Life at LBSNAA: What officer trainees like, act and play; and the photos, videos that they post

Young officers participating in a sanitation campaign in a Mussoorie village

“Lovely morning to realize that my name is after a yoga aasana!! #shashankaasana” – Shashanka Ala, a Madras IIT graduate-turned IAS of 2014 batch, posts this in a social media site. Ms Ala hails from Andhra and is now allotted Odisha cadre. Another IAS of 2014 batch Bhupesh Chaudhary, hailing from Haryana, posts a photo in Twitter with a caption saying: “One last sunrise from Dalai hill. Will miss you #Mussoorie #lbsnaa”, as the IAS officer trainees completed the phase I of their training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie. Chaudhary is allotted AGMUT cadre. As young officers who are undertaking training at LBSNAA are highly active in…
social media, the activities of the campus are quite in public domain. And BoI’s view: Yes, it’s a healthy sign of B (bureaucrat) to C (citizen) interaction.
Sample this: When a group of officer trainees participated in a total sanitation campaign in Saini village of Mussorie, they made it a point to post the photo in social media sites. And when another IAS probationer of 2014 batch Divya Iyer who scripted and performed in a play in the campus, posted her acting photos with this caption: “Theatre can b a tremendous learning experience! Scripted and Performed in LBSNAA, on female infanticide #empoweringwomen”. Ms Iyre belongs to Kerala, and is also allotted the Kerala cadre.
Young officers in Mussoorie also post in social media sites what they really like. For example, someone liked secretary Arvind Mayaram’s talk on public private partnership at LBSNAA. Mayaram, now a minority affairs secretary, used to handle PPP division in finance ministry and knows hits and misses of PPP initiatives in India at his finger tips.
Then, officers undertaking training at LBSNAA liked the social media tips given by Amitabh Kant, DIPP secretary and the officer behind prime minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative.  “@amitabhk87 Sir, it was a pleasure to have you for a talk during Foundation Course. We are using your tips in a social media project now”.
 And thanks to social media, you come to know that the motivational speaker and Yoga teacher Dr Himanshu Rai reaches LBSNAA to give a talk on negotiations and leadership to the IAS probationers. Or Professor Neerja Pande of IIM Lucknow speaks on effective communications for IAS at the campus. And then, IIM-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta tweets as he returns after giving a lecture in Mussoorie. “Returning from lbsnaa Mussoorie to delhi on way to ahmedabad Tom morning”
A doctor-turned IAS Roman Saini, who describes himself “a small cog in nation building” posts a selfie with political analyst and former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav. The Tweet says: “At LBSNAA, he told us Indian democracy is maturing and people want development. Congrats @AapYogendra real test begins”.
And Sadnek Singh, 2014 batch Assam cadre IAS and the one who describes himself an “IAS officer, Doctor, Innovator, Chess player”, tweets on an interesting LBSNAA video. In fact, a number of probationers across services make short videos on the campus, edit those and post in You Tube.