A few Indian civil servants to be posted in Afghanistan for a year to develop system and mentor their bureaucrats

IMAGINE an Indian civil servant with fluency in one of the Afghan languages like Dari and Pashtu! As the hunt for a few officers to be sent to Afghanistan in an UNDP programme has begun, “fluency in Dari or Pashtu” is considered to be an “asset,” according to a circular dated July 6, 2010.

In fact, Indian civil servants with 10 years of services and an ability to carry out tasks independently, should apply for the post. The selected candidates will have to develop concepts, action plans, strategies and programmes on their own during the period of deputation in Afghanistan, which is likely to be one year.

The postings will be under National Institute Building Programme (NIBP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). For continuing Indian assistance in capacity building of Afghan government institution, a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) has recently been signed between the UNDP, government of India (ministry of external affairs) and the government of Afghanistan under the NIBP.

According to the government circular, the requirement under the project will be for areas like policy and strategy development, project management, financial management, procurement, human resource management and other technical areas. The focus of the NIBP shall be on advisory services for policy development and systems and procedures improvement, in addition to coaching and mentoring as a tool for capacity development of Afghanistan Civil Service.

Action and Appointments

a) The extension of Central deputation tenure of RK Mishra, a 1986 batch Bihar cadre IPS and Inspector General (IG), CISF for a period of 3 months beyond July 30, has been approved.

b) The competent authority has approved the assignment of additional charge of the post of chairman, Staff Selection Commission to Dr SK Sarkar, a 1979 batch West Bengal cadre IAS who is now additional secretary in the department of personnel and training.

c) The chairperson of National Women Commissions, Dr Girija Vyas and the chairpersons and member secretaries of the State Women Commissions met President Pratibha Devisingh Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on Tuesday.

d) Secretary, department of public enterprises Bhaskar Chatterjee and the director general, ICPE, Dr Stefan Salej (See Picture) exchanged signed documents of the MoU between Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and the International Centre for Promotion of Enterprises (ICPE), government  of Republic of Slovenia in New Delhi on Wednesday.