State govt infuses Jnana for change

26 departments come forward to offer 6-month fellowship for research, development

As many as 26 departments have evinced interest in offering these fellowships, which would provide an opportunity for virtually anyone from the youth to scholars and professionals – even home makers to create a change. The fellowship is for about six months and the honorarium to be paid is yet to be fixed.

Addressing a press conference, Dr K Kasturirangan, Chairman, KKC said the fellowship will help provide people an opportunity to carry out research, development and new initiatives to manage projects besides training in various departments.

The fellowship also intends to collect ideas of youngsters in addressing critical issues and in facilitating the efforts carried out by various government departments.

Stating that the individuals can take a break from successful careers and contribute their time and talent to bring in excellence and quality in public system. “Any person in the age group of 28 to 40 years with a minimum experience of five years from any profession,  and even home makers can avail themselves this fellowship for about six months,” said Dr Kasturirangan.

According to M K Sreedhar, Member Secretary, KKC as many as 26 departments have shown interest in letting people study and improve the system. As many as 15 to 20 fellowships may be on offer.

Applications

“We are fine tuning the plan. We will call applications for the fellowship soon. The Fellows will work under the department secretaries on the subjects suggested by the department. Such interface is required to improve the system and also make the people understand the government,” he said.

Asked how home makers can become eligible, Sreedhar said, “There are many women who take a break from their career pursuits once they get married. And some actively work with NGOs. Such persons can contribute for improving the system,” he said.

Need for identification

Kumar Naik, Secretary, Primary and Secondary Education Department and member, Knowledge Commission said, the expertise of the candidates need to be identified by the department he would get in.

“For instance, despite the presence of many government agencies working to provide market linkage to the Agri sector, experts in agriculture marketing who have achieved something can make suggestions. Only those who can believe that their work can change the system will be allowed to work along with secretaries. They should have a passion,” he said.

Naik said government processes will be exposed to the ideas, providing an opportunity for out-of-the-box thinking in solving  problems and applying management thinking.
The Commission mentioned some of the programmes and recommendations it made to the Government like Arivu, an open library for government Sahayoga, a project under taken by Bhavan’s management Research centre, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bangalore to improve employability of under graduates by developing creativity and critical thinking.

Other projects

Mentioning that Kanaja, an encyclopaedic knowledge portal in Kannada launched in December 2010 is a hit, Naik said that about 1,300 articles have been uploaded and over 10 lakh words have been incorporated.

Other projects recommended include ‘Dhravya kosha’ for conservation of medicinal plants and strengthen folk medicine, ‘Swasthya,’ to identify traditional health practice etc.
Kasturirangan said that the term of the commission was coming to an end in July and it had decided to suggest to the chief minister to study its recommendations and decide on its future.