Govt opens its doors for students to work as interns

Taking cue from the UPA government, the Centre has decided to recruit students as interns in various departments for a monthly remuneration of Rs 10,000 a month.

Updated on: Jul 2, 2014, 23:54:24 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Taking cue from the UPA government, the Centre has decided to recruit students as interns in various departments for a monthly remuneration of Rs 10,000 a month.

The concept introduced during the UPA regime didn't really kick off successfully then. But now, the NDA government is giving the idea a stronger push.

"The two-way interaction would be beneficial for both (government and interns). The interns can give new ideas to the officials and help them finetune government programmes," a senior government official said.

The selection would be made by a committee of joint secretaries in each department and the applications would be invited by each department through a public announcement.

An intern working in the planning commission, who was not willing to be quoted, found the experience of working with the government "refreshing". "The government is warehouse of statistical knowledge and best practices on the issues I am working on. The experience would help me a lot in my PhD," she added.

Another intern who has worked with the rural development department did not find officials encouraging as they were considered outsiders. "They (officials) didn't have time for us and made me do some office work," he added.

Now, the BJP government wants all departments to hire interns on the basis of a project proposal. "We also want that senior-level officials should mentor them during internship and help them in completing their project which could be useful for the government," an official said, adding that they would get internship certificate only after completing the project.

The department of personnel and training (DoPT) has also asked the departments to install "idea boxes" to solicit some "out-of-the-box" suggestions from officers to create conducive work culture and improve functioning of the departments. A senior officer will have to examine each suggestion and see whether they are worth implementing or not.

The department has also asked ministries to employee of the month award for outstanding officials. "Nominations from all eligible employees would be called for from all wings of the department and would be examined by a committee of joint secretaries which could meet once a month," a DoPT circular issued last month said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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