1-day programme for participants of 44th Advance Professional Programme in Public Administration (APPPA)

Chandigarh, April 26, 2019: The Department of Public Administration, Panjab University organized a one day
programme for the participants of 44th Advance Professional Programme in Public Administration (APPPA), here today. APPPA is a customized ten months’ course for senior officers of the All India and Central Services including the Defence services.
40 participants have been drawn for the programme from various Ministries and Departments, for the current year (July 2, 2018 to 30 April, 2019). On successful completion of the programme, the successful participants who have a post-graduate degree with 50% or more marks are awarded Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in Social Sciences of the Panjab University, Chandigarh.
Prof. Raj Kumar, the Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, while inaugurating the programme appreciated the Department and IIPA for organizing this visit. He suggested that we should look forward in diversified way for collaborations in long
term programmes with third party institutions also. He also emphasized on multi-disciplinary domains with other various other departments and ministry.
Prof. Kusum Lata from IIPA gave a detailed plan of the APPPA programme comprising of three modules: basic, thematic and critical.
Prof. Ashish Jain, Director, IQAC gave a synoptic view of the history of Panjab University and its high standards that have been maintained all through; its recent rankings in the first 10 Indian Institutions in innovation stand testimony to
that.
Prof. Parmod Kumar, Director, Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh delivered the first special lecture of the programme on “Decoding Challenges of Governance”. He delineated four main challenges of governance – trust deficit, dignity, spatial disconnect and technology convergence. He suggested that the effective governance should be based on strengthening internal control mechanisms with trust on the official machinery rather than external control agencies.
General K.J. Singh (Retd), Maharaja Ranjit Singh Chair Professor, Panjab University, delivered the second special lecture on “India’s Security Challenges: Coping Strategies”. He did a SCOT analysis of the current national security scenario
i.e. Strength, Challenges, Opportunities and Threats. He presented a number of coping strategies like national consensus, Permanently in Election Mode (PIEM) syndrome, skilling dividend, effective delivery mechanism, building new legacies, self reliance and strengthening accountability structures.
Earlier, Prof. Ramanjit K. Johal, Chairperson, Dept. of Public Administration welcomed the guests. She apprised the participants about the long term collaboration and association of the Department with IIPA.
It is believed that this is the beginning of an annual feature which will give a sense of belonging to the APPPA participants and strengthen the collaboration between IIPA and Panjab University.
The programme was attended by Dean Alumni Relations, Director IQAC, Prof.Upinder Sawhney, Prof. Anil Monga and Prof. Pampa Mukherjee (P.U.’s members of APPPA Academic Committees) and the faculty members and research Scholars of the Department of Public Administration.