India to train 1,500 civil servants of Bangladesh from 2025

Bangladesh and India have agreed on extending a programme under which 1,500 Bangladesh’s mid-career civil servants will be trained in India for five years from the year 2025.  

The agreement was reached during a three-day meeting between a four-member delegation of the Indian Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and Bangladesh’s Ministry of Public Administration, Government of Bangladesh in Dhaka on Tuesday.

The Indian delegation to Bangladesh went to Dhaka at the invitation of the Bangladesh Ministry of Public Administration with focus on the mid-career capacity-building programs in field administration for Bangladesh civil servants.

V.Srinivas, Secretary, DARPG said cordial and constructive discussions were held with senior officials of the Ministry of Public Administration of Bangladesh from April 28 to 30 regarding the renewal of the MOU between The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), India, and Bangladesh Ministry of Public Administration for the period 2025-2030, an official statement issued on Tuesday night said.

The NCGG, India, and the Bangladesh Ministry of Public Administration have collaborated in conducting capacity-building programmes for Bangladesh civil servants since 2014. Under the bilateral collaboration, 71 such programmes were held and 2,600 Bangladesh civil servants have visited the National Centre for Good Governance in India since 2014.

The Bangladesh government has emphasized the utility of the training programmes and conveyed an interest in the renewal of the MOU between NCGG and the Bangladesh  Ministry of Public Administration under which these training programs are being organized for the next 5 years when it expires in 2025.

 For the year 2024-25, 12 mid-career capacity building programs including two programmes for Deputy Commissioners have been planned to cover 400 Bangladesh civil service officers.

 During the visit, Srinivas called on Minister of Public Administration Farhad Hussain and held bilateral meetings with Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration Mohammad Mezbahuddin Chowdhary, Director General of the Civil Service Administration Academy MD Omar Farouque Director General of the Public Administration Training Centre Ashraff Uddin, Director General Governance Innovation Unit in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr Mohammad Abdul Latif and Additional Secretary Career Planning and Training Wing of Ministry of Public Administration Dr Ziaul Haque.

Srinivas addressed 132 participants of the Law and Administration Courses and Faculty of Bangladesh Civil Services Administration Academy on “Institutionalization of Smart Governance to Enhance Public Service Delivery”.

In his discussions with the senior officials of the Bangladesh government, Srinivas reiterated India’s commitment to collaborating in fulfilling the Vision Bangladesh@2041 and SMART Bangladesh through the conduct of capacity-building programmes for a future-ready Bangladesh civil service.

Further, he said the NCGG would adopt the suggestions received from the Bangladesh authorities for the conduct of senior management programmes of one-week duration, faculty development with the Bangladesh Civil Service Academy of Administration and Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre, as also the middle–management programmes.

India and Bangladesh would work together to develop international best practices in innovation in governance, share the construct of the Civil Services Day events, secretariat reforms and the programs for recognizing meritocracy and benchmarking governance.

India’s National Centre for Good Governance conducts a capacity-building programme for middle and senior management and faculty development covering new paradigms of governance like project management, public procurement, blue economy and food processing.