DoPT activities & initiatives in the year 2021 - review

Marking a paradigm shift in government recruitment, a multi-agency body called the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) was set up to conduct a Tier-I Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen/shortlist candidates for the Group B and C (non-technical) posts which were otherwise shortlisted through separate exams conducted by SSC, RRB and IBPS. It aims to provide a common eligibility test to all candidates at the nearest District Headquarter, particularly those in rural areas / aspirational districts and will contribute to equity and inclusiveness in recruitments as well as Ease of Living by eliminating multiple exams.

 Appointments of Secretary-cum-Controller of Examination and other officers including secretariat staff have been done and National Recruitment Agency is functional/ operational since July, 2021.

With a view to achieve the twin objectives of bringing in fresh talent as well as to augment the availability of manpower at the levels of Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary, Lateral Entry was initiated in 2018 on the basis of the Report of the Sectoral Group of Secretaries (SGoS) on Governance submitted in February, 2017. In the first phase, process was initiated to fill up 10 posts of Joint Secretaries. Presently 7 Joint Secretaries are in position in different Ministries/ Departments.

In the second phase, as per recommendation of UPSC approval of Appointment Committee of Cabinet has been obtained on 04th December, 2021, appointment for remaining 3 posts of Joint Secretary level and 28 posts of Director/ Deputy Secretary level in different Ministries/Departments. List of Ministries/Departments where candidates are likely to be posted is as under:

M/o of Agriculture, Coop & FW, M/o Civil Aviation, D/o Commerce, M/o Corporate Affairs, D/o Legal Affairs, D/o Economic Affairs, M/o Environment Forest & Climate Change, D/o Financial Services, D/o Food & Public Distribution, M/o Health & family Welfare, M/o Heavy Industries, D/o Higher Education, M/o Mines, M/o Ports, Shipping & Waterways, M/o Power, D/o Revenue, M/o Road Transport & Highway,  D/o School Education Literacy, M/o Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, M/o Statistics & Programme Implementation and M/o Steel, M/o Water Resources

Central to Mission Karamyogi is the recognition that a fit-for-purpose government workforce requires a competency driven capacity building approach, which focuses on imparting competencies critical to discharge roles. Following major initiatives have been taken in this regard:

iGoT Digital Learning Platform

 The experimental platform, in place now, is an opensource platform and is Divyangjan-friendly by design with a Web Content Access Guideline (WCAG) score of 92.

The platform is in place with 20 Central Training Institutes (CTIs) and 35 departments onboarded. Hand-holding workshops and outreach sessions are being conducted with identified ministries & departments on platform usage and functionalities.

Currently 125 courses have been uploaded on the platform.

Comprehensive Online Modified Modules for Induction Training (COMMIT), an online course of 15 modules focused on induction training of frontline State officials, have been onboarded.

16 Courses from World Bank Open Learning Campus are live on the platform.

Karmayogi Digital Learning Lab set up at ISTM with technical assistance from ADB will enable Departments with tools/technologies, manpower and know-how for developing digital learning content. The lab was inaugurated on 27th August, 2021.

Establishment of the Capacity Building Commission:

As part of the flagship National Programme for Civil services capacity Building (NPCSCB)- Mission Karmayogi Project for competency development at all stages of a career of a civil servant, the Capacity Building Commission (CBC) has been established on 01.04.2021 as an important institutional mechanism for building a credible and a uniform approach to capacity building on a collaborative and co-sharing basis.

Key activities taken up by the Capacity Building Commission are:

i.          The First Roundtable for Central Training Institutions (CTIs) was organized by Capacity Building Commission (CBC) on 12th October 2021. The roundtable was attended by top management of 23 CTIs. The objective of the workshop was to kick start collaboration activities amongst CTIs.

ii.         CBC is currently in the process of pilot testing the Draft Functional Evaluation Framework for CTIs. The framework aims to introduce minimum standards as a means for continuous improvement of CTIs.

iii.        CBC is looking to partner with competent Indian institutions with enhanced capabilities for faculty training so as to run faculty development programmes for CTIs.

iv.        CBC is engaged in the facilitation of Annual Capacity Building Plans (CBPs) for 8 pilot Ministries and Departments – Ministry of Civil Aviation; Ministry of Food Processing Industries; Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment; Ministry of Labour & Employment; Ministry of Skill Development; Department of Defence, Ministry of Defence; Logistics Division, Ministry of Commerce; Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.  This will be extended to all 93 Departments.

v.         The Commission is piloting capacity building initiatives with various citizen-facing Departments like Railways, Dept. of Post, Ministry of Youth affairs (MoYA), BSNL, and UT Police Forces to co-develop short, self-paced digital modules focused on building behavioural competencies. The objective of this exercise is to help citizen-facing staff in Ministries/Departments to be proactive & citizen services oriented.

iGOT Karmayogi Special Purpose Vehicle- Karmayogi Bharat (SPV) is envisaged as a Company under Section 8 (of Companies Act) with 100% Government ownership.

A subscription-based revenue model for the SPV has been approved by the Cabinet. Budget mechanism for implementing subscription-based revenue model has been approved by Ministry of Finance.

Taskforce to recommend roadmap for formation of SPV notified on 23rd June, 2021 with Sh. SD Shibulal as Chairperson and Sh. Govind Iyer and Sh. Pankaj Bansal as members.

Memorandum of Association (MoA) & Articles of Association (AoA) for the SPV have been prepared and submitted by the Task Force.

 e-Human Resource Management System (e-HRMS)

             Introduced by DoPT to facilitate a digital work­ing environment and streamline Human Resource services for Government employees.

8 of 12 modules are operational – remaining modules to be live in six months

 32,000 Central Government employees and 65 Central departments on boarded.

 Integration with iGOT Karmayogi through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

 Systems-Only working implemented in DoPT w.e.f. 20th Aug 2021. All possible paper-based HR processes like Leave, LTC etc. have been shifted to online mode.

Common Mid-Career Training Programme:

 A weeklong Common Mid-Career Training Programme (Common MCTP) was launched in October 2021, with a structured curriculum and design, bringing officers from AIS and different Central Services for a common learning at a critical point in their careers where they are poised to take up leadership positions and thus help break departmental and organisational silos. This very first “Common MCTP- Leading to Learn” a.k.a LEAD Programme, was held in Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie from October 26th to November 2nd, 2021. A total of 242 officers (133 officers of 2000 batch and 109 officers of 2001 batch) participated in the programme.

 Common Foundation Training Programme

 Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie conducts Foundation Course for All India Service and Group ‘A’ Service Officers who clear the Civil Service Examination.   The Foundation Course provides basic inputs in Public administration, Administrative and Constitutional laws, inputs in Macro Economics etc. The main objective of the Foundation Course is to instil the sense of “esprit de corps” along with the newly recruited officers of various Services so that in future they overcome service allegiances and work with each other in the Nation Building process. A common foundation course (AARAMBH) for officers from AIS and other Central Services has been launched since 2019. In this series, 96th Common Foundation Course has commenced on 5th December, 2021 at LBSNAA, in which 489 Officers (478 officers from 16 Group ‘A’ Services of Indian Union and 11  officers from three services of Royal Bhutan Civil Service) are participating.

The restructured Assistant Section Officer Training Programme

The Assistant Section Officer (ASO) is the entry level position in the Central Secretariat Service (CSS), which plays a significant role in the overall functioning of the Central Secretariat. In the background of National Programme for Civil Service Capacity Building, the ASO Foundation Training Programme (FTP) has been comprehensively reviewed and is being implemented as an intensive and long-term programme. The first such programme for 884 ASOs commenced on 20th September 2021.

It targets to develop identified set of competencies, focusing especially on personality development as well as functional readiness of the ASOs to handle responsibilities in the Central Secretariat.

Government has established a bench of Central Administrative Tribunal at Srinagar which has been operationalized with effect from 23.11.2021. The jurisdiction of Srinagar bench extends to 10 districts of UT of Jammu & Kashmir and one district (Kargil) from UT of Ladakh, while the remaining districts of the 2 Union Territories are covered by the Jammu Bench.

 Guidelines were issued promptly for regulating attendance to minimize spread of COVID among employees as well as other stakeholders

RT-PCR test camps as well as vaccination camps organized for ensuring well-  being of employees

 Masks/ Sanitizer machines and other supportive equipment were provided to employees

 For any emergency situation, 4 Oxygen Concentrators were purchased

Online courses on COVID-19 were launched by DoPT with the help of M/o Health & Family Welfare on M/o HRD’s DIKSHA platform.

 Medical practice by the Central Government Servants holding recognized qualifications in any system of medicine, on charitable basis during COVID pandemic, were issued vide O.M. No. 11013/9/2014-Estt.A-III, dated 12.05.2021.

An O.M. was issued regarding Treatment/regularization of hospitalization/quarantine period during COVID-19 Pandemic (OM No. 13020/1/2019-Estt.(L) dated 07.06.2021).

Extension of time lines for submission of Annual Performance Assessment Report (APAR) in respect of Group ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ officers of Central Civil Services for the year 2020-21 was made, vide O.M. No. 21011/02/2015-Estt.(A-II)-part.II dated 17.06.2021.

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances launched a Special Campaign for disposal of pending matters (implementation phase 02.10.2021 to 31.10.2021). In the preparatory phase from September 13, 2021 to September 30, 2021, Department of Personnel & Training identified the status of pendency. Over 2685 cases of pending Public Grievances and 33000 physical files for review and 24275 files for weeding out have been identified for disposal in the Campaign.

During the Campaign, Department of Personnel & Training earned about Rs.90900/- through scrap disposal and more than 1500 square feet of space has been freed. All 33000 files identified for review have been reviewed and out of 24275 files identified for weeding out, 21282 files have been weeded out. Similarly, against the target of 2685 Public Grievances, 2610 grievances were redressed within a short span of 30 days. Out of 81 References from MPs, 79 were disposed. Out of 56 pending Parliament Assurances, 47 have been disposed off. All the 1 IMC references (Cabinet Proposal) have been disposed off. Out of 20 State Government references, 19 have been disposed off. For easing of rules/process, one item was identified for simplification and the same has been done. The progress was monitored by the Secretary(Personnel), Additional Secretary(Admn.) and Nodal Officer on regular basis.

A number of activities have been undertaken by DoP&T and its attached offices under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Exhibitions on  the freedom struggle titled – “Vande Matram : Swatantrata Ki Kahani Mitti Ki Jubani”,  “Azadi Ke Diwane” (on unsung heroes) and a Kavi Sammelan on India@75 was organized by LBSNAA during 15-23 August, 2021.

Karmayogi Digital Learning Lab at Institute of Secretariat Training and Management (ISTM) has been commissioned on 27.08.2021, which will give impetus to development of e-learning.

A special issue of ISTM’s Research Journal has been released on 27.08.2021 focusing on “Mission Karmayogi” – Government’s initiatives to transform Civil Services capacity

A digital exhibition with material containing write-ups, photographs, audio-visual materials and two short films on “Life and Contribution of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose” was organized by DoP&T on 24-25 September, 2021 at North Block, New Delhi, which was visited by more than 1500 people.

A special sports event namely ‘Nari Shakti-Samagam evam Spardha” for women employees in the Central Government offices in the NCR regions has been organized on 22nd December 2021

DoPT launched a drive – “संचय” from 29.11.2021 to 10.12.2021. Under the drive, Government employees from North Block and adjoining buildings donated clothes for distribution to under priviledged people.

A workshop has been organized on 23.12.2021, on the theme “Mission Karmayogi – The Path Ahead” as part of the “Good Governance Week” celebrated during 20-25 December, 2021 at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi. DoPT also organized an exhibition in collaboration with DARPG sowing significant achievements/ initiatives at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.