National Centre for Good Governance

Why is in news? NCGG opens its door to young minds and commences its first-ever Internship Programme in public policy and good governance

• National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), set up in 2014 by the Government of India as a premier think tank opened its door to bright young minds and launched its first internship programme.
• The NCGG Internship Programme is a short-term engagement that offers a unique blend of public policy making and practical experiences.
• One of the key objectives of the programme is to foster a collaborative environment where interns can work on innovative ideas and perspectives on policies in their respective domains.
• It engages Indian students pursuing post graduate degree or in the final year of law and engineering graduate programmes or research scholars enrolled in recognized universities/ institutions within India or abroad, as interns.
• The internship programme aims to provide young and brilliant minds to carry out research, critical study, documentation and dissemination of best practices to develop a national repository, and establishing a platform for wider dissemination.
• This will also provide opportunities for these young students to learn as well as contribute in public policy. The Internship is for a minimum of 8 weeks and a maximum of 6 months duration. Interns are to be paid Rs. ten thousand per month as an honorarium.

National Centre for Good Governance:

• The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) was set up in 2014 by the Government of India as an apex–level autonomous institution under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
• The Centre traces its origin to the National Institute of Administrative Research (NIAR), which was set up in 1995 by the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), the Government of India's topmost training institute for civil services. NIAR was subsequently rechristened and subsumed into NCGG.
• NCGG deals with a gamut of governance issues from local, state to national levels, across all sectors.
• The Centre is mandated to work in the areas of governance, policy reforms, capacity building and training of civil servants and technocrats of India and other developing countries. It also works as a think tank.
• Since its inception, the Centre has been extensively working in areas such as primary and elementary education, decentralized planning at district and block levels, capacity building of Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs), participatory models of learning and action, rural development, cooperatives, and public sector management, etc. In addition, it focuses on issues related to good governance, social accountability, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), among other sectors.
• The Centre encapsulates the essence of good governance and weighs on the importance of the rule of law, bringing in transparency, working to promote public participation in governance, service delivery and reforms, as well as in developing accountable institutions, access to information, etc.
• The affairs of the NCGG are managed under the overall superintendence and direction of the Governing Body, which is headed by the Cabinet Secretary.
• It has Secretaries of 9 ministries/ departments and 5 eminent persons viz. academicians, eminent administrators, specialists, eminent innovators, heads of reputed institutions as members.
• The Director General, who is the Chief Executive of NCGG acts as the Member–Secretary of the Governing Body.
• The NCGG also has a Management Committee, which is responsible for the administration and management of the society with regards to detailed plans, monitoring and implementation of programmes, contributions, and funds of the society, etc.
• The management committee consists of 12 ex-officio members, headed by the Secretary, DARPG as Chairperson, with Secretaries of 9 ministries/ departments or their nominee, Secretary coordination from Cabinet Secretariat and Director General, NCGG as Member Secretary.