Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis seeks ten IIT or IIM grads to intern with government

MUMBAI: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has launched a drive to rope in fresh graduates of IIMs and IITs for effective implementation of his government's flagship programmes.

If a high-ranking bureaucrat is to be believed, ever since Fadnavis took over the reins of the state on October 31, he has been keen on hiring B-school graduates in the state administration. "Fadnavis has given deep and prolonged thought to the idea. We expect the first batch of 10 pass-outs from IITs and IIMs to join by the last week of January or the early February,'' he said.

Elaborating on the concept, the bureaucrat said the graduates, all aged below 25, will join the chief minister's office for a period of 11 months on a monthly stipend of Rs 35,000. "We have proposed that they should have a minimum experience of one year and should be below 25. Once their 11-month tenure is over, they can take up assignments in the private sector or job of their choice. It will be a different kind of experience for them, which will help them in their career later on,'' he said.

Explaining the rationale behind the move, the bureaucrat said that in his first few days in office, Fadnavis had found the state bureaucrats and staffers to be quite competent; however, he feels that if they are assisted and aided by graduates from management colleges and IITs, it will strengthen their efforts to provide a result oriented administration. "We will have to give up traditional approach, and gain a new impetus,'' he said.

The bureaucrat pointed out that taking off from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's idea of Make in India, Fadnavis has drafted a similar plan for the state. "We need people who will bring in new ideas to project the Make in India plan. We feel that products of IIMs and IITs will be able to meet our expectations,'' he said. It has been proposed that once the IIMs and IITs graduates are recruited, they will conduct field studies and actually visit rural parts of Maharashtra to get schemes off paper and onto the ground.

Secondly, the bureaucrat said, Fadnavis has prepared a comprehensive action plan for a drought-free Maharashtra, the Navi Mumbai airport and metro rail projects in Nagpur and Pune. Besides, several new industrial projects are in the pipeline.