Centre set to launch training programmes for govt employees on Good Governance Day: All you need to know

Here’s what you need to know about this day:

What is the Good Governance Day?

Back in 2014, the Narendra Modi-led government announced that December 25 would be celebrated as the ‘Good Governance Day’ to mark Vajpayee’s birth anniversary.

The day is meant to foster awareness among citizens about government accountability and administration, and inculcate “good governance” as a habit for civil servants. It is observed to ensure that the country’s residents are treated fairly by the government and they receive advantages of various government services.

Why Vajpayee?

Vajpayee was one of the foundational figures of the BJP and an icon for the party. PM Modi, while marking the first ‘Good Governance Day’  in 2014, wrote on Twitter, “There is no bigger tribute to Atal ji than celebrating his birthday as ‘Good Governance Day’ and pledging to devote ourselves to this cause.”

As an able administrator, Vajpayee served as the Prime Minister of the country across two stints in 1996 and 1998. During his tenure, he also led a new era of international relations and foreign investment. India also became a nuclear power during his tenure, faced war, maintained peace with neighbouring Pakistan, and launched various welfare projects. As The Indian Express‘s Vikas Pathak wrote in a profile, Vajpayee spoke an inclusive language without being overtly secular and led the BJP during its post-Babri period of political isolation.

What is the government’s plan this year?

Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh will launch three new features on the iGOT (integrated government online training) Karmayogi platform: My iGOT, blended programmes, and curated programmes.

Let’s take a look at what are these programmes:

My iGOT: The e-governance tool, according to a press release, will deliver targeted training courses on the home page of individual officers that directly address the unique capacity-building needs of the officer as identified in the capacity-building plan for their ministries/departments, thereby, facilitating a highly personalised, focused and targeted experience.

Blended programmes: These will operate by integrating traditional offline (in-person) classroom courses with online learning components, facilitating equitable access to training methodologies across all levels to meet the dynamic training needs of the officials, the release by the Personnel Ministry said.

The release described the initiative as enabling officers and faculty to leverage the flexibility and convenience of online courses while retaining the invaluable benefits of face-to-face classroom interactions, the statement said.

Curated programmes: These programmes have been designed to cater to the diverse learning needs of the ministries/departments and training institutions. The course providers will be able to curate relevant content, resources, and assessments from the repository of iGOT with a programmatic approach to provide a tailored learning journey, according to the release.

Singh will also launch 12 domain-specific capacity-building e-learning courses as part of the Annual Capacity Building Plan of the DoPT by Karmayogi Digital Learning Lab. These courses will not only directly address the domain competency requirements of the civil servants working in DoPT, but also help the other government organisations in handling functional matters on a day-to-day basis in an effective manner, the statement said.

A new blended learning programme — VIKAS (Variable and Immersive Karmayogi Advanced Support) — meant for capacity-building of middle management civil servants in the central secretariat will also be launched by Singh, the release said.