Present Sir !
The two words- Present Sir /Madam signifies a lot. In a school it means you are attending a class entitling you to subsequently sit for certain examination. In a industry the same gets recorded through punching / scanning machines- connected to a payroll system entitling the employee to his hard earned salary every month.
Not for the Babus in government service. They can come at 11 am , have lunch from 1pm to 3PM and conveniently vanish at  4 PM ! This is true for government offices- both state and central as well as courts.
A simple time time measuring instrument recording attendance would suffice to make government employees earn their salary. One fails to understand why they should be paid for eight hours if they are present only for five hours! Attendance of employees in several PSU’s are being recorded this way.
Central Government
About 200 persons were found absent by Mr Prakash Javadekar , Information & Broadcasting Minister in a surprise check soon after BJP government’s formation.
One just hopes that such an incident has triggered search for a long term solution.
Prime Minister Narendra  Modi  in his address to the nation on Independence Day spoke of “‘service”  and not job by government employees. It is claimed that working in PMO has improved. Mr Modi’s team has to carry this forward by improving work culture in other ministries.
It is reported that soon attendance of government employees would be tracked on-line. This will be meaningful only if there is a penalty for unauthorized absence. Otherwise crores to be spent in this effort would go waste.
Judiciary
Chief Justice of India Mr R M Lodha is on record having stated that 200,000 criminal cases were pending for more than five years  and 40,000 pending for more than ten years!  In the Supreme court itself approximately 65,000 cases are pending.
Justice delayed is justice denied, goes a saying.
Early resolution of cases pending in courts could be brought about by ensuring attendance of all people (to some extent). Their attendance should be recorded just as of a worker in a factory and their payment should be on hourly basis.
Parliament
Ever heard of a temple working without a priest?
MP’s – priests of our temple of Democracy are a law unto themselves. Are they not suppose to attend Parliament’s sessions and contribute. Should they receive benefits at taxpayer’s expense without doing the job for which they are over there.
An example of attendance of our Honourable MP’s is reproduced below(1^st 10 sessions of 15^th Lok Sabha):

Atendance range	No. of MPs	% of MPs
les than 25%	7	1%
26% to 50%	30	6%
51% to 75%	134	27%
More than 76%	322	65%
Total	493	100%

Source: Parliament Research Site
Above table clearly shows that 35% of our MP’s had less than 75% attendance.
Attendance may be the most rudimentary measure of performance. But without one’s  presence one cannot contribute.
We often see in Television vacant seats in the Parliament during live broadcast of proceedings (of those present a few can also be seen taking a nap).
Ideally, we need to evolve a mechanism to appraise each MP’s contribution. Attendance in Parliament may be given a weightage say of 50%. Other factors could be – participation in debates, tabling of bills,etc. President’s secretariat may be entrusted to monitor this.
Their benefits and retiral benefits should be linked to their performance. It is simple- less presence , less benefits. Even voting rights of habitually absent Honourable Members of Parliament should be stopped.
One needs to think- why did the electorate send him / her to the Parliament?
Prime Minister Modi’s team is already working on the above- improving attendance in government offices. They are on the right track.
 They need to persevere.