Modi, who held a 70-minute interaction with Secretaries to the government of India, appreciated the work done by them over the last year and a half.
He said the "vast expertise" of the Secretaries in various domains of the governance, should now be leveraged to bring about "breakthroughs, rather than incremental change", a PMO statement said.
The Prime Minister exhorted Secretaries to come up with ideas for "transformative change" in areas such as good governance, employment generation, education and health, farmer-centric initiatives, innovative budgeting, accelerated inclusive growth, Swachh Bharat and Ganga rejuvenation; and energy efficiency, it added.
Modi laid stress on people's participation in governance, and empowerment of the common man.
The Secretaries will now interact among each other, in sub-groups over the next two weeks, after which they will present their ideas and suggestions to the Prime Minister, the statement said.
Ministers Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari were also present at the interaction.