With the scaled-up activities of National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), three capacity-building programmes (CBPs) for the civil servants of Bangladesh (59^th batch with 45 participants) and Maldives (22^nd & 23^rd batch with 50 participants) commenced at the Mussoorie campus. This is followed by the successful completion of the 58^th CBP for the civil servants of Bangladesh on 6^th May, 2023. NCGG's capacity-building initiatives for the civil servants both domestic and of other developing countries, aim to promote citizen-centric public policies, good governance, and enhanced service delivery to improve the quality of life of citizens by reaching out to the last person.

NCGG is dedicated to promoting collaboration and learning among civil servants of India and other developing countries, in consonance with the ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ philosophy espoused by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The aim is to equip these civil servants with the necessary skills to tackle complex and challenging issues. The intensive 2–week programme will also help them to update their knowledge and skills with emerging digital tools and best practices of good governance.

In his inaugural address, Shri Bharat Lal, Director General, NCGG highlighted the role of civil servants as enablers to help people to realize their full potential. He stressed the importance of working with speed and on a scale, and providing world-class basic services to citizens in a timely manner. While providing basic services, he also urged the civil servants to be strategic and innovative to anticipate, listen to and adapt to citizens’ needs and preferences.

Highlighting Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s philosophy of ‘Vasudaiva Kutumbakam’ the DG spoke on building partnerships and working together to enhance ease of living. He threw light on how it was under this philosophy that India aided not only neighbouring countries but a very large number of countries of the whole world, with medical supplies and vaccines to fight the covid-19 pandemic. Similarly, the citizens of India were also able to avail of free vaccination in minutes and over 2 billion doses were administered in 7 – 8 months. This is only due to the technological prowess India has attained. India has also been leveraging technology to help its citizens. The DG cited examples of online railway ticketing systems, online payment of pensions and scholarships, and passport services, Government e-Marketplace (GeM), which have been the game changers in saving time, bringing in efficiency and eliminating corruption.

Expectations of citizens from their governments are on the increase in every democratic nation and thus, developing a system to capture their expectations and putting in place an effective public grievance redressal system, is of paramount importance, he stated.  He urged the officers to address the grievances of the people proactively and in a time-bound manner. We have to ensure that leakages have become a thing of the past and mentioned how scholarships, subsidies, wages, etc. are paid in a few minutes without any leakage. He also spoke about the subsidies transferred into the bank accounts of more than 12 crore Indian farmers at the click of a button.

Speaking of the seamless governance system, he also cited the planning and implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission, announced by the Prime Minister in 2019 to make provision of clean tap water to every rural household and all schools, anganwadi centres, residential schools, etc. within 5 years. At the time of this announcement, only 32 million out of 194 million households had tap water connections. However, working with speed and scale and use of technology as well as massive mobilization, now 120 million rural households have clean tap water supply in their homes. Similarly, with the use of technology, cooking gas under Ujjwala was provided to 96 million households and toilets to over 115 million households under the Swachh Bharat Mission, effectively transforming the quality of life of people forever. He urged the civil servants of both countries to leverage technology to serve the people efficiently. He advised the participants to make the best of the training programme through interactions among themselves and with eminent speakers and domain experts. He also suggested the participants to discuss various issues and work on ideas for implementation in their country based on their learnings at NCGG.

The NCGG was set up in 2014 by the Government of India as an apex-level institution under the auspices of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions. NCGG entered into an MoU with the Maldives Civil Services Commission for capacity building of 1,000 civil servants of Maldives by 2024 and with the Government of Bangladesh for 1,800 civil servants by 2025. So far, 685 officers of Maldives have been imparted training at NCGG.

In partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), NCGG has taken up the responsibility to build the capacities of civil servants of various developing countries. So far, it has imparted training to over 3,500 civil servants from 15 countries viz. Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia, Seychelles, Gambia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Laos, Vietnam, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Cambodia. These trainings were found to be highly useful by the participating officers of different countries. Also, NCGG has been involved in the capacity building of civil servants from various states in the country. These programmes are much sought after and as desired by the MEA, NCGG is expanding its capacity to accommodate a higher number of civil servants from more countries as demand is on the rise. In 2021-22, NCGG conducted 8 programme and 236 civil servants participated. This was trebled in 2022-23 and NCGG organised 23 programmes and 736 civil servants attended. For the year 2023 –24, NCGG has planned a 3-fold increase in this programme and 55 such programmes will be held to accommodate 2,130 civil servants.

In this programme, the NCGG is sharing various initiatives taken in the country such as changing paradigm in governance, rejuvenation of rivers with special reference to Ganga, leveraging digital technology: public-private partnership in infrastructure development, a case study of the Statue of Unity: a technical, historical, sociological & tourism project, the constitutional foundation of policy making and decentralization in India, public contracts and policies,  public policy & implementation, election management, Aadhar: a tool of good governance, digital governance: case studies of passport seva & MADAD, e-governance and digital India UMANG, disaster management with special reference to the coastal region, ethics in administration, project planning, execution and monitoring – Jal Jeevan Mission,  Swamitva scheme: property validation for rural India, vigilance administration, anti-corruption strategies among others.

The participants will also be taken for exposure visits to Pradhanmantri Sanghralaya, Parliament, as well as to fields. The entire CBP will be overseen by course coordinators including Dr. Ashutosh Singh, Dr. B. S. Bisht, and Dr. Sanjeev Sharma, along with other members of the training team.

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