For ‘governance challenges’, babus turn to Harvard dons

Launched on January 1 by Joe Ben, faculty member of KSG, and Bakul Dholakia of IIM-A, the course was the result of a proposal prepared by the Central Government’s Department of Personnel and Training in 2005. It was approved by the Prime Minister’s Office in September 2006.

The residential training programme involves lectures and specially designed exercises covering subjects like value creation, effective use of economic policy, infrastructure development, rule of law, leadership and innovation and processes of policy development, Prof Sebastian Morris, training coordinator at IIM-A informed.

For the 94 officers of the 1979 and 1980 batches who are undergoing training after 26-28 years of service, this hopes to help them climb the growth ladder faster. This would also be helpful to those staking claims for promotions in the bureaucratic hierarchy. Sources say the training has been made compulsory, failing which officers could be barred from attending foreign programmes. In addition to this, an entry would be made in their confidential dossiers.

Similar training programmes are also being planned at IIM-Bangalore and the Tata Energy Research Institute. IIM-B has tied up with Maxell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, USA, to train 150 IAS officers who have served for 14-16 years. They will spend four weeks at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy, Mussourie, and two weeks abroad as part of the training. At TERI, 150 IAS officers with service length of seven to nine years will be trained for six weeks, of which four weeks will be spent at Mussourie and and two weeks abroad.