Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr.Jitendra Singh today said that the global pandemic has affected all spheres of life and has brought about a paradigm shift in governance. Delivering the valedictory address at the two-Day India-Maldives Workshop on Good Governance Practices in a pandemic in New Delhi, he said that India’s successful commencement of the COVID-19 vaccination program with 2 indigenously developed vaccines – covaxin and covishield offers a lot of hope of a decisive victory against the pandemic in the coming months. The roadmap ahead for both our Nations in winning the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic lies in restarting the economy, strengthening cooperative federalism with thrust on stronger institutions, stronger e-Governance models, digitally empowered citizens and improved healthcare, he added. The Minister said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has reiterated and emphasised the deep and abiding commitment of the Government of India to help its neighbours with delivery of vaccines so as to successfully combat this pandemic.

As part of the India-Maldives Memorandum of Understanding signed during the visit of the Prime Minister to Male in June 2019, India is committed to capacity building of 1000 Maldivian civil servants at the NCGG over a period of 5 years. The NCGG, the High Commission of India to Maldives and CSC Maldives jointly operationalized the Memorandum of Understanding in August 2019, and by March 2020, 6 rounds of capacity building programs have been conducted by NCGG and 130 Maldivian Civil Servants have visited India.

Dr.Jitendra Singh said that the India-Maldives Workshop on Capacity Building with focus on Good Governance Practices in a Pandemic is an effort to showcase and learn from mutual experiences of how our 2 Nations have handled the pandemic. He said, the workshop has conducted sessions on Leadership and Motivation especially with focus on the difficult working environments of the pandemic to Health and Education in both the nations will be covered by eminent civil servants. There has been focus on Jobs, Skills and Tourism during the pandemic, Inter-personal skills and communication skills, Digital practices and handling of public grievances and problem analysis and decision making. The effort has been to give an overall exposure to Maldivian civil servants of the Indian experience and provide Indian institutions with insights into the challenges faced by the Maldivian side so as to enable experience sharing for improving public efficiency, the Minister added.

In March, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the leaders of SAARC countries to chalk out a common strategy to combat COVID-19 in the region. The proactive steps taken by India include a graded response mechanism, screening those entering the country, public awareness campaigns on television, print and social media, and special efforts to reach out to the vulnerable groups, ramping up of diagnostic facilities and developing protocols for each stage of managing the pandemic. The Prime Minister has also offered creation of a COVID-19 Emergency Fund based on voluntary contributions from all countries, with India making an initial offer of US$ 10 Million for the fund which can be used by any of the partner countries to meet the cost of immediate action. India also offered to assemble rapid response teams of doctors and specialists, along with testing kits and other equipment which could be placed at disposal of countries, if required. Further the Prime Minister also offered arranging for online training modules for emergency response teams of the neighbouring countries and sharing of software behind India’s integrated diseases surveillance portals to help trace possible virus carriers and people they contacted. Our Government suggested creation of a common research platform to coordinate research on controlling epidemic diseases within the South Asian region.

Dr.Jitendra Singh said that to restore growth, India has launched the AtmaNirbhar Bharat Campaign, which is aimed at making India self-reliant and resilient to withstand any such future shocks.  Moreover, the Government has walked on the path of “SabkaSath, SabkaVikas, SabkaVishwas” which is an inclusive model of development.

The Minister said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has highlighted the need to build a self-reliant India and bring India back on the path of rapid development – Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation. Systematic, planned, integrated, inter-connected and futuristic reforms have been undertaken under the AtmaNirbhar Bharat Campaign.

Mr. Abdulla Shahid, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Maldives also addressed the workshop and thanked India for this noble mission.

Dr.Jitendra Singh congratulated the MEA, the High Commission of India to Maldives, the DARPG the NCGG, the Civil Services Commission of Maldives for the conduct of this 2-day capacity building program. The Minister also thanked Secretary, DARPG, Dr.Kshatrapati Shivaji, Shri V. Srinivas, Additional Secretary, DARPG and Director General, National Centre for Good Governance and other senior officials of the Department for successful conduct of the workshop.

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