Ease of governance is nothing but ease of living, Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday told a group of Maldivian and Bangladeshi civil servants who underwent a special training programme in the country.
Addressing the valedictory session of the two-week training programme, the minister said that the training is an extension of multi-faceted relations that exist between India and both the countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always emphasised on the 'Neighbourhood First' policy, he said.
Many students are visiting India from neighbouring countries for studies, Singh said, expressing happiness over the fact that India today has achieved a level in civil services training which is being emulated by other countries.
Focussing on maximum governance and minimum government, India has done away with interview at lower level posts and attestation of documents which shows its confidence and trust in its citizens, he said.
"The ease of governance is nothing, but ease of living," Singh said, adding that about 1,500 obsolete laws have been done away in the last five years as they were adding more unease than ease to the governance.
The special training programme was conducted by the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) at Mussoorie and Delhi in pursuance of an MoU signed between India-Bangladesh and India-Maldives for training 1,800 civil servants of Bangladesh and 1,000 civil servants of the Maldives over a period of five years.
In all, 33 officials from the Maldives and 31 officials from Bangladesh participated in the training programme.
Maldives Ambassador Aishath Mohamed Didi said that the e-governance was a way forward which needs to be learnt.
"The Maldives will continue this cooperation," Didi said.
Dr Aly Shameen, Chairman of the Civil Services Commission of the Maldives, said India is the largest democracy and a technologically advancing country.
"The training has helped in transfer of knowledge and technological know-how," Shameen said.
Joint Secretary, MEA, Devyani Khobragade said that the training has helped in sharing experiences and knowledge and India's unique experiences being a diversified country.
Secretary Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) K V Eapen said India has already trained 1,500 civil servants from Bangladesh and will train 1,800 more in near future.
"India prepares training program based on the relevance for that country and provides training in the areas which can be implemented in their respective countries. This is a two-way program, where we all can learn from each other," he said.
V Srinivas, Additional Secretary DARPG, said that in many ways India's governance has transformed beyond recognition since the widespread adoption of Digital India programmes.
The programme was conducted under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation programme (ITEC) from September 16 at Mussoorie and Delhi.
Under the MoU, 10 training programmes will be conducted from September 2019 to December 2020.
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