New Delhi: India has introduced an indigenous framework to equip its central bureaucracy in skills that match national priorities, essentially Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047. This is the first such initiative India has taken since its Independence.
Called the Karmayogi Competency Framework, it has been developed by the Capacity Building Commission, which was set up by PM Modi in 2021 to train the modern-day bureaucracy. The framework will serve as the basis for courses and workshops across government training academies, including the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie, a report in The Tribune said.
The framework offers courses for 13 behavioural competencies
The framework offers courses covering 13 behavioural competencies, which are divided into eight core competencies (self-awareness, personal effectiveness, solution orientation, communication, outcome orientation, collaboration, service orientation, and operational excellence) and five leadership competencies (creativity, strategic leadership, collaborative leadership, team leadership, and decision-making).
What’s at the core of the framework
The Indian Knowledge Systems is at the heart of the framework, with an emphasis on the Bhagavad Gita. It stresses on developing four core virtues in public officials: swadhyay (know self), sahakarayata (collaboration), rajya karma (efficient delivery), and svadharma (serving the citizens).
Speaking about this maiden made-in-India module to train 3.2 million central civil servants, R Balasubramaniam, Member, HR, at the Capacity Building Commission, told The Tribune that till now India had been a cheap imitator of the West when it came to training frameworks for the bureaucracy. He added that now, we have our own HR competency framework to train public servants. “It is based on Indian Knowledge Systems and principles of the Bhagavad Gita, and has been tested against global competency frameworks. It took over 18 months to develop it,” said Balasubramaniam.
The framework is aimed at decolonising civil service training, and expects to meet the needs of employees working across almost 60 ministries, 93 departments, and more than 2,600 organisations under them. Balasubramaniam pointed out that the commission has mapped the roles of each employee in their respective areas and identified the specific competencies needed to achieve the outcomes desired.
To begin with, the commission has organised 1,500 courses on iGOT (integrated online training space), a central repository for the training programme. It is hoped that this will go up to 5,000 in a year.
The most-sought-after courses are Viksit Bharat, Citizen Centricity, Jan Bhaagidaari, Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, 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), AI and Machine Learning.
Regarding how the commission decided the elements of the framework, Balasubramaniam pointed out that they examined 10 years of the Prime Minister’s life and his repeated messages about shaping India’s future.
Balasubramaniam said: “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.” It is expected of every public servant that he/she would complete 50 hours of training every year in the physical and virtual formats.
About the importance to imbibe Bhagavad Gita principles for governance, Balasubramaniam recounted Daniel Goleman’s seminal work “Emotional Intelligence” that is inspired by the Gita.
As the framework has been introduced, the Centre intends to hold an annual National Learning Week to offer in-person training for public servants at both the Central and state levels. The first edition of this week, which recently concluded in the Capital, witnessed the participation of 4.8 million civil servants from across the Centre and states, with 43 percent completing at least four courses.
