Government Schemes in India play a crucial role in solving many socio-economic problems that beset Indian society, and thus their awareness is a must for any concerned citizen. These are launched by the government to address the social and economic welfare of the citizens of this nation. Recently, the Union government has rolled out the long overdue reform of the Indian bureaucracy. Mission Karmayogi’ - the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) aims to transform capacity-building in the bureaucracy through institutional and process reforms.

TOPICS COVERED IN THE ARTICLE

  • Mission Karmayogi
  • Need for mission
  • Salient Featues
  • Objectives
  • IGOT
  • How it will work
  • Benefits of mission
  • Challenges
  • Other reforms

MISSION KARMAYOGI

According to the government, ‘Mission Karmayogi’ envisages to prepare Indian civil servants for the future by making them more creative, constructive, imaginative, innovative, proactive, professional, progressive, energetic, enabling, transparent and technology-enabled.

The mission has been so designed that it remains entrenched in Indian Culture and sensibilities while drawing learning resources from the best institutions and practices from across the world.

NEED OF THE MISSION

  • There is a need to develop domain knowledge besides administrative capacity in the bureaucracy.
  • There is a need to formalize the recruitment process and match the public service to a bureaucrat’s competence, so as to find the right person for the right job.
  • The plan is to begin right at the recruitment level and then invest in building more capacity through the rest of their career.
  • As the Indian economy grows, it will get more complex to govern; the governance capacities will have to be enhanced proportionately which this reform undertakes.
  • The reforms in the Indian bureaucracy is the need of the hour and It is a major reform undertaken in recent years to transform it.

SALIENT FEATURES

NPCSCB has been carefully designed to lay the foundations for capacity building for Civil Servants so that they remain entrenched in Indian Culture and sensibilities and remain connected, with their roots, while they learn from the best institutions and practices across the world. The Programme will be delivered by setting up an Integrated Government Online Training-iGOTKarmayogiPlatform. The core guiding principles of the Programme will be:

 

  1. Supporting Transition from 'Rules based' to 'Roles based* HR Management.Aligning work allocation of civil servants by matching their competencies tothe requirements of the post.
  2. To emphasize on 'on-site learning' to complement the ‘off-site’ learning,
  3. To create an ecosystem of shared training infrastructure including that oflearning materials, institutions and personnel,
  4. To calibrate all Civil Service positions to a Framework of Roles, Activities and Competencies (FRACs) approach and to create and deliver learningcontent relevant to the identified FRACs in every Government entity,
  5. To make available to all civil servants, an opportunity to continuously build and strengthen their Behavioral, Functional and Domain Competencies intheir self-driven and mandated learning paths.
  6. To enable all the Central Ministries and Departments and their Organizations  to directly invest their resources towards co-creation  and sharing the collaborative and common ecosystem of learning through an annual financialsubscription for every employee,
  7. To encourage and partner with the best-in-class learning content creators including public training institutions, universities, start-tips and individualexperts,
  8.  To undertake data analytics in respect of data emit provided by iGOT- Karmayogi  pertaining  to  various  aspects  of capacity  building,   content creation, user feedback and mapping of competencies and identify areas for policy reforms.

 

OBJECTIVES

It is also proposed to set up a Capacity Building Commission, with a view to ensure a uniform approach in managing and regulating the capacity building ecosystem on collaborative and co-sharing basis.

The role of Commission will be as under-

  • To assist the PM Public Human Resources Council in approving the Annual Capacity Building Plans.
  • To exercise functional supervision over all Central Training Institutions dealing with civil services capacity building.
  • To create shared learning resources, including internal and external faculty and resource centers.
  • To coordinate and supervise the implementation of the Capacity Building Plans with the stakeholder Departments.
  • To make recommendations on standardization of training and capacity building, pedagogy and methodology
  • To set norms for common mid-career training programs across all civil services.
  • To suggest policy interventions required in the areas of HR Management and Capacity Building to the Government.

IGOT - KARMAYOGI PLATFORM

  • iGOT stands for Integrated Govt. Online training’ (iGOT).
    • It is a portal on the Ministry of HRD’s DIKSHA platform for the purpose of capacity building.
  • iGOT-Karmayogi is a continuous online training platform, which would allow all government servants from assistant secretary to secretary level to undergo continuous training, depending on their domain areas.
  • All kinds of Courses from international universities will be made available on the platform for officers to take.
  • The platform is expected to evolve into a vibrant and world-class market place for content, where carefully curated and vetted digital e-learning material will be made available.
  • Besides capacity building, service matters like confirmation after probation period, deployment, work assignment and notification of vacancies etc. would eventually be integrated with the proposed competency framework.

HOW IT WILL WORK?

  • The capacity building programme will be delivered through an Integrated Government Online Training or iGOT-Karmayogi digital platform, with content drawn from global best practices rooted in Indian national ethos.
  • The platform will act as a launchpad for the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB), which will enable a comprehensive reform of the capacity building apparatus at the individual, institutional and process levels.
  • Officers will be evaluated on the basis of the courses they take throughout their career to enhance their skill.
  • An online database will be maintained on what courses they have completed, how did they fare, what areas does their expertise lie in, etc.
  • In case of any future vacancy or if an appointing authority is considering an officer, they can simply see what kind of training the officer has been getting.

BENEFITS OF THE MISSION

  • Rule Based to Role Based: The programme will support a transition from rules-based to roles-based HR management, so that work allocations can be done by matching an official’s competencies to the requirements of the post.
  • Domain Training: Apart from domain knowledge training, the scheme will focus on functional and behavioural competencies also.
    • It will provide an opportunity for civil servants to continuously build and strengthen their Behavioral, Functional and Domain Competencies in their self-driven and mandated learning paths.
  • Uniform Training Standard: It will harmonise training standards across the country, so that there is a common understanding of India's aspirations and development goals.
  • Vision For New India: Mission Karmayogi is aimed at building a future-ready civil service with the right attitude, skills and knowledge, aligned to the vision of New India.
  • On Site Learning: It will emphasize on 'on-site learning' to complement the ‘off-site’ learning.
  • Adoption Of Best Practices: It will encourage and partner with the best-in-class learning content creators including public training institutions, universities, start-tips and individual experts.

CHALLENGES

  • John Maynard Keynes, the economist, once said that “The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones."
  • There is a tendency in the Bureaucracy to resist the change which challenges their status quo.
    • The bureaucracy too must understand the need of domain knowledge and the importance of moving away from generalist to specialist approach.
  • In today’s world the governance is getting technical with each passing day and hence it’s important that the person in authority too should have the requisite skill and experience in that particular area.
  • Thus, there should be a behavioural change in the bureaucracy too and they must embrace the change as a need of the hour and not an attack on their status quo.
  • Moreover, these online courses must not become another opportunity for the officers to go for the sabbatical leaves.
    • It must be ensured that they are actually attending the courses and participating in it so that the purpose doesn't get defeated.

OTHER REFORMS

  • The Government has ended the hegemony of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the apex bureaucratic cadre, with respect to appointments at the level of joint secretary (JS).
    • Instead, appointments to posts have been drawn from other cadres also like the Indian Revenue Service, Indian Accounts and Audit Service and the Indian Economic Service.
    • It is estimated that now one in two JS level officers are drawn from cadres other than the IAS.
  • Similarly, the Union government has also encouraged lateral induction of personnel from the private sector.

In order to test the dynamic knowledge of the candidate, UPSC and other Government  Exams will have questions regarding the various schemes overseen by the Government of India. So the candidate is required to know about these schemes. More government schemes here