NEW DELHI, APR 17: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, and Minister of State for PMO, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh, today felicitated top-performing Ministries, Departments, and States at the “SADHANA Saptah 2026” ceremony.
Addressing the gathering, Dr. Singh said the awards system has been reoriented from individual profiling to performance linked with flagship programmes and the resolution of complex challenges at the district level, marking a clear shift toward results-based evaluation in governance. He highlighted the massive scale of participation, with the week-long initiative recording over 3.18 crore course completions. Nearly 47 lakh government employees took part, and more than 33 lakh completed the prescribed four hours of learning. This activity was nearly eight times higher than the earlier National Learning Week, reflecting both scale and a behavioral shift toward continuous learning in government.
Describing SADHANA Saptah as a “people-driven movement,” Dr. Singh said it has fostered a culture where officials across cadres engage in learning out of professional commitment rather than compulsion, contributing to a broader shift toward professional pride and self-improvement within the civil services. He emphasized the initiative’s inclusivity, with strong participation from Group C and D employees and frontline functionaries alongside senior officers, reinforcing that capacity building must cut across hierarchies to directly strengthen service delivery and public trust.
Dr. Singh also highlighted the leadership of States and Union Territories in driving participation, especially at the grassroots level where improved skills are immediately visible in citizen-facing services. He pointed to the Capacity Building Commission as a new institutional mechanism enabling wider outreach and collaboration, including with the private sector, to scale up capacity-building efforts.
The Minister noted the government is expanding training to new domains, including science administrators and academicians, with similar orientation efforts being explored for parliamentarians and ministers. On technology, he described artificial intelligence and digital tools as key enablers of future-ready governance, cautioning that technology must complement human judgement and that integrity remains central to public service. He also traced the evolution of the government’s learning platform from a “primitive” beginning into a widely used interface supporting large-scale participation.
Congratulating the awardees, including Ministries, States, training institutions, and ecosystem partners, Dr. Singh said such recognition sets benchmarks for the broader Mission Karmayogi framework and reinforces the need to carry forward continuous learning as an integral part of governance. These developments underline the Centre’s ongoing efforts to institutionalize capacity building as a continuous process, linking learning outcomes with governance performance while preparing civil services for emerging technological and administrative challenges.
