Indian bureaucrats are set to get a mid-career re-tooling, and some of the world’s finest management institutes — including Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School — are in contention as training providers.
Starting April, the Mussoorie-based Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy will commence programmes for three batches of bureaucrats — those who have completed 10, 15 and 25 years in government. The search is on for a curriculum that will combine global management concepts with Indian experiences and conditions.
While the initiative was taken by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is known to have bolstered the move by writing a note on the subject and suggesting the Department try and integrate international quality mid-career training programmes.
The current training for bureaucrats is in three phases, at the start of their careers.
The new programme will take them through phases four and five.
Eleven management schools have been shortlisted as potential collaborators for the Academy.
A committee headed by former Union minister Y K Alagh is expected to make the final pick. Says DoPT Secretary A N Tewari, ‘‘While the decision would be that of the Alagh Committee, we would ideally like a combination of Indian and foreign collaborators.’’
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Three US schools — Harvard, the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and Duke University — have already flown down faculty for detailed discussions with DoPT. Other shortlisted institutions include Wharton, MIT and the Asian School of Management, Manila.
Among Indian schools that have sent in expressions of interest are IIM Bangalore and the Gurgaon-based Management Development Institute.
The Alagh committee is in the process of further pruning the list. It will then invite finalists to send their technical and financial bids to the government.
The preliminary process has been fruitful after discussions with visiting faculty from Harvard, for instance, that it was decided that the mid-career courses would be held at the Academy.
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The foreign faculty and training manuals would come to the civil servant-students, rather than the other way round. DoPT is expected to give a presentation to the prime minister next month.
