WHAT brings government officials to Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad now?

A matter of policy. Sponsored by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Government of India, five IAS officials, four from Defence services, two from the IRS, one each from IPS and the Railways and a few others on Sunday began the Post Graduate Programme in Public Management and Policy (PGP-PMP) at the institute.

They are among the 37 candidates, including those from private enterprises and NGOs, who were recently shortlisted for the course.

While for these government officials, formulating public policy and then making sure it is implemented comes with the territory, they agree that some ‘course correction’ may go a long way in improving results.

“We require a certain level of understanding in implementing policies effectively. I personally feel, and you will agree with me, that there is a huge scope for a better policy for taxpayers,” says Shankar Kishore, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer posted as an A Commissioner in Hyderabad who has opted for the course.

Mahmood Ur Rehman, an Indian Telecom Service (ITS) official based in Delhi, sees huge scope for training in policy implementation for government officials. “Technology in telecom sector is changing. With a number of private players coming into the picture, there are a number of issues that need to be reworked if one has to survive in the competitive atmosphere,’’ he says adding: “If we are not clear on implementing policies, people will cheat us.’’ For Pondicherry District Collector, Sudhir Kumar, understanding problems involved in policy implementation is in itself a challenging task.

For effective implementation, it is important that the solution is well chalked-out, he says.

“I have served as a District Collector in Arunachal Pradesh which was infested with insurgency and I am now serving as a Collector in a relatively peaceful district. Whatever the situation, the challenge in policy implementation always remains,’’ he adds.

The course at IIM-A covers a wide range of subjects like public policy formulation and implementation, financial regulation, infrastructure development, and public enterprise management. IIM, Bangalore is the only other IIM to have such course.


Courtesy : Expressindia.com

AFTER weighing the pros and cons of switching to decimalisation of coins for almost a century after Sri Lanka did it, India opted for the advanced system in 1957 and to commemorate that, Department of Posts has come out with a special cover which was released by Sandip Ghose, RBI chief general manager in-charge for HR department on Sunday.

Indicating closer business ties with Department of Post (DoP), Ghose said it had been playing an important role in educating people about importance of savings.

He also said that both coins and letters would be there to stay in future despite all technological advances made in the fields of communication and finance. Decimalisation as a concept was important and it had eased all sorts of calculations and computations in money terms, he said.

He suggested that the DoP could organise a letter writing contest to encourage and retain the habit of writing letters among young students, while the RBI would sponsor prizes for the best letter written in any language.

Chief Post Master General of Gujarat Circle Vijayalakshmi Sheth took a walk down the memory lane saying that she and her schoolmates used to preserve small coins as their treasure trove to show off among fellow students.

She said that post offices were earlier used by the government to educate people about coinage, and even now, the institution was serving as a major agency to banks for ensuring identities under know-your-customer norms.

RBI regional director B Srinivas narrated the history of Indian coinage and its evolution to the present \form.

A book on decimalisation written by Ashok Kumar Bayanawala, former president of Gujarat Philatelic Association and picture postcard to mark the occasion, prepared by Jaidev Nansey of Nirmal Foundation, Jamnagar were also released at the function.


Courtesy : Expressindi.com