Centre rolls out first made-in-India module to train 3.2 mn civil servants

For the first time since Independence, India has rolled out an indigenous framework to train its central bureaucracy in skills aligned with national priorities, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047.

The Karmayogi Competency Framework, developed by the Capacity Building Commission established by PM Modi in 2021 2021 to train modern-day bureaucracy, will serve as the foundation for courses and workshops across government training academies, including the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie.

At the core of the framework lies the Indian Knowledge Systems, principally the Bhagavad Gita. The framework emphasises cultivating four core virtues among public officials — swadhyay (know myself), sahakarayata (collaboration), rajya karma (efficient delivery) and svadharma (serving the citizens).

In an exclusive conversation with The Tribune about this first made-in-India module to train 3.2 million-strong central civil servants, R Balasubramaniam, Member, HR, at the Capacity Building Commission, said until now we had been cheap imitators of the West when it came to training frameworks for the bureaucracy.

What’s Karmayogi Competency Framework

Offers courses for 13 behavioural competencies split across eight core (self-awareness, personal effectiveness, solution orientation, communication, outcome orientation, collaboration, service orientation and operational excellence) competencies and five leadership (creativity, strategic leadership, collaborative leadership, team leadership and decision-making) competencies.

“Now, we have our own HR competency framework for training public servants. It is based on Indian Knowledge Systems and principles of the Bhagavad Gita, and has been tested against global competency frameworks. We took over 18 months to develop it,” says Balasubramaniam, who earlier wrote “Power Within: The Leadership Legacy of Narendra Modi”, a book that captures PM Modi’s leadership journey.

The framework that seeks to decolonise civil service training hopes to address the needs of employees working across nearly 60 ministries, 93 departments and over 2,600 organisations under them. Balasubramaniam said the commission has mapped the roles of every employee in their respective work segments and identified the specific competencies required to achieve the expected outcomes.

As a start, the commission has hosted 1,500 courses on iGOT (integrated online training space), a central repository for the training programme. This number will swell to 5,000 in a year.

Among the most sought after courses are Citizen Centricity, Viksit Bharat, Jan Bhaagidaari, Chair Yoga for Workplace (designed by Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga) and Stress and Anger Management (designed by Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living), Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, AI and Machine Learning.

About Capacity Building Commission

The government, acknowledging the need for a dedicated programme on capacity-building of civil servants, launched National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) — Mission Karmayogi — in September 2020 to train government officials. To execute this mission, the Capacity Building Commission was set up in 2021 as an independent body with full executive powers.

On how the commission decided on the elements of the framework, Balasubramaniam said they looked at 10 years of PM’s life and what he has been articulating repeatedly to set a future for India.

“We identified four core messages of the PM — vikas (resolve for developed India); garva (pride in Indian values; decolonisation); kartavya (duties) and ekta (unity). Our research showed that to achieve these four resolutions, public officials needed to cultivate four foundational values — Swadhyay as enshrined in the Bhagavad Gita; Sahakarayata which means collaborating; Rajyakarma which is about understanding the system and Svadharma which means serving the citizens,” Balasubramaniam said, adding that every public servant is expected to complete 50 hours of training annually in the physical and virtual formats.

Speaking of the need to imbibe Bhagavad Gita principles for governance, Balasubramaniam recalled Daniel Goleman’s seminal work “Emotional Intelligence” that draws from the Gita. “Goleman came to India, spent three years reading the Bhagavad Gita. He got a PhD and we got his book. While he connected the book with the Bhagavad Gita, we do not. Forget religion, let us at least take the principles of the Gita,” says Balasubramaniam.

With the framework rolled out, the Centre plans to hold an annual National Learning Week to offer physical format training to public servants — Central and state. The first edition of this week, which concluded in the Capital recently, drew 4.8 million civil servants from across the Centre and states with 43 per cent completing at least four courses.