Study Progress Report- Send on March 31, 2010

To.

The Principal Secretary

Appointment-2

Annexe Bhawan

Lucknow, UP.

Respected Sir,

I was nominated by Department of Personnel & Training, Government of India for one year program of Executive Master of Public Administration at Maxwell School. I came here with your kind permission on 19^th August 2009. After reaching here, I found that there are three main streams of study:

1. International relations.
2. Public health.
3. International organizations.

I have experiences in international organizations management as they are working in close association with different levels of governments in UP. Hence, I decided to select courses accordingly. I have to take ten courses of which three are compulsory and the rest is to be selected as per the job requirement. I selected courses as listed below:

EMPA 2009-2010: Heera Lal

Sl No.	Course No.	Name of the course	Semester	Professor
1	PPA-632	International Public and NGO Management	Fall 2009	JOHN R. MATHIASON
2	PPA-734	Public Budgeting	Fall 2009	Sharon N. Kioko
3	PPA-765	Humanitarian actions: Challenges, Response, Results	Fall 2009	CATHERINE BERTINI
4	PPA-897	Fundamental of policy analysis	Fall 2009	LARRY D. SCHROEDER
5	PPA-895	Executive Education Seminar: Managerial leadership	Fall 2009	Catherine M. Gerard
6	PPA-730	Business and Government in Global Economy	Winter 2009	George Abonyi
7	PPA-996	Master project course	Spring 2009	DAVID VAN SLYKE
8	PPA-730	Information Management -2- Government 2.0	Spring 2009	INES MERGEL
9	PPA-730	UN organizations :Managing changes	Spring 2009	CATHERINE BERTINI
10	PPA-730	Political Economy of Policy Reform	Spring 2009	George Abonyi

I took five courses in fall, one in winter and four in spring semester. The course contents included delivery of government services in emergencies and during natural calamities, nature and functioning of international organizations, civil society organizations and the necessity for public private partnership.

Some basic reasons for adopting PPP are:

1. Provides pooling of financial resources
2. Brings latest knowledge and technology which are in practice around the world
3. Government management is reduced.
4. Brings competitiveness in the organizations.
5. Provides know-how and expertise to improve skills
6. Offers an alternative to privatization.
7. Offers opportunity for socially responsible and progressive private sector organizations to contribute to development.
8. Combines the advantages of both public and the private sector.

What is the role of United Nations and how it is managing the international affairs was detailed to us. Trip to UN headquarter was organized to expose us to the UN system and procedures. Different roles played by the UN was briefed with focus on the role of CSOs, It was taught that with the help of Civil Society Organizations, and Not for profit organizations we can deliver public services and goods more effectively and efficiently . CSOs, NGOs are actively involved in almost all fields from program implementation to policy advocacy. Oxfam International is good example of it.

It is inferred that we should utilize the capacities of the domestic, national and international CSOs, NGOs for bringing benefits and delivering services to the public.

These organizations are very important stakeholders in framing public policy and its reform. Above all we have seen their leading roles in policies and programs implementations. PPP model is widely used in India at different level of governments. We can take help of domestic, national and international CSOs in implementing PPP. We learned how to harness the capacities of these non-governmental organizations in public service delivery in normal as well as emergency situations.

In developed countries on line services delivery is very common. Government-2 was initially used for the networking but latter on it became effective tool for public service delivery. It is in use in federal, state, and local governments to provide benefits to public. In India government-2 and social media is used, but at a very low scale. It is a challenge for us how to use this in India in conditions of low penetration of internet and lack of basic infrastructures like electricity.

As practical requirement of the course Government-2, I have created a group on social media FaceBook How to Accelerate the Development of District-BASTI, UP, India-272001 . I chose Basti as it is a backward district of UP. The selection was made in consultation with the professor and she is advisor to the group. Implementation of any project will be easy in District Basti because I know the facts and figures of the district as it is my home district. I do have a registered society PPK (with government information) which is required as implementation platform on the line of PPP model. I discussed the project with professors, who advised to adopt an ICT or computer literacy related students’ projects for the schools based on social media. The main steps would be- learn- connect-communicate-engage-get result.

Prof Ines Mergel sent advice on mail which is as follows:

From: Ines Mergel
To: heera lal
Sent: Sun, 7 March, 2010 3:17:47 PM
Subject: RE: How to get finance- a new small projcet

Good afternoon,

unfortunately, I don't have any experience with funding projects in India. Did you look into programs from the WorldBank or the One Laptop Per Child initiative? It was just last week covered in the news that India has ordered 250,000 additional laptops for children. Here is a link to it: http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/india/katha_implements_olpc_india.html

Good luck for your project!
Ines Mergel


Ines Mergel
Assistant Professor of Public Administration
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Administration
Syracuse University
400H Eggers Hall
Syracuse, NY 13210
phone: 315-443-5100

Skype: inesmergel
Twitter: InesMergel
http://card.ly/inesmergel
Blog: http://inesmergel.wordpress.com
Web: http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/iamergel/

I am now in the process of implementing it. Prof Ines told me to present this in class. The project conceptualization and planning part is almost complete. Implementation in the field will be done in district BASTI with the assistance from group, my own NGOs and other organizations interested in participating in the project. Prof. has promised her support in formalizing of the project for implementation. Program will be first implemented in Basti and will be extended to other areas based on the experience of Basti pilot project. The project will be managed by a knowledge committee at the school level and I will be the advisor of this committee on behalf of my own registered society and school head will be its president. Representative of teachers, students, donors and others associated with the project will be its members. All activities of the project will be properly documented and will have the signature of all stakeholders. The project will be implemented by NGOs and private organizations. Later on if government is convinced of the relevance and impact of the project they can consider its implementation under the PPP model.

I met and discussed with many NRIs from Uttar Pradesh. After these discussions I found that NRIs need some forum to get help at some point of time. Being outside the country and getting the work done in India is a difficult task. Such situation creates disappointment. To find a solution this problem, I discussed this with the professor and our colleagues. Social media is the best tool to facilitate the NRIs as almost all NRIs are net users. After much deliberation, I mustered courage to take this responsibility voluntarily. To bring all UP NRIs together into a group, I created a group on facebook social media with title “Uttar Pradesh Non-Resident Indians (UP-NRI Group)”

and link : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10150154610930118

Prof Ines is an advisor to this group. She is guiding me how to use social media to solve the public problems. It is a new field in public service delivery so initially difficulties will appear time to time.

This is my interim report regarding my study progress as per the direction of the DoPT letter issued to us to apprise about study progress.

Thanks and Regards,

( Heera Lal )

EMPA -09, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public affairs

Of Syracuse University, Syracuse.

Apts-220, Building No. 2

121 Lafayette Road, Syracuse, NY,USA-13205

315-214-5558( landline); 315-395-0291( Mobile)

heeralalpcs@yahoo.co.in ; heeralalpcs@gmail.com

http://heeralalpcs.blogspot.com/

CC: Mr. Naresh Wadhwa Under Secretary DoPT, GoI New Delhi.