No.25/9/2014-CS-II(C)

Government of India

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

Department of Personnel & Training

3rd Floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan

Khan Market, New Delhi-110003

Dated 29th April, 2015

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Long Term Training Programme for CSSS officers on ‘Master in Development Management’ and two short term training programmes on Basic Management programme, Management Development programme at Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Manila-reg.

The undersigned is directed to inform that Training Division of this Department sponsors officers belonging to IAS, IPS, IFoS, CSS, CSSS and Group A officers (those on Central deputation) for various long term and short term training programmes abroad.

1. One slot for long term training programme on ‘Master in Development Management’ at AIM, Manila is reserved for CSSS officers. CSSS officers may also apply for two short term training programmes on ‘Basic Management programme’ and ‘Management Development programme’ at Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Manila. All Cadre Units are requested to forward the applications of eligible and willing CSSS officers for ibid Training Programmes at Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Manila to this Division. The applications for short term training programmes be forwarded to this Division before 08.05.2015 and applications for long term training programmes be forwarded to this Division before 20.05.2015.

2. A copy of the circular of Training Division on eligibility conditions issued vide their OM dated 13.10.2014 is enclosed for ready reference. In case any information in this context is required, cadre units/officers may contact Ms. Deepika Lohia Aran, Deputy Secretary, Training Division at phone number 26168197 (Off.).

(Kameshwar Mishra)

The Under Secretary to the Govt. of India

Telefax: 24623157

The Under Secretary (Admin.)

All Cadre Units of CSSS

29/4/14
No. 12037/38/2014-FTC

Government of India

Department of Personnel and Training

Training Division

Dated the 13th October 2014

To

1. The Chief Secretaries of all the State Governments/UTs.
2. The Secretaries of all the Ministries/Departments of Government of India.

Sir/Madam,

The Training Division, Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India shall be sponsoring the names of suitable officers for undergoing long/short-term training abroad in various selected universities/institutes for the Financial Year 2015-16 under the Domestic Funding of Foreign Training (DFFT) Scheme.

2. Through this circular, applications/nominations are invited for the long-term and short-term programmes to be conducted during Financial Year 2015-16 (April 2015 to March 2016) which are listed at Annexure A. (These programmes are tentative and are subject to change). The slots for each programme will be decided later upon confirmation of budgetary allocations.

3. The Terms and Conditions along with the eligibility criteria for applying/nominating officers for these programmes are indicated below:

(a) Eligible Services:

The officers belonging to the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Forest Service, Central Secretariat Service, State Civil Service, Central Secretariat Stenographers Service (Gazetted) (CSSS) and other organized Group ‘A’ Central Civil Services, who are holding posts on deputation under the Central Staffing Scheme, are eligible to apply in response to this circular for training programmes abroad.

(b) Minimum Service:

Eligible AIS and Group A Officers who have completed 9 years of service as on 1.7.2015 (i.e. upto 2006 batch), SCS officers who have completed 9 years of service as Deputy Collectors and CSS officers who have completed 5 years service as Under Secretaries would be eligible for foreign training under the DFFT Scheme. However, for long-term programmes, IAS officers who have completed 7 years of service as on 1.7.2015 (i.e. upto 2008 batch) will also be eligible.
(c) Upper age limit:

The upper age limit for long term and short-term training programmes will be 43 years and 52 years respectively and officers born on or after 1st October 1969 and on or after 1st October 1962 will be eligible for applying for long-term programmes and short-term programmes respectively. However, there is no age limit for the short-term programmes at Harvard University, Cambridge University, University of California Berkeley and ANZSOG for officers of Joint Secretary/Additional Secretary/Secretary level. However, the officers applying for these programmes should have minimum 1 (one) year of service left for superannuation at the time of attending the programme.

(d) Selection criteria:

The eligible officers will be short-listed by applying weightage criteria which includes parameters such as foreign training deficit, seniority, SC/ST/Women/NE/J&K, priority for being close to age bar and ACR grading (for short-term training programmes) and seniority, SC/ST/Women/NE/J&K and ACR grading (for long-term training programmes). The final selection list of officers will be arrived at on the basis of weightage criteria and preference of programmes indicated by the officers. The selections for short-term training programmes of Harvard University, Cambridge University, University of California Berkeley and ANZSOG will be based on seniority.

(e) Cooling-off condition:

(i) After attending a foreign training programme of up to one month, officers will be required to complete a cooling-off period of one year before they can be considered again for another training programme. To illustrate, an officer who completes a short-term programme of up to one month in 2014-15, would be eligible for another short-term programme under the DFFT Scheme only in 2016-17.

(ii) After attending a foreign training programme of more than one month and up to six months, officers will be required to complete a cooling-off period of three years before they can be considered again for another training programme.

(iii) After attending a foreign training programme of more than six months, officers would not be eligible for another long-term foreign training programme. However, an officer would become eligible for a short-term programme after a cooling-off of five years.

(iv) Job Specific / Project related training/official visits abroad, irrespective of duration, are exempted from the provisions of cooling off.

(v) The foreign component of any compulsory mid-career training programme undergone by the officer will not be counted for the purpose of “cooling off”.

(vi) The condition of cooling-off after a short-term programme (up to six months) will be applicable only for short-term programmes.

(vii) An officer is eligible for only one long-term programme in his/her career.
(viii) Officers who have undergone a long-term domestic programme, viz., IIMB, MDI, TERI, NDC, APPPA, etc. shall not be eligible for any long term foreign programme but would be eligible for short-term training programme after a cooling-off of three years.

(f) Debarment:

Officers who have been debarred from nomination for foreign training on their failure to attend the training programmes, to which they might have been nominated earlier, will not be considered until the debarment period is over. The debarment will be for two years for not attending a short-term foreign training programme (upto six months) and for three years for not attending a long-term foreign training programme (more than six months).

(g) Undertaking:

An officer has to give an undertaking that in case of any false information furnished by them in the application form, the full expenditure incurred on their training would be recovered from them with penal interest and action under CCS (CCA) Rules/other relevant rules will be initiated against them.

(h) Preference to SC/ST and Women officers and officer working in NE States and J&K Cadre:

Preference will be given to suitable officers belonging to the SC and ST Category, women officers and officers working in the NE States and J&K Cadre for training abroad.

(i) Officers serving under Central Staffing Scheme:

(i) Officers on deputation with the Central Government under the Central Staffing Scheme should have completed two years of service on Central Staffing before the date of commencement of the long-term programmes.

(ii) The applications of officers working under the Central Staffing Scheme for long-term programmes will be entertained only if they bear the NOC from EO Division, DOPT. A suitable column to this effect has been inserted in the application form (Annexure II).

(iii) The officers whose tenure under the Central Staffing Scheme is due to come to an end within two months prior to the commencement of the long-term training programme, or during the course of the long-term training programme, should be nominated by the respective Ministries/Departments of Govt. of India only after securing the cadre clearance of the respective State Govts./cadre controlling authorities on whose strength the officers are borne.

(iv) In the event of nomination and final selection of such officers for foreign training programmes, the Ministries/Departments would be required to send a formal proposal for extending the Central Deputation tenure of the officers approved for nomination for training, upto the end of the training, to the Establishment Officer for obtaining the approval of the competent authority so that they could draw their salary from the Central Government during the period of training.
(v) On return from training, such officers would revert to their cadre and the Central Ministries/Departments shall not grant any leave in their cases.
(vi) In respect of long-term training programmes, if an officer, at the time of application, is on deputation under the Central Staffing Scheme and subsequently gets reverted to his/her cadre before commencement of the training programme, the officer will still be eligible to participate in the programme provided he/she gets the cadre clearance. However, this facility will not be available for short-term training programme.
(j) Other conditions:
(i) The applications for both long-term and short-term training programmes must be accompanied by the ACR/PAR grading pertaining to the last five years. To be eligible for consideration for a long-term programme, the officer should have at least ‘Very Good’ grading in his/her ACRs pertaining to the past 5 years.
(ii) Applications should be complete in all respects.
(iii) Applicant should be clear from Vigilance angle.
(iv) The APAR grading/Vigilance clearance in respect of the applicant officer has to be necessarily filled in before finalizing application even if APAR grading/vigilance clearance in respect of officers are available with DOPT. The APAR grading in respect of self can be filled by the applicant officer which must be vetted by Nodal Officer before finalizing application. The vigilance clearance has to be filled by the Nodal Officer.

Duration of Long Term and Short Term Programmes:

• Training programmes abroad of duration of six months or more are treated as Long Term.
• Training programmes abroad of duration of upto six months are treated as Short Term.

1. The list of long-term programmes and short-term programmes proposed to be conducted during FY 2015-16 are indicated in Annexure A. However, the list of courses is tentative and some changes in the courses may occur. The nominations received in response to this circular can also be considered for any other courses that may become available during 2015-16 under the DFFT Scheme but are not indicated in the present lists. Applicant/noninated officers are advised to check their respective emails for any alerts that may be indicated during the pendency of their applications for revising choices for the programmes as per the final availability list of courses. The status of application can be seen by clicking ‘Check Application Status’ on online application portal.

2. The officers who have already attended the customized training programmes at Cambridge University and ANZSOG, Australia organized in the earlier years may not apply for these programmes again in response to this circular.

3. If an officer does not attend the course or withdraws his request at any stage or is not relieved for attending the training programme by the Administrative Ministry/State Government/cadre authority, he/she will be debarred as per provisions.

4. Names of only those officers may be forwarded by CCAs/State Governments who can be spared/relieved at the time of commencement of the training programmes.

5. The State Governments/Central Ministries/Cadre Controlling Authorities are expected to utilize the skills acquired by the officers in the relevant field, on their return from foreign training.

6. The application form (Annexure I) for long-term and short-term foreign training as well as forwarding form (Annexure II) meant for filling by the Nodal Officers designated by each Ministry/Department and State Governments are available in this Ministry’s website at http://persmin.nic.in/dfft. It must be ensured that the application form for both categories of programmes (long-term and short-term) must be filled in ‘online’ by the officers after which the same will be automatically forwarded by the system to their respective controlling authorities. The Nodal Officers will then fill in the requisite details in Annexure II and send the same along with application form (Annexure I) of the officer ‘online’. It may be noted that there is no requirement of sending these documents by post.

7. The necessary steps that the Nodal Officers are required to take for forwarding the applications forms through ‘online’ mode are detailed at Annexure B.

8. The last date for receipt of applications, as per procedure mentioned above, in this Division is 30th November 2014.

9. Further a separate application/sponsorship system has been devised in respect of long-term training programmes, namely, MPA Mason Programme (Harvard University), Masters in Public Policy (Cambridge University), Masters in Public Health (John Hopkins University) and Masters in Public Policy (Blavatnik School, Oxford University) under which the interested officers will apply directly to the university and undertake admission/sollection process as stipulated by the university as a private individual. The number of slots for each of these programmes will be decided later. The officers applying for these courses must inform Training Division at the time of application that they have applied for these courses. Once an officer is selected by these Universities, he/she may apply for sponsorship under the DFFT Scheme through their respective controlling authorities along with requisite clearances, e.g., vigilance clearance, ACR Grading, etc. Applications of such officers will be considered by a Committee to be constituted in DOPT. Since the deadline for applying for these specific training programmes closes in the months of January and February each year, the officers interested in these programmes may keep this factor in view and apply according to the timelines indicated in the universities’ respective websites. Simultaneously, interested officers may apply in response to this circular for other short term and long-term programmes also. The Masters in Anti-Corruption Studies Course at International Anti-Corruption Academy, Vienna will be offered once notification for the same will be issued by IACA. Therefore, a separate circular will be brought out later after receipt of programme notification from IACA for MACS course.

10. The officers who apply on their own in the programmes mentioned in para 12 above but do not get DFFT Sponsorship for some reason even after admission is confirmed by the concerned University, can get their admission deferred for the next year in which case they will be given priority for sponsorship in that year, subject to their fulfilling the eligibility criteria at that stage.

11. The officers are advised to go through the programme details available in the respective websites of institutes/universities and make themselves conversant with eligibility and selection criteria and apply in accordance with the pre-requisites, if any, for a specific course.

12. The incomplete applications and those not accompanied by duly filled in Annexure II by the designated Nodal Officers will not be considered. It may also be noted that no reference shall be made back to the forwarding authority/officers for filling and sending incomplete details.

13. This training circular carries a few changes from the circulars issued in previous years on this subject. Similarly, the ‘online’ application form has been simplified to make it more user-friendly. A User Guide for facilitating to apply for training programmes is prepared and available at online application portal. At the time of registration on online application procedure, officers will also get an e-mail from the NIC system explaining about the application process. It is requested to read it carefully before applying.

14. Lastly, unlike in previous years, the officers belonging to IPS and IFoS are eligible for training under the DFFT Scheme even if they are not on deputation under the Central Staffing Scheme. The State Governments/UTs may, therefore, take special note of it and forward nominations of eligible officers accordingly through the same Nodal Officer designated to forward applications of other eligible officers.

Yours faithfully,

(Deepika Loma Aran)
Deputy Secretary (FTC)

ANNEXURE A

LIST OF SHORT-TERM FOREIGN TRAINING PROGRAMMES UNDER THE DOMESTIC FUNDING OF FOREIGN TRAINING SCHEME 2015-16

1. Harvard University (www.hks.harvard.edu)

Notes

(i) The training programmes shown in Italics carry dates on which these programmes have been/are being held in 2014-15. Actual dates in respect of these programmes may vary in the year 2015-16.

(ii) *Dates subject to change

(iii) Dates subject to change/approval of IFD

1. Syracuse University (www. syr.edu)

Note: (i) The training programmes shown in Italics carry dates on which these programmes have been/are being held in 2014-15. Actual dates in respect of these programmes may vary in the year 2015-16).