The five-day workshop on ‘Leadership, Ethics, and Emerging Issues in Water Resources’, organised by Bharti Institute of Public Policy at the Indian School of Business, Mohali campus, from June 20-24, 2022, saw participation of 45 senior officials of the Department of Water Resources, Government of Punjab. The workshop aimed to equip government officials with contemporary management concepts and enhance their motivation and leadership skills, along with imparting research-driven knowledge on water management, security and agri-water conflicts resolution. The workshop is the first of the series of training workshops to be organised for officials of the department as part of a capacity enhancing collaboration with the government authority wherein Bharti Institute is the training and knowledge partner.

The sessions, undertaken by faculty experts at ISB and eminent policy practitioners, were dedicated to understanding the concepts of sustainable leadership; emotional intelligence and learning agility, integrity, and ethical dilemmas in public leadership, imparted through team building activities, simulation assignments, group projects, in-class role-plays and individual presentations. The officials were also given self-reflective exercises for a better comprehension and analysis of one’s own workstyle, motivation drive, aims and challenges. Also, multiple sessions by subject matter experts focused on gaining in-depth perspectives on agricultural water management in the state; role of public-private partnership in water sector, issues in water governance, climate change impact, and environmental policy, helping the participants get acquainted with historical and new aspects on major regional, national and international issues in water resources. Bharti Institute had also organised a dinner evening for the participants towards the end of the workshop for them to have some colloquial interactions with a few experts, fellow colleagues, and ISB staff.

Mr Krishan Kumar, IAS, Department of Water Resources, Punjab, gave away certificates to the participants during the culmination ceremony of the workshop, which was preceded by an interactive feedback session. Mr Kumar also gave few post-workshop exercises to the officials to implement the learnings in the department work ethos. “The training was initiated to help the officials overcome the challenges of status quo thinking, expand horizons of knowledge, and pave way for process re-engineering to enhance the system efficiency. It’s an attempt to inculcate innovative thinking in young officials and thereby improve the work dynamics,” said Mr Kumar.