Plan to make mid-career training mandatory for IAS officers

The Centre is mulling making certain mid-career training mandatory for IAS officers to equip them to the requirements of changing governance landscape.
The Department of Personnel and Training, cadre controlling authority for Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, has come out with a draft paper on training policy for bureaucrats.
"Though the in-service training programmes from five days duration to one year duration are available for the officers at different time of their career from four years of service to 30 years of service but because of the non- mandatory nature of these programmes, many officers do not participate in any of these training programmes.

"Further, the cadre authorities and state governments also do not release the officers due to non-mandatory nature of the programmes and also as there are no attendant consequences for not undergoing the training," the DoPT said in the draft policy seeking to lay down some mandatory guidelines.
At present, IAS officers undergo seven types of domestic and foreign training programmes including inter-services workshop on best practices.
Besides these in-service trainings, the IAS officers have to undergo induction training programme of 103 weeks (15 weeks Foundation Course, 26 weeks Phase- I, 54 weeks of District Training and 8 weeks of Phase- II).

It has earlier been proposed to reduce this duration to 84 weeks from 103 weeks on the recommendations of the Kiran Aggarwal committee which was formed to review the content and duration of induction training of IAS officers.
Also, the IAS officers have to undergo Phase-III, IV and V of mid-career trainings at different span of their career.
There are 4,802 IAS officers working across the country.