175 IAS officers to study BHIM app, GST & Aadhaar

175 newly-recruited IAS officers will be given exposure to the Centres flagship program, including the  GST, the BHIM app for cashless transactions and Aadhaar.

The officers have been posted as assistant secretaries in different central government departments, except the Prime Ministers Office (PMO).

Their posting is part of an initiative started by the government to groom bureaucrats at the Centre before they move to their respective cadre states. All officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) are allotted cadres which could either be a state or group of states. The officers are supposed to start their career in their respective cadre states.

These officers will also be given exposure on the move towards “less cash economy” with emphasis on digital transactions such as unified payments interface, Aadhaar enabled payment systems and Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), it said. “Each ministry/department is already taking action for smooth implementation of the GST in their area of work as well as to promote digital transactions. The assistant secretaries must be fully involved in these activities of the ministry/department,” the DoPT said.

Digital transactions and moving towards cashless economy will be the other areas of emphasis for the assistant secretaries. The Department of Financial Services, IT ministry and the National Payments Corporation of India have been asked to hold special sessions for these IAS officers on United Payments Interface, Aadhaar Enabled Payment Systems and BHIM app.

The officers have been grouped into nine sectors- agriculture and allied sector, transport and communications, energy and environment, health, sanitation and urban development, education and social development, finance and corporate affairs, commerce and industry, governance and crises management. They will be mentored by senior secretaries.