As a part of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s approach of ‘neighbourhood first’ policy, India is building capacities of civil servants of neighbouring countries to meet the emerging challenges in governance and assured public service delivery to improve the quality of life of people.
The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) has entered into an MoU with the Civil Service Commission of Maldives for capacity building of 1,000 Maldives civil servants by 2024. The agreement was signed during the state visit of the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, to Male on 8th June 2019. As part of the agreement, NCGG is the nodal institution for designing customized training modules after considering the requirements of the countries and their implementation. So far, more than 550 officers of Maldives Civil Service including the Permanent Secretaries of the Govt of Maldives have been imparted training in India. The 18th capacity building programme started in Delhi from the 5th of December for the Secretary Generals of various atolls councils of Maldives.
Bharat Lal, Director General, NCGG in his inaugural address, emphasized the role of civil servants in improving the quality of life of people and underlined the need to strengthen women’s role in decision-making. He gave examples of various programmes in India wherein the indomitable spirit of women has been tapped to bring transformation. He shared numerous examples of how with opportunities and an enabling environment, women have brought profound changes in the public service delivery and governance, ensuring transparency and quality in works, water, sanitation, public health and waste management in villages.
He urged the Secretary Generals of various councils of atolls to continue focussing on protecting the environment, improving sanitation and carrying out waste management in a big way, saving energy and promoting circular economy. He said that Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi’s mantra of ‘LIFE – Lifestyle for Environment’ is the way forward. Highlighting that in a true sense this is a reorientation and sensitization programme, he also urged the participants that in next one week, in the context of new learnings and exposure in India, they should think about how to further improve and bring change in administration of atolls to tackle emerging challenges.
The training module includes lessons from various initiatives taken in India such as e-governance, digital India, CPGRAMS, approach to sustainable development goals, public health initiatives, water security on islands among other important areas. It also includes exposure visits to prominent places like the Pradhan Mantri Sanghralaya, the office of UIDAI, the Parliament, etc. where participants will see the best practices in e-governance.
The inaugural session commenced with a briefing on the structure of the capacity building programme by Prof. Poonam Singh, the Nodal officer (training) and the ways to emulate the learnings. In addition to the civil servants of Maldives, the programme was also attended by other senior officials of the NCGG.
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that Capacity Building Commission has been setup as envisaged under Mission Karmayogi.
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, Dr Jitendra Singh informed that the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) namely ‘Karmayogi Bharat’ has been incorporated under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 on 31st January,2022.
The details of the chairman and other Members of the Capacity Building Commission appointed with the approval of Appointments Committee of the Cabinet are as following:
As a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), India periodically submits its National Communications (NCs) and Biennial Update Reports (BURs) to the UNFCCC which includes national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory.
As per India’s third BUR submitted to the UNFCCC in February 2021, total GHG emissions, excluding Land Use Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) in 2016 were 2,838.89 million tonne CO2e and 2,531.07 million tonne CO2e with the inclusion of LULUCF. India’s total GHG emission also includes CO2 emissions from oil & gas sector and industrial processes and product use (IPPU) sector. The emissions based on India’s first, second and third BURs are as following:
Sr. No.
Year
Total GHG emission (without LULUCF)
(million
tonne CO2e)
Net GHG emission (With LULUCF) (million tonne CO2e)
CO2 emission (million tonne)
CO2 emission from oil & gas sector (million tonne)
CO2 emission from Industrial Processes and Product Use Sector (million tonne)
1.
2010
2137
1884
1574
42
132
2.
2014
2607
2306
1998
50
153
3.
2016
2839
2531
2231
72
166
Further, according to a research study carried out by the Indian Space Research Organization using observations of Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellites of NASA, total column atmospheric CO2 concentration over representative sites of India during January 2020 to June 2021 was found to vary on daily basis from approximately 406.3 on 31 August 2020 ppm to 416.1 ppm on 28 April 2021.
Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) is an emerging area of research. Its efficacy is yet to be fully established in terms of techno-economic feasibility. The Department of Science and Technology (DST) works in the area of CCUS through emphasis on research and development and capacity building of both human resource and infrastructure to evolve appropriate technologies and methodologies. The Department of Science and Technology and Department of Biotechnology in 2018, had launched a Joint Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for inviting proposals on Innovation Challenge on CCUS under the multilateral Mission Innovation (MI)initiative to undertake joint Research & Development with MI member countries to identify and prioritize breakthrough technologies in the field of CCUS.
DST has supported 19 CCUS R&D projects during last three years.DST also participated in the Accelerating CCUS Technologies collaboration Programme for adopting the global practices and accessing transnational research for the transfer of CCUS technologies.
As a developing country Party under the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement, India is not required to undertake decarbonization of any sector, in keeping with the principle of equity and in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. However, India is committed to development along a low-carbon pathway while maintaining its commitment to sustainable development. To meet this objective, India has undertaken a number of programmes, initiatives, schemes and other steps.
Through the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and its various National Missions, India is addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation across a range of sectors. Installed capacity of solar energy in India has increased by more than 18 times from 2.63 GW in March 2014 to 47.66 GW in October 2021. As a result, India’s current share of non-fossil sources based installed capacity of electricity generation is more than 40%.
Under Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) scheme, a total of 36.78 crores LED bulbs have been distributed to enhance energy efficiency. Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme for energy efficiency in industries and other energy-intensive sectors resulted in total savings of approximately 13.28 million tons of oil equivalent, translating into 61.34 MtCO2 of avoided emissions in the PAT Cycle II.
Forest and tree cover has increased by 13031 km2 between the 2015 and 2019 assessments of the Forest Survey of India. Forest and tree cover sequestered 331 MtCO2 in 2016 which is around 15% of total carbon dioxide emissions occurring in the country. India’s LULUCF sink (CO2 removal) is on the rise by 3.4% between 2014 and 2016 and by approximately 40% between 2000 and 2016.
India is making every effort to decouple its growth from emissions, by steadily lowering the emissions intensity of its GDP over the years. This keeps India’s GHG emissions below what would otherwise have been emitted. It is important to emphasize that there is no sector of India’s economy and no aspect of its economic life that is untouched by concern to keep to a low-carbon development pathway.
Based on field surveys and satellite data, the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management has estimated the total extent of seagrass ecosystem in India to be 516.59 km2. The CO2sequestration rate of seagrass ecosystem is estimated to be up to 434.9 tonnes/km2/year with an annual net CO2 sink of 0.75 million tonnes for an area of 517 km2.
Further, the Government has also initiated a project across the States of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Odisha on Enhancing climate resilience of India’s coastal communities at a total cost of US $130.269 million which includes a grant of US$ 43.419 million by Global Climate Fund (GCF) covering 24 ecosystems in these selected States which aims to strengthen the climate resilience of coastal communities by protecting and restoring India’s natural ecosystems such as mangroves and seagrass.
This information was provided by Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in Lok Sabha today.
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today emphasised integrated Capacity Building through integrated training for officers. The era of working in silos is over, he added.
He was addressing the first-ever Joint Roundtable of 23 Central Training Institutions organized for Capacity Building, at Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) for bringing efficiency in delivery of services and “Ease of Living” for common man.
The Minister said that training of officers and personnel requires to be constantly reviewed and upgraded in view of the fast pace of evolution in all spheres of life. He said, best global practices should be incorporated in training modules along with some incentives for excellence. He said, there is a need to align individual and departmental priorities to our national aspirations and priorities.
Dr Jitendra Singh expressed happiness that within a year all the Central Training Institutions will be brought under the ambit of Accreditation Framework. He said, the era of generalization is over and there is a need for a Role specific module and Panel to impart citizen-centric delivery mechanism, which is the core of all Governance Model. He also called for increased use of technology in learning and training modules.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, he is extremely pleased to see that for the first time since Independence, all CTIs present under one roof and brainstorming and sharing the best practices with each other. He informed that the vision of Mission Karmayogi did not take birth overnight and recalled that it was in 2017, when Shri Narendra Modi visited LBSNAA, the first such visit by a Prime Minister in 42 years, where he felt that we still function in silos and there is no sharing of experiences amongst different services.
Laying emphasis on developing a common perspective and a common vision for all functionaries, across the services, Dr Jitendra Singh said, in pursuit of this, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) Mussoorie had started conducting “Combined” Foundation Course from last year by enlarging the spectrum of this course, which earlier included only IAS and a few other Services. For the first time, the Academy conducted a “Combined” Foundation Course by including over 20 different Services from the government sector, he added.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s penchant for Governance Reforms, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled the address by PM to Civil Servants last year at Kevadia in Gujarat, where he said, “Every effort made with impartial and selfless spirit is the strong foundation of New India. To fulfil the dream of a New India, 21st century thinking and dreams are indispensable in our bureaucracy – a bureaucracy that is creative and constructive, imaginative and innovative, proactive and polite, professional and progressive, energetic and enabling, efficient and effective, transparent and tech-enabled”.
Dr Jitendra Singh added that in this transformation, CTIs have a huge role to play in training and shaping the officers for execution of the tasks throughout their careers. He said, to achieve this large-scale transformation through digital means, CTIs are going to create a learning platform, which every government employee can access at his/her convenience. This will include a range of learning materials, videos and bite-sized courses, 5-minute courses which anyone can access even while they are traveling in the metro or their cars.
A new capacity building initiative on ‘Making water sensitive cities in Ganga basin’ aimed at improving river health/flows was launched by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) in association with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Key focus areas of the programme will be Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning, Urban Water Efficiency and Conservation, Decentralized Wastewater Treatment and Local Reuse, Urban Groundwater Management and Urban Waterbodies / Lake Management.
Launching the initiative, Director General, NMCG, Shri Rajiv Ranjan Mishra reiterated the need for respecting traditions and suggested focusing on the basics of water cycle in urban areas. He emphasized the need of protecting, conserving and restoring ecosystem and not just pollution abatement. He also shared insights about Jal Shakti Ministry’s ‘Catch the Rain’ initiative for rain water harvesting. “There is a huge need for public spaces in urban spaces. What could be better than river fronts which connects community with water bodies in cities,” he said.
DG, NMCG suggested a framework for integration between Urban Built Form including landscape and urban water cycle are needed. He also emphasized on how cities have largely been held responsible for the deteriorated state of rivers, and therefore, will need to play a vital role in the rejuvenation efforts as well. There is need to mainstream river sensitive approach while planning for the cities. For the first time, there is a paradigm shift in planning for River Cities. He also mentioned the “River Cities Alliance” which will provide a unique platform for river cities to collaborate for collectively achieving river rejuvenation through sustainable development and capacity building.
Shri. Suresh Kumar Rohilla Senior Director, CSE shared that the aim of the program is capacity building and action research for promoting sustainable urban water management for improved river health in Ganga basin cities. He also explained how the program will engage all the stakeholders which includes, SPMGs (State Program Management Group, Namami Gange), Municipal corporations, Technical & research constants, international organizations and local grassroot communities.
Ms. Sunita Narain, Director General, CSE highlighted the impact of climate change on rivers and hydrology. She shared that the intensity of rain has increased over the years but the number of rainy days has reduced, making water management a crucial subject. She emphasized the need of returning to roots and bringing back the traditional knowledge of rain water harvesting sharing the examples of Alhar – Pyne system of Bihar, wells in forts of Rajasthan and Cascade tanks of South India etc.
This initiative is part of the series of ongoing efforts by NMCG aimed to ensuring convergence of the Namami Gange Mission with national flagship urban missions (AMRUT, Smart Cities, Swachh Bharat Mission, HRIDAY, NULM) and other missions (Atal Bhujal Yojana, Jal Jeevan Mission, Jal Shakti Abhiyan) at state /city level across Ganga basin states. Under this initiative there will be more than 40 training programs supported with development of learning material/ practitioner’s guides and spread over a period of 3 years. This will include residential trainings, online trainings, field visits and webinars etc. Initially, the project will be implemented in 3-4 pilot cities in the Ganga basin. Technical support will be provided to urban local bodies (ULBs). This is the first of its kind capacity building program. More than 840 people participated in the event from 240 cities across 33 countries.
Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning (WSUDP) is an emerging urban development paradigm aimed to minimize hydrological impacts of urban development on environment. This includes the method of planning and designing urban areas for optimum utilization of water (a precious resource), reduce the harm caused to our rivers and creeks and focuses on entire management of entire water systems (drinking water, storm water run-off, waterway health, sewerage treatment and re-cycling).
