India-Sri Lanka officials discuss collaboration

Bilateral delegation-level talks took place in New Delhi this week between India’s Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DAR&PG) V. Srinivas and Secretary to the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Anura Dissanayake for collaboration in Personnel Administration and Governance. 

The Sri Lankan delegation included Ministry of Technology Secretary Dr. Dharmasri Kumaratunga, Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government Secretary Pradeep Yasarathna, and Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA) Director General Nalaka Kaluwewe. DARPG senior officials NBS Rajput, Puneet Yadav and Jaya Dubey participated in the discussions.

Both sides discussed on the modalities of a proposed Memorandum of Understanding between Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA) and NCGG with a view to conduct Capacity Building Programmes (CBP) for senior and mid-level civil servants of Sri Lanka by NCGG. The Director of SLIDA presented the Capacity Building Plan for the Island Service Officers of Sri Lanka over the next five years and collaboration in developing the training curriculum and conduct training for 1,000 officials at various seniority levels in hybrid mode. 

The Indian side presented their key capabilities in Administrative Reforms and Recognising Meritocracy under the Prime Minister’s Awards Scheme for Public Administration; handling Public Grievances through effective Redressal of Public Grievances by use of AI/ML in CPGRAMS, and Improving Service Delivery through promotion of e-Governance by initiatives Unified Service Portals, mandatory e-Services and strengthening e-Office and its Analytics. The contours of the collaboration shall be structured in an MoU to be developed by both sides.