Babus in Demand: Indian bureaucrats wanted for mentoring Afghan civil servants

IF YOU are a civil servant with 10 years of work experience, you have a chance to venture out to Afghanistan for a year’s project and mentor Afghan civil servants. The government is looking for suitable civil servants for sending to Afghanistan under the National Institute Building Programme (NIBP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The deputation will be for a period of one year. India has been assisting the government of Afghanistan in capacity building progammes of the war-ravaged Asian nation.

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 apart from coaching and mentoring as a tool for capacity development of Afghanistan civil service.

The DoPT issued a circular dated March 4, 2011 with the regard and gave copies to all secretaries of Government of India and chief secretaries of the state governments.

Some of the eligibility criteria include the candidate’s ability to carry out tasks independently, develop concepts, action plans, strategies, programmes etc. Also, fluency in one of the Afghan languages such as Dari and Pashtu is considered to be assets.

Action and Appointments

a) Anup Wadhawan, a 1985 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the department of commerce in place of Anil G Mukim, a 1987 batch Gujarat cadre IAS who has been appointed as CVO of HUDCO.

b) Ms G Madhumita Das, a 1996 batch Indian Postal Service officer has been appointed as director in the department of revenue under the ministry of finance.