International Centre for Human Development (IC4HD), a partnership of Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Indian Institute for Advanced Study and UNDP, has evolved a four-pronged strategy for making its presence global.
The centre would offer policy advisory services to governments, generate a knowledge base on distribution of resources, work for South-South cooperation and inclusive monitoring and evaluation the human development foot-prints.
Inaugurating the centre at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS) here, Ashok Thakur, Secretary for Higher Education, Union ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) said that the centre had already signed an agreement with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to host the centre at Shimla's historic Viceregal Lodge.
Spelling out the agenda for building a partnerships with different nations and generate innovative policy initiatives on the human development actions, Peter Ronald DeSouza, a former Director of IIAS said that several other countries besides India would be benefited by the centre.
Maintaining that monitoring human resource development was a major challenge, Ashok Thakur said that there should be uniform parameters for indicators for people centric monitoring and evaluation of performance of states.
Thakur urged the researchers, experts and evaluators to take a harder look at the data on human development to project a realistic picture in the HRD reports, rather than banking on the data which suited the governments.
Thakur said that a Rs 90 crore plan has been prepared for preserving the heritage Viceregal Lodge building, housing IIAS and a high powered committee with representatives of Archaeological Survey of India, Union department of Culture, IIAS and Central PWD would prepare a detailed plan of action which would primarily concentrate on conservation and preservation of the building.
Noted Architectural Conservationist Abha Narain Lambah has also prepared a detailed report which would be guideline for preparing the conservation plan, he added.
