Mission Karmayogi to upskill government officials, benefit 46 lakh staffers

NEW DELHI: In a key reform that seeks to bring a paradigm shift in human resource management of the civil services, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared ‘Mission Karmayogi’ that will upgrade the knowledge and skills of civil servants on a continuous basis with the aid of modern technology and ensure that the right man with the right competencies is in the right position in government.
Hailing the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) or “Mission Karmayogi”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it will radically improve human resource management practices in the government whereas home minister Amit Shah said it will bring transformational changes in civil services.
Stating the NPCSCB will use state of the art infrastructure to augment the capacity of civil servants, PM tweeted: "The iGOT platform will enable the transition to a role-based HR management and continuous learning. Mission Karmayogi aims to prepare civil servants for the future by making them more creative, constructive & innovative through transparency and technology."
Shah, while hailing the “visionary" and "landmark" reform, said it “will end the culture of working in silos and bring out new work culture.” “The holistic and comprehensive scheme will focus on individual as well as institutional capacity building," he tweeted.
Under 'Mission Karmayogi’, the capacity building will be through shared content to be made available to civil servants on integrated government online training (iGOT) platform, for a nominal subscription fee of Rs 431 payable to the special purpose vehicle (SPV) managing the platform. The initiative will benefit around 46 lakh Central government employees, by offering them access to shared, world-class learning content developed in partnership with premier world institutions like Harvard University, UC Berkeley and London School of Economics etc, via iGOT platform. This shared learning content may be made available to the state civil servants as well, in the future.
NPCSCB, on which Rs 510 crore will be spent over 5 years, will be monitored and rolled out by a three-tier institutional structure: the Prime minister-led Human Resources Council that will provide strategic direction to civil services reform and approve capacity building plans, and the Cabinet secretary-led coordination unit; Capacity Building Commission that will standardise and harmonise the entire capacity building eco-system; and a 100% government-owned SPV that will manage and maintain the iGOT Karmayogi digital platform.
Multilateral agencies like World Bank and Asian Development Bank will pitch in with assistance to the tune of USD 50 million.
Mission Karmayogi will calibrate all civil service positions to a framework of roles, activities and competencies (FRACs) approach and create and deliver learning content relevant to the identified FRACs in each government entity.
This content on iGoT platform will be in line with skills, knowledge and competencies required for each employee to chart a guided path as well as desirable path.
Guided path will seek to familiarise each civil servant with knowledge and skills needed for roles and functions associated with a job assigned to him. This capacity building will be mandatory and a record of his successful completion of online training will be maintained. The civil servant can also familiarise him with issues concerning other departments. “This will help break the current practice of departments working in silos,” said an officer.
“The government will, over time, have a ready database of competencies of each civil servant and can use this to post the most qualified and competent person in a given position. This will promote domain expertise in the government,” he added.
‘Mission Karamyogi’ will also promote “desirable” capacity building. This means that any civil servant can acquire specialised skills or domain expertise by undergoing courses developed in partnership with premier international institutions. “Any civil servant, irrespective of cadre and geography, who desires to do specialised courses to build his career path can do so now. Government will reimburse the course fee upon successful completion of the course,” said an officer.
Incidentally, a source indicated that the existing foreign training programmes for All India Services officers may be made more selective, with emphasis to be laid on online and on-site learning rather than encouraging long study leaves. “An undertaking may be taken that any skills acquired in foreign training shall be put to good use in future postings”.