By Arun Kumar

Washington, Nov 11 (IANS) A group of 18 civil servants from India have joined a US school to get a broader, international perspective on public policy matters by learning how these issues are addressed in America.

The seven week intensive programme at Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University on "Issues in Public Policy: an International Perspective" forms part of their Post Graduate Programme in Public Management (PGPPM).

The programme is the first of its kind in India and is designed to equip mid-career civil servants with the concepts, skills, and techniques in formulating public policy and strategic management of public systems.

The Indian government has been supporting this joint initiative by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) and the Maxwell School since 2002.

The group represents the top tier of Indian administration and has tremendous social capital in terms of affecting change in the administration of the country, the Maxwell school said in a news release.

By targeting the programme at this elite group of administrators, the idea is to transform the civil services to keep it in tune with the challenges posed to it by a rapidly transforming economy and society, it said.

Larry Schroeder, programme director and professor of public administration, said: "The intent of this course is to provide all participants with a broader, international perspective on public policy issues and analysis of those issues."

During their careers, the participants have obviously focused primarily on issues within India and even the coursework completed at IIMB has probably had a strong Indian focus, he said.

"The course includes a series of lecture/discussions by Maxwell School faculty on a wide variety of topics on which the faculty member is an expert."

The participants are expected to produce a major policy paper at the end of the course at Maxwell School which will be used by their respective departments to further improve the systems and processes in place.

This was a practical application of what they would learn in the course and apply it in their own environments, the school said.

While large in scope, the course also intends to bridge the gap that exists between the latest in the 'global best practices' and what is being used in India by providing the participants with new tools and frameworks to look at problems and evaluate them.