going to change it wholly, but some effort may be done.

And in this process, I have visited more than

educational institutions, apart from all the other institutions I've addressed.

Even governmental organizations have called me to address them.

It's because of that and because I do not know any other subject.

I told, when he met me that I speak only about the fall in social values and its consequences.

Because if you want to change this society, there's no other way out.

Trying out is the only way and in this as many people as possible, if you could join this movement, not movement in the sense we're not going to go down to the maidans and start slogans and that.

And what is the process that we should follow?

That's the 1 message I want to give it to as many people as possible.

Therefore, I have chosen this subject today.

In this process, I also realized what is the cause for today's situation in the society.

According to me, it is because of growth of a disease in the society called greed.

This is 1 ailment which has no treatment.

COVID has treatment, cancer has treatment, tuberculosis has treatment, but greed has no treatment.

I say in this country, though there have been development in various fields, that which is developed most is this disease called greed.

You all must be knowing the fact I'm going to mention now, as an example to prove my statement that greed is the 1 that has grown and developed the most in this country.

I would like to give some instances of scams that have occurred in this country.

For 1 decade, I'll give only 1 scam, whereas in 1 decade, there will be hundreds and hundreds of scams and all, I don't have the time, you don't have the time to.

In the decade of 50s, there was a scam called Jeep scam.

In purchasing Jeep vehicles from Great Britain for our soldiers, few people in power swindled 54 lakhs of rupees in that scam.

Next comes in another decade, a scam called Bofors, purchasing weapons for our soldiers from Sweden.

Country lost 64 crores of rupees in that scam.

In 70s, there was a scam called Commonwealth Games.

This is a figure given to Government of India after investigation by the CAG, the Constitutional Authority.

He said in Commonwealth Games 70, 000 crores have been siphoned off by few people in administration.

Then came Colgate, the cold scam, country lost

just imagine the amount of money that have been siphoned off from administration by people who are called people's representatives or executives or members of the judiciary.

How can there be any development we are talking about?

In 2016, I'm giving that figure because I have read it, you know, the state of Karnataka is an annual budget reserved for 7 and a half crores of people.

In 1 scan, you lose 1, 87, 000 crores, 1, 86, 000 crores, 70, 000 crores.

And it must be much more now, I don't have the figures, the latest figures we have only in percentage because 1 political party has accused the other political party instead of Karnataka, US is a 40% government.

Now 40%, imagine last year's budget I think was 2 lakh something and all out of which 40% is siphoned off.

If 1 contract for 1 crore rupees is given and 40 lakhs of rupees has to be paid as bribe, How much will the contractor keep?

Let us be generous to him and say it is only 25%.

And for the whole project, for which it is estimated to be whatever it is, and we get only the balance of the money.

Ladies and gentlemen, how can there be any true development?

Transparency International, a German organization, made an assessment of all the countries available for their assessment.

And in that report given in 2016, subsequent report, I have not read it.

It said in that year, China was more corrupt than India.

And in China, sentence for corruption is death sentence.

So imagine, people are not afraid of law.

That too, in this country, people cannot be afraid of law because by the time the final judgment comes and the man is sent to jail, he'll be 80 to 90 years old.

Nobody's trying to do anything about that.

Nobody's trying to bring about any change.

People in power don't talk about it except accusing the other political party, you've been more corrupt than that.

With this type of money being siphoned off and stored by some people only, can there be peace and solidarity in this society?

With my little experience in life, I think the only way out is inculcating a value which our elders had established in the society called contentment.

If you have contentment, you are protected from that disease.

If you get that disease of greed, even thereafter if you inculcate contentment, in my understanding, it will contain that disease.

But where do you acquire this contentment from?

It is not available in pharmaceutical firms or any other shop and you don't have to purchase it at all.

When I was young, my parents used to tell me the do's and don'ts of life.

And if I made a mistake, I was corporately punished.

Today even parents can't corporately punish.

And during my time, after getting the punishment at home, when I went to school, there was a subject called moral science, niti pada, which reiterated what my parents told me.

So that would do the job against the disease of greed.

But unfortunately, the social changes have taken place in such a manner that this practice is not there.

For example, today most of the parents are working couple.

Work, according to me, is another disease.

You go there, You want to get promotion, you want to get good posting, you want to prove that you are worthy of your postings and promotions and all.

So you bring your headache in laptop and work at home with your laptop.

Nobody asks their children, nobody, at least many don't ask their children, what happened in the school?

And those kids went to go to school, they don't get any teaching from the school either, there's no moral science or sense.

The only way I repeat, by inculcating this value and by all of us, not by chosen few.

Not only inculcate it, but pass it on to your children.

And if again, children are there with you during your lifetime.

Looks simple, but it requires a lot of determination, without which I foresee no future for this country.

Ladies and gentlemen, contentment if you have, any amount of temptation, you will not suffer from it.

I have experienced it when I was writing my mining report, when I was a judge also.

But I didn't succumb to it because I grew up in a middle class family where my father always told us, after my lifetime, there is nothing for you to share.

You have to build your own future for yourself and that's what I've practiced.

Otherwise it's now 12 years since I retired.

Practically every day I name 1 or the other person whom I've indicted in my mining report and nobody has been able to say anything against me.

Naxat, I gave away the money which I got as an award with the thing.

Not 1 rupee I have accepted, except the award itself and all, I have not accepted, 1 rupee.

And 1 of the organization gave me 1 crore of rupees, which I gave it to the Indian army, because I didn't want to give it to any NGO or other, lest there should be a rumor he gave a check for 1 crore, took 50 lakhs back and all.

I have named 3 chief ministers in my mining report from all political parties of Karnataka.

There is another value which is very important, ladies and gentlemen, called humanism, manuviyate.

We are born to a species called Homo sapiens.

It is built, I mean, introduced in the society by our elders for peace and solidarity in the society.

In Karnataka, Kannada poets have written, I'll say it in Kannada and I'll translate it to you.

Become what you want to become in life, but become a human being first.

I have added to that, and I go to schools and colleges, and I also convey a message.

Even if you are not born a human being, in the journey of your life if you acquire humanism and die as a human being, there is no better glory than that.

With humanism, you will introduce peace and solidarity in the society, which is extremely necessary in today's context, because the way things are happening, the misuse of religion and language is really creating a conflict in the society.

And the only way out is accept every religion as as good as your own religion.

There may be any amount of shortcomings in those, but you are not the judge to judge it.

Confine your religion and language to yourself and to your house.

There will be much more peace in the society.

With these 2 values, I can assure you there will be absolute peace in the society.

And in the process, develop another attitude of being content with what you legitimately have.

You can't be the same as somebody in front of you.

You are not the same as somebody behind you.

So you have to be content with what you have legitimately, then you are not dissatisfied.

At any point of time in your life, if you feel that injustice has not been done to you, you worked hard but you didn't get the true result for that, don't feel bad.

How many crores of people have not reached where you have reached.

It's always not good to look ahead of you and compare your problems with what is ahead of you, somebody above you.

Try and compare yourself with somebody behind you.

Then you will feel at least, okay, I am better off than them.

God has been a little generous to me also.

This is exactly what is required in the society today, 2 values, contentment and humanism.

Karnataka Lokayatra had, during my time, Only 2 paths.

1 is called grievance redressal, giving relief to people who suffer because of maladministration.

The other, You can fight against corruption, but not as a lokaiktha, but through the police of the lokaiktha department.

Because under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the section reads, any investigation under the Prevention of Corruption Act shall be done by a police officer not below the rank of a Deputy Superintendent of Police.

I didn't raid anybody, but I created a record by the Lokayata Institution raiding it, by the officers that I had, such wonderful officers.

They were not wanted in the parent department because they were not willing to do what others wanted them to do.

So they were shunted off to another job and 1 of them was Lokayakta.

And they found a wonderful place to work in Karnataka Lokayakta.

IAS, IPS and other officers were indicted.

Of course, nobody went to jail except 1 chief minister went for 24 days.

I'm not going to say why they didn't go to jail.

And people who blame each other on the opposite side and this side and all, When they were in power, they never even prosecuted the case against the equity chief ministers.

Look at what the political philosophy is.

In 2011, when I gave my report in mining report, it indicted huge companies and multi-crore companies and everything.

That report was not implemented by the government of the day.

Then the opposition party, which is in power today, said if you don't implement it, we are going to do a statewide protest.

Still the government didn't implement it.

Then they walked from Bangalore to Ballari, the epicenter of illegal mining, as a protest.

A year and a half later, they came to power.

By contra, Lokayata's other 2 powers it had, it removed the power of investigating corruption and gave it to an organization called ACB.

About 2 and a half years later, opposition party which protested against removing the Lokakta powers came to administration power.

During that election manifesto said, if we come to power in 24 hours, we'll dismiss the ACB.

They came into power and 1 chief minister was there for 24 months, he didn't remove ACB.

How because of the fact society respects all those people.

Ladies and gentlemen, please inculcate these 2 values.

Otherwise what happens, let me give you a few examples before I conclude.

A handicapped tailor and his wife brought a six-month-old child to Karnataka Lokayathwa.

He said, sir, this child looks perfectly all right.

It eats through the mouth, defecates through the mouth.

They took the child to Hublin Medical College Hospital.

Pediatric surgeon examines the child and he says, I'll do everything all right, but it'll cost you some money.

So they're taking little money, they kept that money in the table of the doctor.

The doctor counts that money and says for this amount, I'll make a hole near the rib cage, from the fecal matters will go out.

And the child has to wear a bag throughout life.

Fortunately for the child, the parents didn't agree for that.

They took the money back, brought the child.

We didn't send the child to another government hospital.

We took the child to the old airport road, Manipal hospital, where I used to get my treatment and begged of the doctors to do the operation.

That child is today 12 year old girl with no deficiency whatsoever.

Every year on her birthday, they FaceTime with me, requesting me to bless the child for the birthday.

Any amount of money wouldn't bring that happiness.

He must have prayed to God, give me education, make me a doctor, make me a pediatric surgeon, give me a government job.

And what does he do when a child, 6 months old child, to it, he could have given a future.

I'm just giving you 1, maybe a multi-billion example.

You can afford to go to private hospital, that's a different thing altogether.

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Decline in Social Values in the Society and its Consequences: Justice N. Santosh Hegde