About the job Intern - Delivery Support
About CEGIS
Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS – pronounced See-Jis) aims to improve lives by helping Indian state governments deliver better development outcomes. We believe that the most impactful lever for accelerating national development is to improve governance and state capacity to better deliver core public services at scale.
Informed by cutting-edge research and evidence as well as a practical orientation toward implementable ideas, CEGIS works with state governments in India to enable a transformative improvement in their functioning. CEGISs vision and Theory of Change (ToC) are an outcome of extensive research done by Prof. Karthik Muralidharan (CEGIS Co-Founder and Scientific Director) and outlined in his multiple award-winning, national bestselling book Accelerating India's Development, and enabled by strategic philanthropic support provided by Ashish Dhawan (CEGIS Co-Founder).
CEGIS Approach and Model of Functioning:
CEGISs solutions to enhance governance are co-created with state governments in a state-led way, where we focus on deep partnerships with states using an iterative cycle of think-demonstrate-document-transfer. We work closely with the top bureaucratic leadership, front-line workers and public officials in Finance, Planning, Human Resources and a few other priority line departments. Many of our solutions reflect ideas outlined in the book Accelerating India's Development, and these solutions are constantly refined based on real-time feedback and are designed to both be customized to the contexts we are working in, and to create templates that can provide the starting point for replication across contexts.
Our focus areas reflect evidence that key characteristics of high-performing organisations include (a) measuring outcomes through reliable, high quality data that enables goal setting and progress monitoring; (b) strategic use of personnel – competency based hiring and training, skilling, and performance appraisals to determine job assignments, pay, and promotions – to achieve the goals above; (c) strategic budgeting where resource allocation and revenue collection are based on evidence and cost-effectiveness; (d) and creating efficient systems to leverage external actors (including for-profit and nonprofit organisations). CEGIS partners with states to improve capacity by focusing on these pillars of State effectiveness, and aims to also integrate these horizontal governance improvements into integrated sectoral roadmaps to accelerate the achievement of state and national development outcomes.
Internally, CEGIS is organized into solutions teams that lead the design and technical quality control of our research and evidence-backed approaches to improving governance and state capacity; delivery" teams that lead state-facing work to contextualize the solutions, and support governments in implementing them; and enablement teams that enable the organization to function smoothly.
CEGIS@6 to CEGIS@10: Building on momentum to catalyse national development
Since its incorporation in 2019, CEGIS has gained significant momentum in building strong collaborations with state government(s) as a trusted partner who can provide both thought leadership and implementation support on key governance reforms. CEGIS position as a non-profit that does not take any funding from the government (other than in-kind contributions of office space/staff) has been a key enabler in earning this trust.
Beginning with 1 state government engagement in 2019, today CEGIS is working across 9 Indian states (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh). We also partner with union agencies/ministries such as Capacity Building Commission, Ministry of Women & Child Development (MoWCD), and Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to share insights from our state-level work to inform national-level guidelines and dissemination to other states. Finally, we also take on selected work at the district level to design and test implementation templates.
From a small group of founding members, we have grown to become a team of 150+ members located across the country, and expect to grow to over 200 in the coming year. Led by a former senior civil-servant with deep governance experience; state and solution team leads with decades of domain expertise; and enabling functions led by professionals with considerable corporate experience, the team at CEGIS brings together knowledge and experience that spans various sectors – from development economics, research, governance, management consulting, and social entrepreneurship.
Over the last 6 years, CEGIS has also garnered support for our vision and theory of change from several foundations and philanthropists whose partnership has enabled us to build our organisational capacity as well as continue to experiment and improve our solution design to augment state capacity and governance. With the rapidly growing demand for CEGISs offerings, CEGIS is well-positioned to play a key role in accelerating Indias development.
To explore what the mission of CEGIS is and the impact we hope to have, please take a look at this video of our CEO, Dr Vijay Pingale.
About Personnel Management (PM) Vertical
We believe that empowered, equipped and future-ready public officials are crucial to achieving citizen-centric service delivery.
We work with central, state, and local governments to actualise their human capital by improving human resource management (HRM) practices and organisational effectiveness using a competency-driven approach. We believe that supporting governments in undertaking these reforms will result in improved execution capacity and a fulfilling career journey for public officials.
The competency-driven approach focuses on the knowledge, skills, and attitude required for specific government roles. By undertaking this approach, CEGIS aims to bring clarity to the work done by officials and empower them to achieve better results. This translates to a shift in accountability from simply following processes to delivering tangible outcomes.
The Personnel Management team achieves this through three key workstreams.
- Competency-Based Recruitment: Ensuring the right people are selected for the job and bringing the necessary competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitude) on board from the outset.
- Competency-Based Learning & Development: Equipping public officials with the ongoing training and development they need to excel in their roles.
- Performance Management Systems: Evaluating and improving individual and team performance based on achieving defined goals, not just by adherence to procedures.
Through these efforts, the Personnel Management team strives to bring enhanced clarity and effectiveness to government work in India. By empowering officials with the right skills and holding them accountable for achieving desired outcomes, CEGIS is paving the way for a more efficient and impactful government service.
Project and Position Summary
CEGIS is seeking an Intern - Personnel Management (Delivery Support) to primarily support the day-to-day functioning of ongoing personnel management and capacity-building projects, particularly in close coordination with the CEGIS Assam Team and the Assam Administrative Staff College (AASC).
The intern will work closely with CEGIS Assam Team and government officers in AASC to support implementation, coordination, documentation, and structured follow-ups related to competency-based human resource reforms. Alongside this, the intern will contribute to research, diagnostics, and analytical tasks that inform solution design and refinement.
This internship offers practical exposure to how governance reforms are implemented on the ground; how ideas move from frameworks to pilots, and how institutions such as AASC operationalise capacity-building initiatives in partnership with organisations such as CEGIS. The role is well suited for individuals who are comfortable balancing execution support with analytical work in a dynamic government-facing environment.
Roles and Responsibilities
Assam Team & AASC Support
- Provide day-to-day support to the Assam Team and AASC on personnel management and capacity-building initiatives.
- Support coordination of project activities, timelines, deliverables, and internal workflows.
- Assist in organising and supporting meetings, workshops, reviews, and training-related activities with AASC and government departments.
- Maintain trackers, records, and follow-up notes to ensure continuity and progress across activities.
- Support communication and coordination between CEGIS, AASC, and government stakeholders.
Project Delivery and Implementation Support
- Support project delivery across key stages including diagnostics, solution identification, pilot development, pilot implementation, and scale-up support.
- Assist in preparing background material, notes, and inputs required for implementation and review discussions.
- Support documentation of pilot experiences, implementation challenges, and emerging learnings.
Working with Government Officers
- Work closely with government officers and AASC officials during meetings, workshops, and consultations.
- Support preparation of agendas, meeting notes, action points, and follow-up communication.
- Assist in documenting feedback, decisions, and insights from government interactions to inform project refinement.
Research, Analysis, and Knowledge Support
- Support desk research and analysis related to various PM Team solutions such as competency-based L&D, recruitment and performance management.
- Assist in collecting, cleaning, and synthesising data to support project deliverables.
- Contribute to preparation of presentations, briefs, reports, and internal knowledge products.
- Support systematic documentation and organisation of project materials and knowledge outputs.
Education and Experience
- Rrecently completed a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Public Policy, Education, Management, Technology Management, Human Resources, or a related field or currently enrolled in a Master's degree (in the above fields)
- Relevant experience in research, data analytics and professional writing
Required Competencies
The competencies required to perform the above-mentioned roles and responsibilities are as follows:
Functional Competencies
Research & Analytical Acumen: Ability to conduct research, interpret patterns, and synthesise information into findings
Data Analysis & Insights: Accurately interprets data, identifies patterns, and develops reports
Solution Design and Innovation: Understands design thinking principles to support the development of solution prototypes
Communication & Knowledge Practices: Communicates and documents ideas clearly across formats
Behavioural Competencies
Leading Self: Takes ownership of tasks and ensures timely completion
Learning Orientation: Seeks feedback, applies guidance, and adapts work practices to evolving needs
Collaboration: Keen on building relationships, sharing responsibilities, and contributing effectively to team goals
Note
- The role will be based in Guwahati, Assam
- Proficiency in English, Assamese and Hindi
- CEGIS is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against based on race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin.
Pre-reads for the application process
Please go through the following materials before sending in your application:
- CEGIS Overview
- A glimpse into life at CEGIS -CEGIS Retreat 2024
- State Capacity, Governance, and Public Systems — Prof. Karthik Muralidharan on Seen & Unseen with Amit Varma – on education, healthcare, federalism and state capacity, and bureaucracy in India.
- You are also strongly encouraged to read Prof. Karthik Muralidharans book Accelerating Indias Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance (especially Chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, and 11), which informs much of CEGIS's work and theory of change.
Recommended listening:
- Karthik Muralidharan Episodes on SparX by Mukesh Bansal: Podcast Episode 1, Podcast Episode 2, Podcast Episode 3.
- Karthik Muralidharan: Indias Roadmap for Effective Governance — FED Dialogues: Podcast Episode.
- Karthik Muralidharan on Making Governance More Effective — Sushasan | Podcast.