Four officers from Karnataka are among 21 senior officials selected by the Centre as “master trainers” to share their expertise and experience with junior officers during training programmes.

The scheme, aimed at making an impact on common man, was finalised by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances under the Ministry of Personnel, Pensions and Public Grievances.

The initiative comes as a follow up to the government’s decision last December to tie up with 12 social entrepreneurs to provide officers with exposure on “outstanding initiatives” happening in social sector to free them from the shackles of “bureaucratic thinking.”  Neelam Chibber (Indus Tree Crafts Foundation, Bangalore) and Ashwin Naik (Vaatsalya Healthcare, Bangalore) were among the 12 social entrepreneurs selected by the Centre. 

The 17 Central Training Institutes (CTI) and 29 state Administrative Training Institutes (ATI) have now been given the list of 21 officers who can be invited as Master Trainers with a request to invite these officers to share their expertise and experience with officer trainees at both induction and mid-service level training programmes.

The officers from Karnataka are: Pradeep Singh Kharola (Managing Director, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd), Dr Shalini Rajneesh, (Principal Secretary, Higher Education), Darpan Jain, (Managing Director, Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation) and Amita Prasad (Director General, Administrative Training Institute, Mysore).

Kharola, an 1985-batch IAS officer, has won the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for the initiative ‘Transformation of Commercial Tax Regime in Karnataka,’ while Shalini, a 1989 batch IAS officer, has won the National e-Governance Award this year for a project ‘Sakaala.’

Jain, who belongs to 2001 batch, has won the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2011-12 for the initiative ‘ Saving Open Spaces and Urban Lakes (SOUL) and Cultural Rejuvenation of the Twin City of Hubli – Dharwad’. Amita is a 1985-batch IAS officer.

Karnataka has contributed the highest number of officers to the trainers' pool followed by Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with three each. The pool has been finalised after a series of 'Training of Trainers programmes' (ToT). 

Among the officers selected are Alok Shukla, Deputy Election Commissioner (Election Commission of India), Ajay Mittal (Additional Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh) and Amit Gupta (District Magistrate of Rae Bareli in UP).