Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari has said that dedication to stated objectives and efforts to achieve excellence are expected of civil servants.
Presenting the A.K. Nair Memorial Award to T.K.A. Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, at a function here on Saturday, the Vice-President said that Mr. Nair's counsel was respected. In the long years of his career as a senior civil servant, Mr. Nair could understand governance at the local, State and Central government levels thoroughly. He had held leadership positions in both the State and Central governments and was instrumental in undertaking many initiatives, especially in the field of infrastructure development and development planning, and in managing the complex contexts of government and public sector enterprises.
The A.K. Nair Memorial Award, instituted jointly by the North Malabar Chamber of Commerce and the A.K. Nair Memorial Endowment Committee, was a recognition to Mr. Nair's contribution to the State that he hailed from.
Governor R.S. Gavai presided over the function.
In his award acceptance speech, Mr. Nair said he was accepting the award as an honour to the unseen and unknown bunch of people known as civil servants. Motivation was lacking in the civil service, he said adding a word of recognition once in a while would do great changes.