Kakatiya Governance Fellowship

Introduction

1. Formed in 2014, Telangana is the newest state in the country. Since its formation, the state has adopted several path-breaking initiatives and governance reforms. For instance, the Rythu Bandhu programme initiated by the Telangana Government has become a model for other states and the country as a whole. Similarly, the recent land administration reforms undertaken by the Government have become noteworthy across the country.
2. The Government intends to build on this progress and make a decisive shift towards improving outcomes across multiple sectors, going beyond the output-based progress reviews. As part of these efforts, the Government is partnering with organisations with deep analytical expertise in measuring outcomes to use this information to optimise its personnel and public finance management to improve developmental outcomes.
3. To aid this transformation, the Government intends to hire deeply committed and highly qualified professionals. Accordingly, the State Government has decided to institute the Kakatiya Governance Fellowship.
4. The 1st batch of fellows were inducted in the period of March – May 2021. Since then, they have been closely working with various departmental HoDs in delivering great results, and have also gotten well-adjusted to the often lengthy or odd-working hours resulting from the high work demands by bureaucrats.

Fellowship structure

5. The Kakatiya Governance Fellowship will be a structured programme for the Government to engage professionals where they will be:

• Recruited through a rigorous selection process
• Provided periodic training for developing key technical and non-technical competencies
• Provided regular feedback on performance
• Exposed to a wide range of governance issues beyond their own specific projects

6. As a part of this fellowship, professionals will be recruited for 2 years, extendable to 4 years, with the number of positions as follows:

• Fellow (4 positions)
• Senior Fellow (1 position)
• The final number of positions may vary depending on emerging administrative requirements and the availability of suitable candidates.

7. Fellows are expected to play a significant role in shaping key projects and become a part of the governance team of this rapidly developing state. After completing this fellowship, it is envisaged that these professionals  will continue to be part of the development ecosystem in the state and the country, thereby making this fellowship an investment for the future of the country at large.

8. Similarly placed fellowships across the country have attracted candidates from the best academic and professional organisations. Therefore, this fellowship will provide you with an opportunity to work with highly qualified people and build a lasting network for your careers ahead. In addition, the candidates are expected to gain significantly in terms of their technical/non-technical skills and get significant exposure to the innerworkings of the Government.

9. Telangana State Development Planning Society (TSDPS) will be the implementing agency for this fellowship programme.

Job Description

10. The main objective of this fellowship is to help the Government of Telangana improve developmental outcomes in the state. Accordingly,
a. The Fellow will undertake specific projects spanning the following areas along with necessary coordination activities:

i. Regular and independent data collection of key outcomes and
processes across multiple sectors, including improving the quality
of existing data systems

ii. Leveraging administrative and outcome data to improve
performance and personnel management

iii. Strategic budgeting and planning to improve the quality of public
expenditure

iv. Creating evidence-based policy-roadmaps for reforms in key
sectors and tracking the impact of these reforms on outcomes

b. The Senior Fellow will mainly focus (but not limited to) on Policy &
Analytical communications

i. Drafting/editing policy briefs viz., Socio Economic Outlook.

ii. Analysing data, capturing insights, drafting short notes / Reports
and Creating Presentations in response to department/senior
officials requests.

iii. Creating/Curating content for the Planning department website.

iv. As per work demands, managing a team of 2-3 Fellows (varies with
project-type) in – liaising with bureaucrats, work allocation,
reporting, coordinating and synthesising reports, participating in
government meetings whenever required.

11. A few projects currently being planned/implemented along these lines are as follows:

a. Improving child nutritional and pre-school education outcomes

b. Improving farmer incomes by promoting optimal cropping patterns and other avenues

c. Measuring outcomes in various developmental through household/phone surveys

d. Improving the quality of administrative datasets by identifying sources of error and working on reducing them

e. Improving performance management of frontline personnel

f. Build State Human Resource Management System (HRMS) Platform

g. Improving allocative efficiency of the budgeting process by examining thecost-effectiveness of key line items.

h. To draft Analytical reports / State Economic Surveys which capture major reform ideas and key sector outcomes within states (example, see the Socio-Economic Outlook 2021/22)

12. Please note that these projects can be undertaken directly as part of core governmental teams or teams formed in partnership with other organisations.

13. In addition to these projects, fellows are expected to be posted directly withsenior officials like Secretaries to the Government to aid coordination with different implementation structures to further development outcomes, either as part of sectoral projects or cross-sectoral projects.

14. The Senior Fellows are expected to undertake the above responsibilities, and to also serve as Team Leads managing one or more projects. The specific projects and the team compositions will be determined based on the emerging priorities of the Government

Qualifications

The cut-off age for Fellows is 32 years as on 10th April 2022 (i.e., those born on 9th April 1990 or later) and for Senior Fellows is 40 years as on 10th April 2022 (i.e., those born on 9th April 1982 or later).

Education: A postgraduate degree or higher from a premier educational institution in policy-relevant subjects including Public Policy, Economics, Development Studies, Business Management, Law, Human Resources, Accounting etc. In exceptional cases, graduate degree holders may be considered. Candidates with academic and practical experience in technology, data management and analysis, and systems design/architecture are also encouraged to apply.

Professional Experience:

Fellow Positions: Candidates should have at least 2 years of full-time work experience post their graduation

Senior Fellow Positions:

• Candidates should have at least 4 years of full-time work experience post their graduation, with some exposure to handling small teams.
• Preference will be given to candidates who possess experience of working on data visualisation tools like Tableau, generating heat maps using applications like Q-GIS, scripting data processing languages using softwares like ‘R’.

Candidates are expected to demonstrate technical and analytical skills in areas such as data analysis/presentation, and be comfortable working with large data sets (managing, manipulating, merging, analysing data) and creating visualisations of key insights.

In addition to technical and analytical skills, candidates are expected to have excellent written and communication skills (ability to communicate complex ideas in a meaningful way and across different audiences).

The ideal candidate should also possess entrepreneurial skills in exploring development opportunities for the state and formulating their own work plans to enable the state to seize these opportunities with minimal supervision. Equally important, they should possess interpersonal skills in dealing with the administrative apparatus, duly understanding the functioning of the state Government.

Knowledge of Telugu is an advantage, but not mandatory.

Terms and Conditions
22. The tenure of appointment for these positions will be 2 years, extendable by another term of 2 years. However, these extensions will be subject to periodic performance assessments and either party may give a notice of 30 days for termination of the engagement.

23. The compensation structure will be as follows:
a. A consolidated amount of Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 1,00,000 per month for fellows
depending on the qualifications and experience

b. A consolidated amount of Rs. 1,25,000 to Rs. 1,50,000 per month for senior fellows, depending on the qualifications and experience

24. There will be an annual performance-based increment as follows:

a. Satisfactory or met expectations : 7.5%

b. Good or exceeded expectations : 10%

c. Outstanding or delivered outstanding performance : 15%

25. Work related expenditure incurred by fellows/senior fellows shall be reimbursedas per applicable guidelines.

26. These engagements will be based out of Hyderabad, however, there could be project-based travel engagements within the state of Telangana or beyond, with travel expenses reimbursed as per applicable guidelines.

27. The working hours will follow the schedule of the Government of Telangana and as stipulated by their reporting manager. Currently, the Government of Telangana follows a 6-day week schedule with second Saturday as a holiday.

28. Outstanding performers may be considered for longer-term contract engagements with the Government of Telangana or its associated institutions.However, successful completion of the duration of appointment under this notification per se does not confer any right on the candidate for any engagement with the Government of Telangana or any of its associated institutions.

Timelines

The timelines for recruitment under this programme is as follows:

• Deadline for Receipt of Applications: April 10th, 2022
• Interview Call for Shortlisted Candidates: April 16th, 2022
• Interviews for Shortlisted Candidates: April 18th – 25th, 2022
• Announcement of Selected Candidates: May 7th, 2022
• Confirmation of Acceptance: May 15th, 2022
• Expected Joining Date: June 15th, 2022

30. If there is any change in timelines above, it will be intimated on the website –https://tsdps.telangana.gov.in/.

31. Additionally, please register your interest in the fellowship by filling this short form – https://forms.gle/9yFYoTBgi4TxyXvE6 and an email will be sent to your address in case there are any changes to the notification details. Please note that registering your interest does not make you an applicant, unless you go through the application process stipulated in the next section.

Application Process

32. The Applications Materials should have the following documents for the candidates applying for the fellow position:

a. Curriculum Vitae: In your CV, please emphasise and elaborate on all the work experiences and academic qualifications that are relevant to this position, in some detail, especially those pertaining to the points listed above in the ‘qualifications’ section. Please provide details of two
references (name, mobile number, email id, organisation and designation) in your CV.

b. Policy Brief: Choose any project from the list provided in paragraph 11 and prepare a concise policy note with ideas for achieving the policy goal (not exceeding 1,500 words excluding tables and figures). If necessary, you may narrow down the scope of the brief (e.g. improving performance management of frontline personnel but focusing on teachers). Your policy brief should describe the key problem facing the Government in Telangana and suggest ways in which the Government could address this problem. In your brief, please use publicly-available data to highlight the extent of the problem in the sector in Telangana (including comparisons with other comparable states), draw on both existing research and policy reports and demonstrate an understanding of practical implementation issues while recommending solutions. Please also include a 150 word executive summary of your proposal.

c. Policy Presentation: Prepare a standalone presentation based on your policy brief that can be presented to the concerned Departmental
Secretaries, and other senior officials of the Government of Telangana,
who may or may not have had the opportunity to read the policy brief
(not exceeding 10 slides).

33. The Applications Materials should have the following documents for the candidates applying for the Senior fellow position:

a. Curriculum Vitae: In your CV, please emphasise and elaborate on all the work experiences and academic qualifications that are relevant to this position, in some detail, especially those pertaining to the points listed above in the ‘qualifications’ section. Please provide details of two references (name, mobile number, email id, organisation and designation) in your CV.

b. Policy and Analytical Communication (PAC) test: The test comprises 2 sections – each of which represents the different type of work you will do as a Senior Fellow. Instructions for each section are provided below, but you must complete all 2 sections to be considered for the next stage of the recruitment process.

i. Section 1 – Drafting an Op-Ed: As a Senior Fellow under Kakatiya Governance Fellowship, a central role for PAC is to read academic research and technical reports to cull out the relevant insights for decision-makers. One way we do this is to write op-eds based on academic research (see this and this as examples). Please read the
attached draft chapter (The State and Market in Education:Evidence and the Way Ahead) and write a 650-800 word op-ed that summarizes its main findings and implications. Remember that the goal of this op-ed is to communicate the chapter’s main findings, insights and implications in a concise, well-structured, powerful, easy-to understand and compelling manner. In your submission, you may refer to other research, but when doing so, please add the relevant attribution (a hyperlink to the source will suffice).

ii. Section 2 – Creating a presentation: Another essential aspect of Senior Fellow’s work is to create powerful presentations that showcase the project team’s work. For this exercise, imagine that you have an important meeting with a senior bureaucrat in the State Government’s Education Department. The purpose of the meeting is to present ideas from the ‘State and Market in Education’ chapter (from Section 1 in the test). Please create a short presentation (at most 10 slides) that summarizes your key recommendations for the State’s education system (based on the state and market chapter) and how you could help implement these recommendations. You are free to structure your presentation as you like but remember we’re looking for a clear and compelling deck.

c. Management Brief, covering the following: What has been your experience of managing and motivating a group of people to come together as a team to deliver project objectives within stipulated timelines? Please highlight the challenges you faced, how you overcame them, and what you may have done better (not exceeding 600 words).

34. The applicant should fill the relevant application form as per links provided below. This form asks for basic professional details as well as provides a provision to upload your application file.

a. https://forms.gle/byRT3tjxA5AQo4W18 for Fellow positions

b. https://forms.gle/bCdrKR3QccUuYFt6A for Senior Fellow positions.

35. All the above required documents – Curriculum Vitae, Policy Brief (Op-Ed for Senior Fellows), Policy Presentation and Management Brief (only for Senior Fellows) – should be submitted as a SINGLE PDF with filename Firstname_Lastname.pdf. Please note that this form will only accept a single pdf submitted through a Google account. Applicants shall plan accordingly to submit their application documents within the deadline.

36. The application form will be deactivated at the deadline stated in the ‘Timelines’ section. Therefore, applicants are advised to apply early and not wait until the deadline.

Selection Process

37. Applicants will be shortlisted based on the merit of their application materials. Shortlisted applicants will be invited for a personal/telephonic/video-based interview.

38. The Government of Telangana reserves the right to keep one or more of the above positions vacant if it does not find suitable candidates during the selection process.

39. The offer of appointment will be conditional upon producing Graduation Certificates, Transcripts, Experience Certificates, etc., to validate the Curriculum Vitae submitted.

Other Information

40. To facilitate a better understanding of the state of Telangana, some indicative sources (not to be deemed exhaustive) are listed below:

a. Socio Economic Outlooks of Government of Telangana

b. Websites of Planning, Finance and Line Departments

c. Programmatic websites

d. Database of Government Orders of Telangana

e. RBI’s Handbooks on State Finances

f. State Level Bankers Committee Reports of Telangana

41. Applicants have to undertake their own research as necessary, and not rely solely on the above sources. All the application materials shall have to be the work of the applicant alone. Any references used shall be cited accordingly. Any othersupport received during the compilation of the application materials shall beduly acknowledged

Queries

Please feel free to send your queries to kgf.tsdps@gmail.com. However, no application will be accepted through this email ID.