The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu today emphasized that good governance must percolate down to the lowest level.

Presiding over the 67th Annual Meeting of General Body of Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) through video conferencing, the Vice President said that the government has been making policies and designing programmes that are intended to improve the quality of life of people and make people’s life happy and comfortable by fast-tracking India’s development.

He said the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), as a premier institution dedicated to the theory and practice of public administration, must play a pivotal role in bridging the capacity gaps in the delivery system. "IIPA is a fit organization to catalyze the new wave of governance reforms in the country," he added.

In his address, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that in a landmark decision, the IIPA membership, which was earlier open only to retired officers, has now been thrown open even to the serving officers.

The government, said Dr Jitendra Singh, will train 2 crore Government servants from top to bottom and not only the top civil servants for Capacity Building of Civil Servants. He said, first time since Independence, with the support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a revolutionary initiative has been taken to shift the working and functioning of the Civil Servants from ‘Rule to Role’, through the Government’s most ambitious reform ‘Mission Karmayogi’, so that they are confident and able to perform the task assigned to them.

The Minister said, Indian Institute of Public Administration, IIPA has established a Mission-Karmayogi Resource Cell at IIPA. He said,IIPA is working in close coordination with National Capacity Building Commission, LBSNAA and other central training institutions (CTIs).

The Minister also informed that in a first of its kind and for more integration and coordination with branches, IIPA has started to conduct webinars on flagship schemes of Government of India in collaboration with regional branches from January 2021. He added that this step has proved to be beneficial, not only for IIPA but for the development of Regional branches also. The Minister said, IIPA is also helping the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Govt. of India in establishing and incubating National Tribal Research Institute (NTRI).

It may be recalled that last month, Dr Jitendra Singh addressed the first-ever Joint Roundtable of 23 Central Training Institutions organized for Capacity Building, at Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) for bringing efficiency in delivery of services and “Ease of Living” for common man.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that despite the crippling effects of COVID-19, IIPA has not only being successful in conducting 66 training programme in 2020-21 and trained 8353 officials, it has completed 60 research studies and conducted 46 webinars on topics of current relevance. He said, the 60 Research Studies completed in a year has been the highest in the history of IIPA in a single year and this includes a large number of Evaluation Studies of various schemes of Government of India for different Ministries and Departments also.

Dr Jitendra Singh congratulated all the Paul Appleby Award winners, winners of Shri T N Chaturvedi Award for Best Article, Excellence in Public Service, Annual Essay Competition, Case Study Competition, and Award for the Best Branch and other awardees.

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