Fellowship Opportunity – Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Fellowship Program 2022-24

About

Good governance is a hallmark of any prosperous state. Towards this objective, the Government of Tamil Nadu has introduced the “Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Fellowship Programme (TNCMFP),” starting from 2022-23. It aims to harness the energy and talent of young professionals to improve the governance processes and enhance the service delivery of various programs and policies in Tamil Nadu. TN CM’s Fellows’ role will be to monitor and evaluate, identify issues, and aid data-driven decision-making on the assigned programs to address the gaps in service delivery and optimize the same in line with the global best practices.

Apply By: 10th June, 2022

Objective

• Create a pool of knowledgeable and action-oriented resources for the Government to work on policy efficacy, identify gaps, and build internationally referred benchmarks for policy and program outcomes.
• Evolve a ‘program structure’ with a combination of academic rigour drawn from international best practices of policy and governance for various sectors of Tamil Nadu.
• Conceive and implement a framework of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to measure, monitor, and improve the service delivery of the Government across different departments and different sectors in Tamil Nadu.
• Develop the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for service delivery and compare them against the global best practices.
• Develop and implement the measuring system for each of the KPIs across various sectors and create a magic quadrant of different service delivery processes in terms of their maturity and impact.
• Create a learning process for the Fellows and the Government to measure and evaluate policy outcomes, gaps, and course corrections.
• Enable the Fellowship resources to identify impact creation and scale up best practices.
• The understanding of state economy, linkage of policy and economic activities, and financial planning for higher value chain activities.

Duration: 2 Years
Stipend: Rs.75000 per month

Eligibility

1. A first-class Bachelor’s degree in respect of Professional Courses (Engineering, Medicine, Law, Agriculture, Veterinary Science) or a first-class Master’s degree in Arts/Science from any of the Universities incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India, or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament, or declared as a Deemed-to-be University under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, or an equivalent qualification.

• Candidates with a PhD degree will be preferred.
• Work experience will be an added advantage.
• Strong emphasis will be on research experience.
• Working knowledge of Tamil is mandatory.

2. Age Limit: The applicant’s age shall be between 22-30 years as of 25.05.2022. For candidates belonging to SC/ST category, the maximum age limit shall be 35 years, and for candidates belonging to BC/MBC category, the maximum age limit shall be 33 years.

Selection Process

The selection process includes three stages as follows:

Stage 1: Preliminary Assessment (Computer-based Test)
Stage 2: Comprehensive Examination (Written Examination)
Stage 3: Personal Interview

• The Preliminary Assessment will be a computer-based test (CBT) of objective type (multiple-choice questions) carrying a maximum of 150 points.
  There will be three sections in the CBT: (1) General Awareness (to test a candidate’s General Knowledge, including current affairs) (2) Quantitative Aptitude (to assess basic math skills, such as algebra, numbers, geometry, statistics, and data interpretation at the level of tenth grade) (3) Verbal Comprehension and Logical Reasoning (to assess a candidate’s comprehension and communication skills, analytical ability, decision-making and problem-solving skills, and general mental ability)
  The sole purpose of this exam is to serve as a screening test and will not count for the final selection of the Fellows. There will be negative marks for incorrect answers ( -0.33 points for every wrong answer). The test centres will be in major cities in Tamil Nadu and at Cochin, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Vishakapatnam. The availability of test centres depends on the number of candidates from specific regions and is therefore subject to change.
• A comprehensive examination is a written examination. The questions are of conventional essay type. Questions will focus on General Topics including Governance, Social Justice, Technology, Economic and Social Development, Sustainable Development, Poverty, Demographics, Environment, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Agriculture, Disaster Management, Schemes and Policies of the Government of Tamil Nadu, and Tamil Heritage and Culture. The test centre will be in Chennai.
  We will shortlist the Candidates for the Personal Interview based on their performance in the Comprehensive Examination.
• A panel of experts will conduct a personal interview in Chennai to test the candidate’s intellectual and emotional quotient, knowledge of current affairs, and ability of systemic thinking. Testing of working knowledge of Tamil will be a part of this phase of the selection process.

We will draw the final merit list of the candidates selected for the TN CM’s Fellowship Program based on the combined score in the Comprehensive Examination and Personal Interview.