CBC Workshop Charts Roadmap to Make Central Training Institutes Future-Ready

The workshop was held in the context of Mission Karmayogi and brought together senior policymakers, training heads, faculty members and experts from across the country.

The Capacity Building Commission (CBC) on Monday organised a National Workshop on “Future Readiness of Central Training Institutes (CTIs)” in New Delhi, focusing on reimagining civil services training and strengthening institutional preparedness to address emerging governance challenges. The workshop was held in the context of Mission Karmayogi and brought together senior policymakers, training heads, faculty members and experts from across the country.

Addressing the opening session, Ms S. Radha Chauhan, Chairperson, Capacity Building Commission, underscored that Training Institutes are central to the success of Mission Karmayogi. She said that CTIs must rise to the occasion by reimagining, revamping and redefining their roles in an evolving training ecosystem increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and digital technologies. Emphasising that training must be dynamic, she highlighted the importance of learning, unlearning and relearning to keep pace with changing governance needs. Ms Chauhan also stressed that while technology will play a transformative role, the human element remains critical in achieving citizen-centric governance and realising the vision of Viksit Bharat.

Setting the context for the workshop, Ms Chandralekha Mukherjee, Principal Advisor, CBC, made a detailed presentation on the future readiness of Central Training Institutes. She informed that five CTIs have now achieved a 5-star rating under the NSCSTI 2.0 framework, marking a significant milestone in institutional excellence. She noted that the focus is now shifting beyond ratings towards building Centres of Excellence, promoting competency-driven training and delivering citizen-centric outcomes. Ms Mukherjee emphasised the need for CTIs to transform for the next phase by re-envisioning institutional roles, strengthening mentorship, leveraging technology, and encouraging co-sharing of resources such as faculty, content and infrastructure. She highlighted the need for new benchmarks to address rising demand for specialised domain expertise, rapid technological change, continuous evaluation, adaptive practices and data-driven decision-making.

Joining the session virtually, former Chairperson of CBC, Shri Adil Zainulbhai, congratulated the training institutes for the progress made so far. He outlined three key goals for future readiness: first, to become five-star-rated, world-class training institutes; second, to strengthen collaboration among CTIs as well as with universities, think tanks and research institutions; and third, to emerge as leaders in seamlessly integrating physical and digital training ecosystems, with the ambition of building a globally benchmarked training system.

Mr Rakesh Verma, Chief Operating Officer, Karmayogi Bharat, introduced the AI-enabled Capacity Building Plan (CBP) tool. He explained that the tool would help training institutes design competency-driven training plans aligned with the evolving needs of ministries, departments, organisations and individual officers, enabling more responsive and customised capacity building.

A key highlight of the workshop was three parallel breakout sessions that enabled focused deliberations on critical aspects of future readiness. These sessions covered Building Excellence through Roles, Responsibilities and Technology-Enabled Training Quality; Strengthening the NSCSTI Framework and Enabling Resource Pooling; and Enhancing Courses on iGOT through AI Tools and Domain Course Identification. The sessions were moderated by Ms Chandralekha Mukherjee along with senior faculty and experts, including Ms Madhavi Das, Director General, NCA-F; Ms Shanmuga Priya Mishra, Deputy Director (Senior), LBSNAA; Ms Archana Gopinath, Joint Director, RAKNPA; Mr Rakesh Verma, COO, Karmayogi Bharat; and Ms Uma S., Advisor, CBC. Discussions centred on redefining institutional roles post-excellence, leveraging technology to enhance training quality, adopting whole-of-government approaches, effective use of the CBP tool and setting standards for course identification and delivery.

The findings and recommendations from all three breakout sessions were presented in a plenary session, leading to convergence on actionable pathways for implementation and institutional strengthening.

During the closing session, Dr Alka Mittal, Member (HR), CBC, commended participants for their active engagement and rich deliberations. She observed that excellence is not an end point but a continuing responsibility, and that training institutes must not only sustain high standards but also act as mentors for others. She stressed that the future of training lies not in the number of courses offered, but in the capabilities built within the system, a responsibility that CTIs must collectively shoulder.

The workshop concluded with closing remarks by Shri S. P. Roy, Secretary, CBC, who reaffirmed the Commission’s commitment to supporting Central Training Institutes in becoming agile, technology-enabled and future-ready under Mission Karmayogi. He highlighted the importance of resource sharing, collaboration and competency-based training aligned with evolving governance needs.