Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) - Skill Development for Inclusive Growth

According to Census 2011, India has 55 million potential workers between the ages of 15 and 35 years in rural areas. At the same time, the world is expected to face a shortage of 57 million workers by 2020. This presents a historic opportunity for India to transform its demographic surplus into a demographic dividend. The Ministry of Rural Development implements DDU-GKY to drive this national agenda for inclusive growth, by developing skills and productive capacity of the rural youth from poor families.

There are several challenges preventing India’s rural poor from competing in the modern market, such as the lack of formal education and marketable skills. DDU-GKY bridges this gap by funding training projects benchmarked to global standards, with an emphasis on placement, retention, career progression and foreign placement.

Features of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana

·         Enable Poor and Marginalized to Access Benefits

Demand led skill training at no cost to the rural poor

·         Inclusive Program Design

Mandatory coverage of socially disadvantaged groups (SC/ST 50%; Minority 15%; Women 33%)

·         Shifting Emphasis from Training to Career Progression

Pioneers in providing incentives for job retention, career progression and foreign placements

·         Greater Support for Placed Candidates

Post-placement support, migration support and alumni network

·         Proactive Approach to Build Placement Partnerships

Guaranteed Placement for at least 75% trained candidates

·         Enhancing the Capacity of Implementation Partners

Nurturing new training service providers and developing their skills

·         Regional Focus

Greater emphasis on projects for poor rural youth in Jammu and Kashmir (HIMAYAT),

the North-East region and 27 Left-Wing Extremist (LWE) districts (ROSHINI)

·         Standards-led Delivery

All program activities are subject to Standard Operating Procedures that are not open to interpretation by local inspectors. All inspections are supported by geo-tagged, time stamped videos/photographs

Implementation Model

DDU-GKY follows a 3-tier implementation model.  The DDU-GKY National Unit at MoRD functions as the policy-making, technical support and facilitation agency.  The DDU-GKY State Missions provide implementation support; and the Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs) implement the programme through skilling and placement projects.

Project Funding Support

DDU-GKY provides funding support for placement linked skilling projects that address the market demand with funding support ranging from Rs. 25,696 to over Rs. 1 lakh per person, depending on the duration of the project and whether the project is residential or non-residential.  DDU-GKY funds projects with training duration from 576 hours (3 months) to 2304 hours (12 months).

Funding components include support for training costs, boarding and lodging (residential programmes), transportation costs, post-placement support costs, career progression and retention support costs.

 In funding projects, priority is given to PIAs offering:

•     Foreign Placement

•  Captive Employment: Those PIAs or organizations that take up skill training to meet internal ongoing HR needs

• Industry Internships: Support for internships with co-funding from industry

•  Champion Employers:  PIAs who can assure skill training and placement for a minimum of 10,000 DDU-GKY trainees in a span of 2 years  

•  Educational Institution of High Repute: Institutes with a minimum National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grading of 3.5 or Community Colleges with University Grants Commission (UGC)/ All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) funding   willing to take up DDU-GKY projects

Training Requirements

DDU-GKY funds a variety of skill training  programs  covering over 250 trades  across a range of sectors  such as Retail, Hospitality , Health, Construction, Automotive, Leather, Electrical, Plumbing, Gems and Jewelry, to name a few.  The only mandate is that skill training should be demand based and lead to placement of at least 75% of the trainees.

The trade specific skills are required to follow the curriculum and norms prescribed by specified national agencies: the National Council for Vocational Training and Sector Skills Councils.

In addition to the trade specific skills, training must be provided in employability and soft skills, functional English and functional Informational technology literacy so that the training can build cross cutting essential skills.

Training Quality Assurance

Through the National Policy on Skill Development, 2009, India recognized the need for the development of a national qualification framework that would transcend both general education and vocational education and training.  Accordingly, GOI has notified the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) in order to develop nationally standardized, and internationally comparable qualification mechanism for skill training programs which can also provide for interoperability with the mainstream education system.

In line with NSQF, DDU-GKY mandates independent third party assessment and certification by assessment bodies empanelled by the NCVT or SSCs.

Scale and Impact

DDU-GKY is applicable to the entire country.  The scheme is being implemented currently in 33States/UTs across 610 districts partnering currently with over 202 PIAs covering more than 250 trades across 50+ sectors.  So far, from the year 2004-05 till 30th November 2014, a total of 10.94 lakh candidates have been trained and a total of 8.51 lakh candidates have been given placement

Amartya Sen awarded inaugural John Maynard Keynes Prize 2015

Eminent Indian economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has been awarded the inaugural Charleston-EFG John Maynard Keynes Prize 2015.

He was chosen for this award for his ground-breaking work that has profound impact on the formation of development policy worldwide and outstanding contribution to society.

Amartya Sen will receive £7,500 to commission a work of art. He will also give the annual Charleston-EFG Keynes Lecture on the topic The Economic Consequences of Austerity at the Charleston Festival on 23 May 2015.

About Amartya Sen

• Amartya Sen was born on 3 November 1933 in Manikganj district in British India (Now in Bangladesh).
• He is regarded as one of the foremost thinkers in the field of famine, poverty, social choice and welfare economics.
• He was teacher and a research scholar in the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, West Bengal.. Currently, he is a Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University.
• His has authored more than 100 books which have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Awards: He has won many prestigious awards. Few of them are

• Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 for his work in welfare economics.
• Bharat Ratna- India’s highest Civilian Award in 1999.
• National Humanities Medal in 2012.

About Charleston-EFG John Maynard Keynes Prize

It is an international award, instituted in the memory and spirit of British Economist John Maynard Keynes’ work, life and legacy.

The aim of this prize is to honour individuals from around the world who continue to embody Keynes’ extraordinary attributes.

Digital India

Government of India has approved the ‘Digital India’ programme with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple Government Ministries and Departments. It weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single, comprehensive vision so that each of them can be implemented as part of a larger goal. Each individual element stands on its own, but is also part of the entire Government. Digital India is implemented by the entire Government and being coordinated by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY).

The vision of Digital India is centred on three key areas, viz., (i) Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen (ii) Governance and Services on Demand and (iii) Digital Empowerment of Citizens.  Digital India aims to provide the much needed thrust to the following nine pillars of growth areas as summarised below:

Broadband Highways

·  This covers three sub components, namely Broadband for All Rural, Broadband for All Urban and National Information Infrastructure.

·  Under Broadband for All Rural, 250 thousand village Panchayats would be covered by December, 2016. DoT will be the nodal Department and the project cost is estimated to be approximately Rs. 32,000 Cr.

·  Under Broadband for All Urban, Virtual Network Operators would be leveraged for service delivery and communication infrastructure in new urban development and buildings would be mandated.

·  National Information Infrastructure would integrate the networks like SWAN, NKN and NOFN along with cloud enabled National and State Data Centres. It will also have provision for horizontal connectivity to 100, 50, 20 and 5 government offices/ service outlets at state, district, block and panchayat levels respectively. DeitY will be the nodal department and the project cost is estimated to be around Rs 15,686 Cr for implementation in 2 years and maintenance & support for 5 years.

Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity

·  The initiative is to focus on network penetration and fill the gaps in connectivity in the country.

·  All together 42,300 uncovered villages will be covered for providing universal mobile connectivity in the country.

·  DoT will be the nodal department and project cost will be around Rs 16,000 Cr during FY 2014-18.

Public Internet Access Programme

·  The two sub components of Public Internet Access Programme are Common Service Centres and Post Offices as multi-service centres.

·  Common Service Centres would be strengthened and its number would be increased from approximately 135,000 operational at present to 250,000 i.e. one CSC in each Gram Panchayat. CSCs would be made viable, multi-functional end-points for delivery of government and business services. DeitY would be the nodal department to implement the scheme.

·  A total of 150,000 Post Offices are proposed to be converted into multi service centres. Department of Posts would be the nodal department to implement this scheme.

e-Governance – Reforming Government through Technology

·  Government Business Process Re-engineering using IT to improve transactions is the most critical for transformation across government and therefore needs to be implemented by all ministries/ departments.

·   The guiding principles for reforming government through technology are:

a.    Form simplification and field reduction – Forms should be made simple and user friendly and only minimum and necessary information should be collected.

b.    Online applications, tracking of their status and interface between departments should be provided.

c.     Use of online repositories e.g. school certificates, voter ID cards, etc. should be mandated so that citizens are not required to submit these documents in physical form.

d.    Integration of services and platforms, e.g. UIDAI, Payment Gateway, Mobile Platform, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) etc. should be mandated to facilitate integrated and interoperable service delivery to citizens and businesses.

·       Electronic Databases – all databases and information should be electronic and not manual.

·       Workflow Automation Inside Government – The workflow inside government departments and agencies should be automated to enable efficient government processes and also to allow visibility of these processes to the citizens.

·       Public Grievance Redressal - IT should be used to automate, respond and analyze data to identify and resolve persistent problems. These would be largely process improvements.

e-Kranti (NeGP 2.0) – Electronic delivery of services

·  There are 31 Mission Mode Projects under different stages of e-governance project lifecycle. Further, 10 new MMPs have been added to e-Kranti by the Apex Committee on National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) headed by the Cabinet Secretary in its meeting held on 18th March 2014.

·  Technology for Education – e-Education

All Schools will be connected with broadband.  Free wifi will be provided in all secondary and higher secondary schools (coverage would be around 250,000 schools). A programme on digital literacy would be taken up at the national level. MOOCs –Massive Online Open Courses shall be developed and leveraged for e-Education.

·  Technology for Health – e-Healthcare

E-Healthcare would cover online medical consultation, online medical records, online medicine supply, pan-India exchange for patient information. Pilots shall be undertaken in 2015 and full coverage would be provided in 3 years.

·  Technology for Farmers

This would facilitate farmers to get real time price information, online ordering of inputs and online cash, loan and relief payment with mobile banking.

a.  Technology for Security

Mobile based emergency services and disaster related services would be provided to citizens on real time basis so as to take precautionary measures well in time and minimize loss of lives and properties.

b. Technology for Financial Inclusion

Financial Inclusion shall be strengthened using Mobile Banking, Micro-ATM program and CSCs/ Post Offices.

c.  Technology for Justice

Interoperable Criminal Justice System shall be strengthened by leveraging e-Courts, e-Police, e-Jails and e-Prosecution.

d. Technology for Planning

National GIS Mission Mode Project would be implemented to facilitate GIS based decision making for project planning, conceptualization, design and development. 

e. Technology for Cyber Security

National Cyber Security Co-ordination Center would be set up to ensure safe and secure cyber-space within the country.

Information for All

·  Open Data platform and online hosting of information & documents would facilitate open and easy access to information for citizens.

·  Government shall pro-actively engage through social media and web based platforms to inform citizens. MyGov.in has already been launched as a medium to exchange ideas/ suggestions with Government. It will facilitate 2-waycommunication between citizens and government.

·  Online messaging to citizens on special occasions/programs would be facilitated through emails and SMSes.

·  The above would largely utilise existing infrastructure and would need limited additional resources.

Electronics Manufacturing – Target NET ZERO Imports

·  Target NET ZERO Imports is a striking demonstration of intent.

·  This ambitious goal requires coordinated action on many fronts

a.    Taxation, incentives

b.    Economies of scale, eliminate cost disadvantages

c.     Focus areas – Big Ticket Items

FABS, Fab-less design, Set top boxes, VSATs, Mobiles, Consumer & Medical Electronics, Smart Energy meters, Smart cards, micro-ATMs

d.    Incubators, clusters

e.    Skill development

f.  Government procurement

·  There are many ongoing programs which will be fine-tuned.

·  Existing structures are inadequate to handle this goal and need strengthening.

IT for Jobs

·  1 Cr students from smaller towns & villages will be trained for IT sector jobs over     5 years. DeitY would be the nodal department for this scheme.

·  BPOs would be set up in every north-eastern state to facilitate ICT enabled growth in these states. DeitY would be the nodal department for this scheme.

·  3 lakh service delivery agents would be trained as part of skill development to run viable businesses delivering IT services. DeitY would be the nodal department for this scheme.

·  5 lakh rural workforce would be trained by the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to cater to their own needs. Department of Telecom (DoT) would be the nodal department for this scheme.

Early Harvest Programmes

·  IT Platform for Messages

A Mass Messaging Application has been developed by DeitY that will cover elected representatives and all Government employees. 1.36 Cr mobiles and 22 Lakh emails are part of the database.

·   Government Greetings to be e-Greetings

Basket of e-Greetings templates have been made available. Crowd sourcing of          e-Greetings through MyGov platform has been ensured. E-Greetings portal has been made live on 14th  August 2014. 

·   Biometric attendance

It will cover all Central Govt. Offices in Delhi and is already operational in DeitY and has been initiated in the Department of Urban Development. On-boarding has also started in other departments.

·  Wi-Fi in All Universities

All universities on the National Knowledge Network (NKN) shall be covered under this scheme. Ministry of HRD is the nodal ministry for implementing this scheme.

·  Secure Email within Government

a.    Email would be the primary mode of communication.

b.    Phase-I upgradation for 10 lakh employees has been completed. In Phase II, infrastructure would be further upgraded to cover 50 lakh employees by March 2015 at a cost of Rs 98 Cr. DeitY is the nodal department for this scheme.

·  Standardize Government Email Design

Standardised templates for Government email are under preparation and would be ready by October 2014. This would be implemented by DeitY.

·  Public Wi-fi hotspots

Cities with population of over 1 million and tourist centres would be provided with public wi-fi hotspots to promote digital cities. The scheme would be implemented by DoT and MoUD.

·  School Books to be eBooks

All books shall be converted into eBooks. Min. of HRD/ DeitY would be the nodal agencies for this scheme.

·  SMS based weather information, disaster alerts

SMS based weather information and disaster alerts would be provided. DeitY’s Mobile Seva Platform is already ready and available for this purpose. MoES (IMD) / MHA (NDMA) would be the nodal organizations for implementing this scheme.

·  National Portal for Lost & Found children

a.         This would facilitate real time information gathering and sharing on the lost and found children and would go a long way to check crime and improve timely response.

b.    DeitY/ DoWCD would be the nodal departments for this project.

       Some of the aforementioned projects are under various stages of implementation and may require some transformational process reengineering, refinements and adjustment of scoping and implementation strategy to achieve the desired service level objectives by the concerned line Ministries/Departments at the Central, State and Local Government levels.

Good Governance Initiatives

Abolition of affidavits and adoption of self certification

DARPG endeavours to simplify administrative procedures and make governance citizen-centric. In this context, the central Ministries/Departments and States/UTs have been requested to review the existing requirement of documents attested by Gazetted officers or affidavits in various forms in a phased manner, wherever feasible. This is to be replaced by self-certification.

As a result of constant efforts by the Department, 24 State Governments/UTs and 41 Central Ministries/Departments have reportedly taken appropriate action already.

The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances and United Nations Development Programme joint collaborative project “Strengthening Public Administration and Governance”:

(i)         The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme is implementing the joint collaborative project “Strengthening Public Administration and Governance” for the period 2013-2017 under Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP).    The Project aims to address the following development challenges or gaps:

(a)    The changing environment, rising aspirations of the people, to seek greater accountability and improved efficiency and effectiveness and changing role of the Government necessitate administrative reforms in India, in tune with the rapid development of the country.  There is also a need for associated simplification of rules and procedures, business process re-engineering and change management.

(b)   While Indian states and district governments have come up with innovative solutions and have implemented best practices in public service delivery and public administration, including through the use of ICT and e-governance, these experiences have not been documented in a systematic manner. As a result, states don’t benefit and learn from such experiences of other states.

(c)    Currently, there are hardly any analytical studies that attempt to highlight factors responsible for poor service delivery that impinge on development and social indicators for the marginalized people. Similarly, there is no documentation or analysis as to why some best practices that were rewarded or recognized a few years back have disappeared, or have degenerated without making any permanent impact on administrative productivity.

(ii)        The Project conceives the following strategies for addressing the above mentioned challenges / gaps described in the Project document:

·         Changes in attitudes and access to decision making through awareness raising, brokering, convening.

·         Changes in policies, plans, budgets and legislation through support to national assessment, planning, budgeting, policy making.

·         Changes in the lives of individuals and communities through implementation for inclusive development.

(iii)       The specific strategies to be adopted to achieve the targets are as below:

·         Carrying out cross-sectoral studies on the desired goals in government programmes with a view to improve outcomes and to suggest measures that would improve the targets in such programmes, especially in UN-focussed.

·         Evidence-based national and International best practices are available to GOI and State Governments for strengthening public administration and governance.

·         Adaptation and replication of best practices within states and in other states.

·         Demonstrating innovative e-governance and m-governance initiatives that enhance efficiency in public administration and management.

(iv)       The possible improvements in the capacities of institutions, individuals and systems that will occur as a result of this Project are:

·         Improve capabilities of institutions and individuals responsible for public administration and governance

·         Deeper understanding of administrators on factors that contribute to success or failure of service delivery under government programmes

·         Increased cooperation in the area of Public Administration globally including the South-South Context.

(v)        As part of this on-going Project, an “International Symposium on Excellence in Public Service / Public Administration” was successfully conducted in New Delhi during 7-9 October, 2014.  The major objectives of the International Symposium were (i)  to foster spirit of excellence in Public Administration;  (ii) to acknowledge, disseminate and learn from the innovative practices and extraordinary achievements in improving public administration and governance. Around 23 countries participated and made presentations on Award winning best practices in international public administration reforms and best practices in governance, including e-governance and m-governance.

            Around 200 Indians have also participated in the same.

(vi)       A Case Study Workshop was also organised from 21^st to 23^rd August, 2014 followed by concluding session on 31^st October & 1^st November, 2014.  The objective of the Workshop on Case Studies was to build capacity in developing / teaching case studies and develop case studies of international standard on some of the award winning best practices in India, to facilitate its replication. An eminent expert in Public Policy and Government at Georgetown University, Prof. R. Kent Weaver, had been engaged for this purpose.  Five cases have been developed in the Case Study Workshop.

(vii)      The Annual Work Plan, 2015 is under finalization.

Public Grievances

            The front end of PG portal for lodging grievances by citizen has been improved by providing more options to the petitioner who can now upfront select whether it is public or pensioners grievances. Grievances relating to subject matter handled by Directorate of Public Grievances can be directly lodged to them by the petitioner on the pgportal. The petitioner in case he or she is not aware of the authority to whom it should be forwarded can now select NOT KNOWN (earlier it was in dropdown) upfront and by default it would come to DARPG.

“e-Office” Mission Mode Project

(i)         INTRODUCTION

            The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DAR&PG) has been entrusted the role to promote e-Governance activities in consonance with the overall national objectivities and priorities. This task mainly involves conceptualization and overall coordination for governance related issues in collaboration with Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITy) for technical expertise.                                   

            DARPG has prepared and circulated reports to all Central Government Ministries on Change Management for eGovernance projects and Business Process Re-engineering for eGovernance projects.

            DAR&PG has formulated a generic document on Business Process Reengineering named GPAF as envisaged in National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and 11th report of 2nd ARC. Government Process Architecting Framework (GPAF) provides a detailed systematic guide for conducting Business Process Reengineering in Central Government Organizations and optimize delivery of services.   

            DAR&PG had also issued Government of India Guidelines for Government Websites (GIGW) in 2009. In line with new developments,  DAR&PG is updating the same.

            NeGP (since merged with Digital India Programme) was approved by Cabinet in May 2006. E-Office is one of the Mission Mode Project (MMP) under Central Government category of NeGP jointly formulated by DEITY and DARPG. , DAR&PG is the Line Department (Nodal Department)  for  e-office Mission Mode Project(MMP). NIC is the technology partner.

         ‘e-Office’ aims at creating an office environment that minimizes the use of paper documents and files, and by streamlining office workflow helps reduce process delays.  Its main objectives are:

• To improve efficiency, consistency and effectiveness of government responses
• To reduce turnaround time and to meet the demands of the citizens charter
• To provide for effective resource management to improve the quality of administration
• To establish transparency and accountability
• To provide cost effective e-storage facility
• To make office environment friendly and eco-friendly

(ii)           e-Office product developed by NIC presently consists of the following:

• File Management System(eFile) - Automates the processing of files and receipts.
• Knowledge Management System (KMS) - Acts as a centralized repository of various documents such as acts, policies and guidelines.
• Leave Management System (eLeave) - Automates the leave application and approval process.
• Tour Management System (eTour) - Automates employee tour programmes. 
• Personnel Information System (PIS) - Manages employee records.
• Collaboration and Messaging Services (CAMS) & ndash for internal collaboration & messaging. 

            The ‘eOffice’  project was launched in 2011-12 in  phases with Phase-I started in 12 Ministries/Departments. Phase-II was started in 2012-13 and implemented in 5 Ministries/Departments. Phase-III was launched in 2013-14 and being implemented  in 7 Ministries/Departments.

             DAR&PG has prepared the Master e-Governance Training Plan (MeTP), which has been implemented in NeGP implementing Ministries/ Departments in 2013-14. Master e-Governance Training Plan (MeTP) intends to build the capacity of central government employees for implementing e-Governance projects. Major proficiency tracks covered are Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), Project Management, Change Management, etc. Training of     Group-1(SO/Asst and equiv), Group-2(US/DS/Director and equiv) and Group-3(JS and equiv) levels are  being conducted by National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) and NIC.

             Digitization of records has been undertaken on priority and more than 700 files have been digitized in DARPG.

            DARPG has already implemented e-Office programme. The Department has switched over to e-Leave, e-GPF application, File Tracking System(FTS) and Knowledge Management System(KMS)