1-Jul-2022: Digital District Repository (DDR) Exhibition inaugurated at, LBSNAA, Mussoorie

Under the auspices of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM), the  Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Shri Pushkar Singh Dhami inaugurated  the Digital District Repository (DDR) on 27 June 2022 in the premises of prestigious Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) at Mussoorie.

Around 400 officer trainees (OTs) participated in the celebrations which comprised paying tributes at busts of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, virtual inauguration by the  CM of Exhibition on the Digital District Repository (DDR) at Indira Bhawan (LBSNAA) ,Seminar on DDR at Sampoornanand Auditorium, Cultural evening by the North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC).

The event encouraged the OTs to contribute stories from the districts where they shall be posted.

The Digital District Repository (DDR) is an attempt to discover and document stories of India at the ‘micro level’ of district. It is divided into four categories (People and Personalities, events and happenings, Living traditions and art forms, hidden Treasures) in accordance with the contribution to our freedom struggle

Shri Govind Mohan, Secretary,  Culture during his presentation, said “Local History often resides amongst us in the form of stories, anecdotes, fading memories ,etc. And unless we make an effort to document them over time they are often Lost Forever”. He further talked about the prison cells in IIT, where freedom fighters Santosh Kumar Mitra and Tarakeswar Sen Gupta were martyred. 

He talked about Godavari Parulekar (then Gokhale), another lesser-known freedom fighter born in Pune. She participated in individual Satyagrahas and was imprisoned for that in the year 1932. She was the first female member of the Servants of India Society.

It was further informed that the Sordar of Nongkhlaw (local village Head) in Eastern West Khasi Hills District is leading the efforts to preserve the imprints of the Meghalaya Braveheart & his band of courageous followers, who kept the much better armed British at bay for nearly 5 years from these “ krem Tirot “ (Tirot Singh Caves).

A 5 minutes’ video on the Digital District Repository (DDR) was also played so as to make the OTs aware of the project and thereby, contribute in it.

Secretary (Culture) shed light on the Har Ghar Tiranga programme under AKAM, wherein hoisting of the Tiranga shall take place at home and at work. The rationale behind the initiative is to foster the spirit of patriotism, bind the country together celebrating the AAN, BAAN, SHAAN of the Tiranga, and in 75th year of independence commit to nation building collectively by working towards India@2047.

Lastly, he requested everyone to pay their tribute to the brave hearts who laid their lives for the cause of the nation, through the medium of Digital Jyot at: https://digitaltribute.in/

The evening concluded with a cultural show organized by the NZCC.

The DDR Exhibition inaugurated at the Indira Bhawan, LBSNAA, Mussoorie will be open for the public till 3 July 2022. It has special attractions such as the digital interactive panels and rare photographs from the archives.

24-Mar-2022: Training And Syllabus In LBSNAA

Requisite changes are considered in the Syllabus/Training modules of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) from time to time, keeping in view the requirement. Besides regular course curriculum, the Academy endeavours to make the training relevant to the current context  in a number of ways such as:

1. Exposure to the socio-economic realities of rural life through firsthand experience using techniques of participatory learning and action
2. Experiential and immersion modules to border areas, forward posts of defence forces and visits to community development organizations.
3. Emphasis on learnings from interactions with members of disadvantaged communities of society during village visits and district training.
4. Encouraging trainees to take up projects related to the current socio-economic challenges in order to gain better insights and learning.
5. Exposure to our rich natural heritage and sensitivity to the environment through week long treks in the interior Himalayas.

17-Mar-2022: PM addresses Valedictory Function of 96th Common Foundation Course at LBSNAA

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressed the Valedictory Function of 96th Common Foundation Course at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) today via video conferencing. He also inaugurated the new sports complex and dedicated revamped Happy Valley Complex to the Nation.

At the outset, the Prime Minister greeted the officers on completing their course and conveyed his wishes on the joyous occasion of Holi. He noted the uniqueness of the outgoing batch as this batch is entering the active service in the year of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. “Your batch will play a key role in the nation’s development in the Amrit Kaal of the next 25 year”, he added.

The Prime Minister underlined the emerging new world order in the post-pandemic world. He said the that the world is looking towards India at this juncture of 21st century. “In this new world order, India has to increase its role and develop itself at a fast pace”, he said. He asked the officers to keep in mind the importance of this period with special focus on the ‘biggest goal of the 21st century’ i.e. the goal of AatmaNirbhar Bharat and Modern India. “We can’t afford to lose this opportunity”, he said.

Referring to the views of Sardar Patel on civil services, the Prime Minister said that sense of service and duty has been the integral part of the training. “In all your years of service, these factors of service and duty should be the measure of your personal and professional success”, he added. He said work is never a burden when done with a sense of duty and purpose. He told the officers that they have come to the service with a sense of purpose and to be a part of a positive change in the context of the society and the country.

The Prime Minister emphasized the need to embrace the experience from the field as real feel of the issues of the file come from the field. He said that files do not contain just the numbers and statistics but they contain life and aspirations of the people. “You do not have to work for numbers but for the lives of the people”, he said. The Prime Minister said that the officers should always go the root cause of the problems and rationale of the rules in order to give permanent solution.  The Prime Minister said that in this period of Amrit Kaal, we have to take Reform, Perform, Transform to the next level. That is why today's India is moving ahead with the spirit of ‘Sabka Prayas’. He also recalled Mahatma Gandhi’s mantra that every decision should be evaluated on the touchstone of the welfare of the last person in the last line.

The Prime Minister gave the officers task of identifying 5-6 challenges of their districts at local level and work for those issues. He said identification of the challenges is the first step in the rectification of the challenges. He gave the example of government’s identification of challenges of providing pucca houses and electricity connection for the poor, which were addressed by schemes like PM Awas Yojana, Saubhagya Scheme and schemes for Aspirational Districts. He also talked of the new determination of saturation of these schemes. He stressed the need for coordination in various infrastructure projects and said that PM GatiShakti Master Plan will address it to a great extent.

The Prime Minister mentioned the new reforms in the sphere of civil services i.e. Mission Karmayogi and Aarambh Programme. The Prime Minister said that the officers should pray that they should never get an easy assignment as Challenging job has joy of its own. “The more you think of going to the Comfort Zone, the more you will stop your progress and the progress of the country”, the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister advised the officers for recording their aspirations and plans at the time of their departure from the Academy to revisit them after 25 or 50 years to evaluate the level of achievement. He also asked the inclusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) related courses and resources in the syllabus as future problems will have a huge element of data science and ability to sift through that data.

The 96th Foundation Course is the first Common Foundation Course at LBSNAA based on the principles of Mission Karmayogi, with new pedagogy and course design. The batch comprises of 488 OTs from 16 services and 3 Royal Bhutan Services (Administrative, Police and Forest).

To harness the adventurous and innovative spirit of the youthful batch, new pedagogy guided by the principles of Mission Karmayogi was designed. Emphasis was put on transforming the Officer Trainee from a student /citizen into a public servant through initiatives like interaction with Padma Awardees in the spirit of  “Sabka Prayas” and  village visit for an immersive experience of rural India. Officer Trainees also visited villages in remote/border areas to understand the challenges faced by people living in these areas. Modular approach for Curriculum was adopted in consonance with the principle of continuous graded learning and self-guided learning. In addition to health tests, fitness tests were also carried out to support the transition of an ‘exam burdened student’ to a ‘healthy youthful civil servant’. All 488 Officer Trainees were given first level training in Krav Maga and in various  other sports.

10-Sep-2020: Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh addresses 61st Foundation Day celebration of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) Mussoorie had started conducting “Combined" Foundation Course by enlarging the spectrum of this course, which earlier included only IAS and a few other Services. For the first time, the Academy was conducting a "Combined" Foundation Course by including over 20 different Services from the government sector.

He said, in future, an attempt will be made to further enlarge the spectrum of Foundation Course by including other Services also.

This is in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to come out of a state of silos and, instead, develop a common perspective and a common vision for all functionaries, across the services.

Addressing the 61st Foundation Day celebration of the Academy, Dr Jitendra Singh said, that the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration is one of the premier institutes not only in the Indian subcontinent, but in the entire world. He said that an era spanning six decades is a significant time in the history of an Institution and the way Academy has evolved over the years bears ample testimony to the sweat, toil and vision of those who have nurtured it.

Extending his felicitations to the entire fraternity of the Academy under the leadership of Dr Sanjeev Chopra, an erudite scholar and administrator, he congratulated the Academy for delivering out of box solutions much ahead of deadlines, for designing all-inclusive training and pedagogical techniques, for embracing state of the art Technology, for making a social and ecological impact while leaving behind a set of best practices in every domain. He expressed satisfaction that the Academy is continuously training the Pioneers to fight the future challenges.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s penchant for Governance Reforms, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled the address by PM to Civil Servants last year at Kevadia in Gujarat, where he said, “Every effort made with impartial and selfless spirit is the strong foundation of New India.

To fulfil the dream of a New India, 21st century thinking and dreams are indispensable in our bureaucracy - a bureaucracy that is creative and constructive, imaginative and innovative, proactive and polite, professional and progressive, energetic and enabling, efficient and effective, transparent and tech-enabled”.

The Minister also referred to Prime Minister’s two-day visit to LBSNAA in 2017, where he had extensively interacted with Officer Trainees of 92nd Foundation Course and gave them the mantra of coming out of silos and focusing on the theme of constant learning. He said, to fulfil this novel thought, the Union Cabinet recently passed Mission Karmayogi-a National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB), which he said will go a long way in creating a new future ready civil service for a New India. He said, it is an endeavour to incarnate civil services into a real Karmayogi who is Creative, Constructive, Proactive and Technically Empowered to face the future challenges. The Union Cabinet also passed NRA recently for ease of aspiring candidates, but Mission Karmayogi harps on constant learning after one has joined the services, he added.

Similarly, he said that DoPT in April this year launched a learning platform (https://igot.gov.in) with an exclusive window for Corona warriors and within 10-15 days of its launch, more than 25 officers registered and got trained on the platform. Referring to another initiative of monitoring 700 Districts for Corona Management, Dr Jitendra Singh said that young collectors have played a stellar role in this with on-spot decision making. He pointed out that one of the reasons for this high-quality performance was that IAS officers who had served as Assistant Secretaries in Government of India had gained from their mentorship in Union Government, again a first and out of box idea of Modi Government.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said that over the last few months, India has shown to the world that despite the crippling Corona crisis, the show goes on as smoothly as during the pre-pandemic times. He added that it is extremely heartening to learn that the Academy is now preparing for the first and the largest Combined Foundation Course in these times of Corona and assured full support for its success. He also expressed happiness about the Academy's initiative to spread the message of our ancient heritage of Ayurveda, Yoga and associated culture of living in harmony with Nature.

Dr. Jitendra Singh released a Publication- a compilation of articles on lesser known Heroes of Freedom Movement on the occasion. At the end of the programme, employees of the Academy were felicitated for their exemplary work.