Union Cabinet Approves Mission Karmayogi For Civil Services Reforms

Days after announcing the National Recruitment Agency (NRA), which will conduct computer based common eligibility test for central government jobs, the Union Cabinet today approved Mission Karmayogi - "the biggest human resource development programme in the government" - for bringing post-recruitment reforms in civil services.

The scheme aims to standardise training, and create shared faculty and resources that would offer "officers and government employees an opportunity to improve their performance", Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said at a media briefing.

"Mission Karmayogi will help end subjective evaluation and ensure scientifically-devised, objective and real-time assessment of employees. It focuses on individual (civil servants) and institutional capacity building. At the top, there will be the Prime Minister's HR council consisting of chief ministers and international experts. The council will be headed by the Prime Minister himself," Mr Javadekar said.

Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said the scheme has been brought about with the intervention of the Prime Minister.

"Mission Karmayogi is an endeavour to reincarnate a government servant into an ideal karmayogi (a man driven by his work) to serve the nation by enabling him to be creative, to be constructive, to be pro-active and technically empowered. The endeavour is also to end the culture of working in (departmental) silos; to overcome the multiplicity of training curriculum by the introduction of a common platform for realisation of the nation's vision and of our shared aspiration and future goals," Mr Singh said.

Department of Personnel and Training secretary C Chandramouli said Mission Karmayogi is constituted to focuses on competency-led capacity building, which will not only focus on individual capacity building, but also on institutional capacity building, and the process.

"The mission will have a total outlay of Rs 510 crore over a period of five years," the Union Minister of State for Personnel said.