Visiting IAS officers spot fascinating Korean story of rapid rise of income

INDIAN ambassador to South Korea Vishnu Prakash narrated the fascinating story of Korea’s 258 times-rise of per capita income during the last a half century when he addressed a group of visiting IAS officers at Seoul on Thursday. South Korea’s per capita income which was barely $89 in 1962, had risen to…
$23,000 in 2012. And that’s not all. South Korea became the first country to undergo a transition from an aid recipient to a donor country.
In fact, the 8th group of IAS officers is currently on a study tour of South Korea, as part of their mid-career training programme with the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration.  As many as 90 IAS officers with 5 to 10 years of service arrived in South Korea on 19 May and are returning on May 31.
According to an official statement issued by India’s embassy to South Korea, an intensive programme of meetings, interactions and field visits, was organized for the Indian officers by the Korea Development Institute (KDI). “The purpose of the study tour is to enable them to take a first-hand look at the modalities of the unprecedented socio-economic development in Korea over the last 30 years,” the statement said.
At Busan and other parts of South Korea, the officers visited Hyundai Industries, shipyards, leading educational and medical institutions, public transport networks, rural development centres and other establishments.
Till now, 800 IAS officers at different levels have undertaken a familiarization tour of South Korea in the preceding years.

Action and Appointments
a) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal for appointment MS Bhatia, a 1990 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS, as joint secretary in the fourteenth Finance Commission.