Harvard lessons for babus

AHMEDABAD: After army officers and police officials, it’s now the turn of Indian babus to go back to school. And giving them some lessons in governance are dons from Harvard and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad.
The objective - to give Indian babus a taste of the latest trends in governance. Already 96 Indian Administrative Services officers from the 1979, 1980 and 1981 batches from across the country have trooped into the IIM-A campus for a four-week programme on ‘Governance Challenges for India’ being conducted by IIM-A jointly with the faculty of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.Incidentally, the Kennedy School, which has been awarded training responsibilities by the Indian government, has been training government officials for nearly 25 years. Prof Sebastian Morris, who is co-ordinating the programme on behalf of IIM-A, explains: "The focus of the training programme is to give the officers a perspective on growth of the Indian economy, infrastructure, urban issues, administration, rule of law, policy issues as well as emphasis on the social sector – particularly, primary education, health, and sanitation."
So how do the babus feel about going back to the classroom? "It’s a bit difficult going back to the classroom after nearly 30 years," points out GSDMA CEO Rajesh Kishore, who along with Rita Teaotia, who works in the health department, is one of the babus undergoing the training.
An IIM-A alumnus from the 1976-78 batch, Kishore feels that though intense and taxing, the experience was interesting. "The first week was very interesting though there may be some mismatch between the contents of the course and the experiences we have had while serving in different parts of the country. For instance, public governance environment in AP, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, MP or UP is very different from that in Gujarat."