Dilli Ka Babu: Foreign training put on hold

The Modi sarkar is likely to cut down on foreign training of bureaucrats under the Domestic Funding of Foreign Training (DFFT) policy due to the rising cost of sending babus abroad.

In 2018-19, the government spent '60 crores on training 332 bureaucrats, which is more than half of the annual training budget of the department of personnel and training (DoPT).

Under the policy, babus go to top global universities such as Cambridge and Harvard, among others, for long and short-term courses at the government’s expense.

Now the DoPT has written to all cadre authorities stating that the DFFT policy will be overhauled, with emphasis on integrated training, getting reputed foreign trainers to India, training lessons through video conferencing and sending fewer babus for foreign training and then getting them to retrain officers in India. Clearly, “austerity” measures such as this indicate that we are in for a spell of belt-tightening in the Modi sarkar.

Of SEBI chief’s term
The Modi sarkar is likely to cut down on foreign training of bureaucrats under the Domestic Funding of Foreign Training (DFFT) policy due to the rising cost of sending babus abroad.

In 2018-19, the government spent '60 crores on training 332 bureaucrats, which is more than half of the annual training budget of the department of personnel and training (DoPT).

Under the policy, babus go to top global universities such as Cambridge and Harvard, among others, for long and short-term courses at the government’s expense.

Now the DoPT has written to all cadre authorities stating that the DFFT policy will be overhauled, with emphasis on integrated training, getting reputed foreign trainers to India, training lessons through video conferencing and sending fewer babus for foreign training and then getting them to retrain officers in India. Clearly, “austerity” measures such as this indicate that we are in for a spell of belt-tightening in the Modi sarkar.

Cops miffed in J&K
Officials in Jammu and Kashmir Police are upset with lieutenant governor G.C. Murmu’s recent decision to give sweeping powers on security-related matters to his newly appointed adviser R.R. Bhatnagar. More pertinently, the ire is over the controversial move to give Mr Bhatnagar over the transfer of officials from the rank of station house officers (SHO), deployment of paramilitary forces and armed units of the state police force.

Sources say that Mr Bhatnagar will work in consultation with K. Vijay Kumar, senior security adviser in the home ministry. Interestingly, Mr Kumar, a 1975-batch Tamil Nadu IPS officer, moved to New Delhi since he was allegedly reluctant to serve under Mr Murmu, who is 10 years junior to him. Mr Bhatnagar is a former director-general of the CRPF but hasn’t served in Jammu and Kashmir. Many senior cops say that despite his experience of heading the CRPF, Mr Bhatnagar has no experience of a counter-terrorism operation in the Union territory.

Further, it is believed that one reason the government decided to give Mr Kumar sweeping powers is due to the “performance deficit” of senior police officers after the abrogation of Article 370. Another could be that the Centre wants to remain in charge when it comes to dealing with security matters in J&K.