NEW DELHI: While opinion is divided on whether foreign study tours benefit our bureaucrats or not, an RTI reply has revealed that an increasing number of them are heading abroad for exposure on various topics. The RTI query has also found that the babus prefer the US and the UK as top foreign study destinations.
Public policy, public administration, international development policy, and anti-corruption studies are the most preferred courses, according to the Department of Personnel and Training’s (DoPT) response to an RTI petition filed by this reporter. Barring a few IPS officers, these study tours are by IAS officers.
About 100 officers went for long-term study, either of one- or two-year duration, since 2014 for which the government spent between Rs 4 lakh to Rs 7 lakh for each tour. Long-term courses are partially funded by the government. In such cases, the government provides funds between $25,000 and $55,000 per candidate.
Opinion is divided when it comes to foreign exposure that aims at capacity building of senior officers through cross-country experience on developments in governance. “Most of them (officers) have a linear view like a coconut tree. Other than their tahsildars and deputies, they have no exposure on how the world functions. But, India is not like the UK or the US. You can’t implement a policy here as done abroad,” said a bureaucrat.
Former CEO of Prasar Bharati Jawhar Sircar said he implemented some aspects which he learnt during a course in Malaysia during his stint as the culture secretary. “I am in support of it. It has some indirect results as officers get foreign exposure, but academically it hardly makes any difference.” It also depends on individual officers on how they derive the benefits, he said.
Professor Niranjan Kumar of Delhi University, who has taught in the University of California and other foreign varsities, said, “As a concept, it is not bad. The government wants officers to learn from foreign models. But, whether the model, which is applicable aborad with their political, geographic and economic situation, is right for us is a question.” Sachin Chowdhary, associate professor, Indian Institute of Public Administration, said, “There are many things such as the PPP model which can be learnt in a better way abroad.”