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6 The Academy Oct.-Nov. 2008 7 The Academy Oct.-Nov. 2008
of Women and Child, Orissa, to assess the state
government's “Mahila Shishu Desk” initiative. The
main aim of the study is to highlight the lessons
learnt from the ongoing activities and design a
roadmap for continuous improvement to
institutionalize the best practices.
Seminars/ Symposium
A National Level Conference on
'Mainstreaming Gender Issues' was organized
by the National Centre for Gender Training
and Research on 13th to 15th November, 2008
The National Institute of Administrative
Research ( NIAR) at the benediction and
benefaction of the 'Thirteenth Finance
Commission' organized a National Level
Workshop on “Development of Indicators of
Governance” at Indian International Centre,
New Delhi on 14th November, 2008.
VIII Central Training Institute's Conference,
The VIII conference hosted in Academy on
16th October,2008 was in continuum to the
previous conferences held in succession at
various Central Training Institutes.
Networking and sharing training resources
amongst the Central Training Institutes was
the pivotal theme of the conference. The
deliberations triggered by collective wisdom
resulted in quite a few novel
recommendations, to name a few, the
volunteership offered by Foreign Service
Institute New Delhi to facilitate international
training programmes for officers of varied civil
services, creation of a Consortium of CTIs ,
holding a thematic training module at the
Academy for the different batches of yester
years foundation courses that comprise of the
conglomeration of officers from all the civil
services.
Faculty Publications
An article on “NICTU An ICT Training Hub for
Civil Servants” was published in Informatics An e-
governance bulletin from NIC, Volume 17, No. 1,
July 2008 jointly authored by NICTU Team.
A Research Paper entitled “Women in Rural Indian
Households and Energy Needs: Struggle and Solace
Cultural Perspective to Reality” authored by
Dr. N. K. Kumaresan Raja , Professor, Centre for
Rural Studies was published in the Edited Volume
on “The Culture of Energy” by Mogens Rudiger,
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK, 2008
Publications from the 'Cannons of
Research' of the Academy
The Academy proudly brings out two 'Journals',
with and of profound professional acumen in the
endeavor of translating the motto of the Academy
by way of publications.
The Administrator
The Journal operates as a mirror of issues
pertaining to contemporary issues in Indian as
well as Global Public Administration. We are
proud to hear from our officer trainees that the
journal was a part of their life jackets during their
gauntlet years of swimming in the waters of Civil
Services Exams finding the shores!
Service Quality
“Service Quality”- the mitochondrion of the
principles of “Total Quality Management”, a
prodigy from the neurons of Shri. Padamvir Singh,
the Joint Director, deciphers his aims of redefining
the pre-established definitions of “Service Quality”
of delivery systems in Government
Administration.
Utmost importance is given for 'out of box
thinking' to ensure optimum quality, confirming
to international benchmarks in every public
service delivery system and articles spearheading
such visions and missions of discovering the
indicators ensuring “Service Quality” is the focal
theme of the contents of the Journal.
Retreat for the 1958 batch
Arti Ahuja*
The batch of 1958 was unique- it was the last batch of
the IAS to be trained at the Metcalfe house in Delhi.
After that, the training was shifted to the National
Academy, as it was then called, at Mussoorie. From
Metcalfe and its proximity to the powers at Delhi, to
the cool, meditative environs of Mussoorie was
indeed a quantum jump, literally and figuratively, for
the idea of training civil servants. This was evident in
the reminiscences of the batch- they recounted with
delight their close interaction with the Prime Minister
Mr Jawaharlal Nehru and other dignitaries including
the Home Minister Mr Pant, before whom they
successfully protested against shifting the Academy
to Mussoorie during their training period! Metcalfe
house, with its colonial grandeur and sprawling
lawns symbolized the handing over of the reigns of
government from the ICS to the IAS and the IFS. The
batch was understandably nostalgic about the time
spent there, and we were regaled with numerous
stories about the training there.
21 members of the batch, some with their spouses,
attended the retreat. Members of the batch, who were
no more, were fondly remembered by the entire
batch before the proceedings started. For the first
time, members of the Indian Foreign Service who
were trained together with the batch at Metcalfe
house were invited. One officer attended the retreat,
and his reminiscences added depth to the
deliberations. It was a pleasure for the faculty to be
part of the sharing of their memories-the group had
many highly distinguished members, who had
achieved excellence in their careers as well as beyond
that. They had braved many odds and achieved a lot
for the country in the areas they had worked in. The
batch also has been highly prolific-we were initially
able to find 16 books written by the batch members,
with more coming to light during the deliberations!
During the retreat, the 82nd Foundation Course was
also going on. Escort Officers from the FC were able
to have a close and meaningful interaction with the
seniors. There was also a structured panel
discussion with all the young Officer Trainees of the
Foundation Course- an experience that was found
very useful by both groups. The 1958 batch also
contributed to the training inputs by giving their
suggestions on various areas of concern for the
officer trainees. This was done through discussion
in groups and arriving at a set of recommendations.
The retreat was given a touch of warmth and colour
by the spouses who gamefully sang at the Director's
dinner and braved the sporadic rain showers at the
valedictory in Polo ground. The last group photo
with the ubiquitous umbrellas become probably the
defining moment of the retreat and the batch gettogether.
There were moments of rain and sunshine,
but they were all greeted with good humour and
immense camaraderie and grace. This was how the
officers had also lived their lives- standing tall
under adversity and paving the way for the future
generation of officers. It was a pleasure coordinating
the retreat for this unique and wonderful batch.
* Former Deputy Director(Sr.), LBSNAA
An agenda for better governance-
What needs to be done?
Padamvir Singh*
To attain global standards in the quality of
governance, consider adopting the following policy
framework:
Improve Service Delivery by focusing on the
following key performance enablers:
Prerequisites
Develop and implement a core governance and
core reform agenda;
Firmly establish the rule of law and maintain
public order at all times as the basic foundation of
good governance;
Keep public interest supreme and place people at
the centre of all government activity;
cont. on p.8