When a successful sales and marketing professional was searching for ways to give back and create an impact in his home state, he found a unique opportunity to go beyond the limits of a traditional boardroom. Puneet joined 9 accomplished senior leaders on a transformative 18-month journey to shape governance in Punjab.
The IAF Punjab cohort is working to support the State government with technology adoption and innovation.
This is the sort of thinking that drives an IAF Fellow — the desire to catalyse the modernisation of public systems, a passion for innovation and tech, and a commitment to actualise the vision for a ‘New India’. The Indian Administrative Fellowship stands out in this space, offering a unique full-time opportunity for talented senior executives leading large-scale transformations to work with civil servants and support the government’s agenda.
Expanding horizons: From Karnataka to Punjab
Launched in 2021 in partnership with the Government of Karnataka, IAF has already demonstrated its potential to drive impactful change. The Karnataka cohort mobilised public funds of INR 850+ crores to implement system reforms and innovation. Dr Shalini Rajneesh, IAS, the program sponsor in Karnataka, shared the program’s success with her network, sparking great enthusiasm in Punjab. With strong support from Shri Tejveer Singh, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Dept of Governance Reforms, IAF Punjab, took flight in December 2022.
Leveraging talent to solve for Punjab
Punjab boasts of a rich cultural heritage, a nascent start-up environment and a vast tourism potential. However, post the white revolution, growth in the state largely stagnated. Punjab needed a renewed focus on livelihood generation and tech-enabled governance. Given the opportunity to propel innovation and institutional change in their home state, 200 private sector leaders from across the world applied to be a part of the cohort. 10 Fellows were selected to work with state departments to conceptualise policies and test and implement sustainable theories of impact.
Nation building in real-time
Since the Punjab cohort started 11 months ago, Fellows have already created a palpable impact. Collectively, Fellows’ projects are expected to mobilise over INR 200 crores of public funds and impact 750,000+ program participants across Punjab.
Fellows visited a Primary school in Tarn Taran District as part of “Punjab immersion” – a series of field visits to understand on-ground work at a deeper level.
Here are a few spotlights from their journey so far:
- Building the pipeline for the leaders of tomorrow means prioritising the youth today. Addressing this, Kumud Jha, Fellow – Dept of Higher Education worked on the NEP implementation handbook to ensure that the youth of Punjab will be future-ready.
- To rejuvenate tourism and livelihoods in Punjab, Puneet Mahajan, Fellow – Dept of Tourism & Cultural Affairs, has worked on building a distinct brand for the state. To that end, launching the first-ever Tourism Summit and Trade Mart saw a plethora of innovative ideas, including adventure tourism in the state.
- The drain of talent from the state due to a lack of employment opportunities has been a key focus area. Saurabh Saha, Fellow – Dept of Employment Generation & Training, was instrumental in organising the Smart India Hackathon 2023, which nudged innovators from the state to contribute tech-based solutions for the flagship employment generation app.
The Indian Administrative Fellowship is now expanding its horizons to collaborate with Union Ministries, with a potential impact to scale across the population of this country.
