The Nitish Kumar administration is set to enter into a tie-up with Jamshedpur’s XLRI School of Management in a bid to boost the image of the state machinery.

Under the programme that is expected to start in July, the premier business school will impart training to thousands of state employees cutting across categories.

Additional chief secretary of Bihar A.K. Choudhary told The Telegraph that the NDA government was serious about changing work culture in the various state departments. “We are tying up with XLRI, which will impart training to our employees from the secretariat to collectorates in all the districts. This is an initiative by chief minister Nitish Kumar himself,” Choudhary said at the local circuit house here.

Choudhary today held talks with senior XLRI officials to finalise the nitty-gritty of the training programme. The meetings were held with the faculty members of the management development programme (MDP) and the institute’s director, Father N. Casimir Raj.

The programme envisages tips on quality of leadership, attitude and behavioural change, group activities and development of a people-friendly approach.

The XLRI director appeared ready for the challenge. “It is an excellent opportunity for the institute as well…. We are working with the Bihar government in a bid to help it develop the state’s human resource,” he said, adding that the course, which will be conducted in the steel city, will start in July.

Sources pointed out that MDP coordinator E.M. Rao will oversee the project, which will feature targeted course content and modules prepared with the help of experts.

A senior government official in Patna said: “Much needs to be done to improve the image of the government, which has gone down in public memory over the past decade.”