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Overhauling Indian governance, Mission Karmayogi modernises and equips India’s civil servants with AI-enabled learning tools, leadership skills, and multidisciplinary expertise, building a future-ready government.
Image Source: Getty
In a country like India, with a population of 1.4 billion, the quality of governance rests at the critical juncture of civil services. A competent civil service equipped to deal with contemporary and modern challenges as an integral part of democratic and efficient governance is the need of the hour.
The Government of India, in its bid to transform civil services from rule-based to role-based and ensure continuous and data-driven learning, coupled with performance analysis, launched the ‘Mission Karmayogi’ programme. It adopts a competency-driven capacity-building approach, leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) for assessing competency levels and gaps, as well as enabling data-driven strategic Human Resource (HR) management and decision-making. Mission Karmayogi aims to build a future-ready civil service with the fitting attitude, skills, knowledge, and vision for a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
Mission Karmayogi aims to build a future-ready civil service with the fitting attitude, skills, knowledge, and vision for a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
The mission builds on the Civil Services Competency Dictionary released by the Department of Personnel & Training and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2014, which comprised four main themes (ethos, ethics, equity, and efficiency) and 25 domain-specific approaches. This programme is a strategic departure from the past as it aims to instil the mindset of a karmayogi in public service, where kartavya (duty) and national service are mediums to achieve personal and societal enlightenment, which is also one of the Fundamental Duties in the Constitution of India.
The Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT) platform, which is at the heart of Mission Karmayogi, is an ambitious initiative towards democratising civil services training and learning for all and fosters a culture of continuous learning, which is critical to remain competent in the 21st century. Over 7.5 million civil servants have been learning across 2,000 courses on iGOT. This is transformative, especially in a rapidly evolving and dynamically changing VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world. Its interactive and simple user interface provides a seamless experience to enable effective learning.
Complementing iGOT are capacity-building initiatives on digital governance conducted by the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. NeGD collaborates with various reputed national institutions to provide online and in-person training experiences that are engaging, and interactive. It also incorporates real-life case studies from the Indian context, making learning more conducive to concerted action.
NeGD collaborates with various reputed national institutions to provide online and in-person training experiences that are engaging, and interactive.
Under the Mission Karmayogi programme, the Capacity Building Commission collaborates with national- and state-level civil service training institutes and government and private sector educational and capacity-building organisations. By involving the entire critical infrastructure towards the capacity building of civil servants, it has made learning accessible, democratic, role-based, and competency-driven, which is motivating and energising.
The dedicated effort to train civil servants through online and in-person training based on a role-based competency framework is a step in the right direction. The way forward is to ensure that no officer is left behind from the holistic development proposed in this framework.
First, the capacity-building approach must not become overly technocratic, with complete dependency on technical skills and online modules. Although it is a transformative digital platform, iGOT cannot replace the cohort-based, in-person, interactive learning and training opportunities that provide varied experiences and exposure.
Second, there is a need to ensure that entry-level officers and the entire lower-rung bureaucracy, which constitute a majority of the officers and staff in the union and state governments, are trained effectively. They are the first point of contact with the public and are the levers of policy implementation. The edifice of public administration rests on the officers’ ethical practices, efficient performance and agile mindset. Therefore, they are crucial stakeholders in the success of Mission Karmayogi and India’s developmental journey.
The edifice of public administration rests on the officers’ ethical practices, efficient performance and agile mindset.
Finally, the emphasis is on training civil servants to become ‘deep generalists’, as described by Andrew Sobel. While generalists have a breadth of knowledge and experience, specialists have depth in their knowledge and expertise. However, in today’s VUCA world, breadth or depth alone does not suffice. The need is to make knowledge connections across disciplines and domains, synthesise these connections, and analyse them to benefit overall public service delivery and public administration. This is where deep generalists come in. Deep generalists embody the versatility, foresight, and integrative thinking necessary to thrive in this new technology age, ensuring that technology development remains aligned with human values, societal benefits, and ethical standards. They have the prerequisite skills to lead and manage teams composed of specialists, understanding enough of each discipline to guide, integrate, and leverage their expertise. Thus, there is a need to train and develop deep generalists in the civil services for better public administration.
Sports generalist David Epstein, in his book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, states that “in a world that increasingly incentivises, even demands hyperspecialisation”, we need more people “who start broad and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives while they progress.”
Epstein further argues that polymaths are crucial for complex decision-making and innovative behaviour. He compares a “kind environment” with a “wicked” one. He argues, “In kind environments, where the goal is to re-create prior performance with as little deviation as possible, teams of specialists work superbly.” In contrast, in “wicked environments” where the task is not repetitive but synthesises multiple threads of information and acts on them, generalists with a “systems thinking” approach come in handy.
In a VUCA world, tunnel vision is counterproductive, especially in the medium and top levels of civil services. Thus, it is crucial to develop deep generalists through cross-training and exposure to multidisciplinary domains. This will broaden the horizons of the civil services and lead to a collaborative partnership based on moral integrity and dedication to national (public) service.
It is crucial to develop deep generalists through cross-training and exposure to multidisciplinary domains.
Mission Karmayogi has the potential to transform India’s governance outcomes, elevating public trust and ensuring that bureaucratic machinery keeps pace with national aspirations. It represents a strategic investment in India’s administrative future, promoting innovation, efficiency, and responsiveness within the civil services. To sustain this momentum, continuous evaluation, adaptability, and commitment to learning and contributing are required at all levels. India is progressing towards cultivating an empowered, competent, and agile civil service. The call to action via this commentary is to foster a mindset of national service with moral integrity and a culture of personal and societal excellence. By becoming deep generalists with the ethos of a people-first approach, the civil services will be geared towards an ethical, responsive, and seamless public service.
The views presented here are personal and do not represent those of the government.
Avinash Pandey, Indian Revenue Services (IRS), is Deputy Commissioner of Customs and Indirect Taxes, Ludhiana.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
Avinash Pandey is an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer with the Government of India. His diverse experience spans taxation, international trade and commerce, public leadership, ...
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