PANAJI
The State government's plan to launch a 'CM's fellowship programme' by which ten young professionals excelling in academics will be picked to work as fellows to execute projects in the government, got wings with a panel set up to pick them and monitor their progress.
The chief minister himself will head the panel which will also has on it the Chief Secretary, principal secretary to the government for planning, the director of planning and statistics and possibly an independent member either from industry or academia.
The motive of the scheme is two-fold -- to give individuals excelling in academia or industry a peek into real-time government functioning and perhaps attract them to work for the government thus improving the talent quotient in the bureaucracy.
Several other States, including Maharashtra and Delhi, are already implementing similar schemes.
According to the notification issued by the Director of Planning Statistics and Evaluation, the CM-led committee will monitor the program and also select the 10 fellows for the first year. It will also pick the areas of work for the fellows.
The fellows are to be paid Rs 30,000 per month and will also gain a certificate at the end of the fellowship.
Those aspiring for these ten fellowships must be between 21 and 27 years of age and hold at least a degree in any stream. Post-graduates will carry more weight and the selection process will put them through four stages of evaluation: general aptitude and current topics affecting the State, social and economic issues, use of IT and data interpretation.
The scheme couldn't have come at a more opportune time when during the pandemic, young professionals are struggling in the job market. Fellowships also act as an academics-job market bridge and the certificate earned by the fellows adds value to their resume and weigh favourably with prospective employers.
