Social welfare state being created in India with schemes: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said a social welfare state is being created in India with a slew of schemes which are changing the socio-economic landscape of the country and asserted that none of that would happen if the bureaucracy was not there to deliver them.

Speaking after launching a book titled 'Transforming the steel frame promise and paradox of civil service reform' edited by former bureaucrat Vinod Rai, Jaishankar said the future of the country is very much dependent on how well the politics and the "steel frame (bureaucracy)" work together.

"We are actually today creating a social welfare state in this country. Nobody has created a social welfare state at USD 2,000 per capita...there are today a range of programmes which are changing the socio-economic landscape of India, but none of that would happen if the bureaucracy was not there to plan it, chart it, deliver it, monitor it and change it," he said.

The minister said that after 40 years of ...