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 today said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has institutionalised the capacity building mechanism for civil servants, who are the pivotal instruments of governance:
Launching the “National Standards for Civil Service Training Institutions” at Capacity Building Commission (CBC) headquarters here, Dr Jitendra Singh said, India became the first country in the world to come out with a unique model to create standards for civil service training institutions at national level and expressed hope that soon India will be a global model in this regard.

Dr Jitendra Singh also inaugurated the web-portal and approach paper for the National standards, as a part of the launch event in presence of over 103 participants consisting of 25 Central Training Institutions, 33 State level Administrative Training Institutions and other civil service training institutions along with capacity building commission.

The National Standards for Civil Service Training Institutions (NSCSTI) is developed by CBC to create a baseline for Central Training Institutes on their current capacity, for elevating their quality and capacity of training delivery and to harmonise standards for training. It will also set aspirations for training institutions to strive towards excellence. The country is having standards and accreditation in higher education, healthcare and environment, but for the first time it became applicable for training institutions also.

Referring to Prime Minister Modi’s address at Kevadia, Gujarat during the 2^nd edition of ‘Aarambh’ in October, 2020, wherein Shri Narendra Modi referred to the importance of the training and its major role in developing the skill-set for achieving new goals, for adopting new approaches and new ways in the country, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Standards will equip Central Training Institutions (CTIs) to help civil servants tackle emerging challenges of 21st century.

The Minister said, 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. He added that training is one of the most important tools for capacity building and we must ensure that our civil servants are trained based on their needs and have anytime-anywhere learning opportunities. The Minister emphasised that the Mission Karmayogi has been launched to achieve this objective of continuous improvement and the Capacity Building Commission has been entrusted with realising the goals of Mission Karmayogi.

Dr. Jitendra Singh underlined that the Civil Service Training Institutes are the most critical actors in the supply-side ecosystem as our civil service training institutes train 31 lakh employees of the Government of India. He talked about the importance of having a common baseline and a standard scale of measurement for the diverse training institutes in India, which is instrumental in enhancing the capacity of CTIs and supporting them in adopting an aspirational path to achieve their specific goals and parameters.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, standardisation in the training ecosystem will play a pivotal role in elevating capacities of a training institute. He congratulated the Capacity Building Commission (CBC) for developing ‘National Standards for Civil Service Training Institutions’ (NSCSTI), which will act as a tool to drive standardising and harmonisation. The Minister also commended the whole-of-government approach taken by the Commission while ideating on the focus area of the standards.

Dr Jitendra Singh informed that CBC consulted various Central Training Institutions (CTIs), academia, global standard setting bodies in the development of the standards. He added that studies conducted by CBC highlighted 8 focus areas such as Training Needs Assessment (TNA), Faculty Development, Collaboration with different institutes, digital readiness etc. which have the potential to significantly elevate civil service capacity building.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, India’s Central Training Institutions (CTIs) must contribute to the lifelong learning of the officers and act as mentors throughout their careers. He said, the three Es of civil service learning: Empowered learning, Effective Learning, Exploratory Learning and Electronic Learning. He further elaborated that engaging CTIs through a process of self-assessment will instil ownership of their transformation. A one-stop platform has been developed for streamlining the accreditation process for our training institutions and this will highlight best practices and enable cross-sharing and collaborative learning among CTIs, the Minister added.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the pandemic has changed a lot of things and it also made us realise how quickly change can happen. He said, in post-pandemic world by leveraging technology, the world is moving towards a phygital way of learning – a mix of physical and digital. He added that the Standards will usher a shift towards digital learning through iGOT.

In his concluding remarks, the Minister said that training of officers and personnel requires to be constantly reviewed and upgraded in view of the fast pace of evolution in all spheres of life. He said, best global practices should be incorporated in training modules along with some incentives for excellence. He said, there is a need to align individual and departmental priorities to our national aspirations and priorities.

Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of the Capacity Building Commission, Members of the Commission – Praveen Pardeshi, Member-Administration, Dr R. Balasubramaniam, Member-Human Resource and Hemang Jani, Secretary of the Commission were present at the event.

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