The Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) was established more than five decades ago at the joint initiative of both the Government of India (GOI) and the industry, as an autonomous, self-supporting, public-purpose institution, with the objectives of being a think tank for policy inputs and to build the capacities of practicing professionals in the management of government and business enterprises.

The applied research assignments at ASCI constitute the bedrock of its activities. They have larger societal benefit and public good as the key cornerstones. As a result, ASCI enjoys the trust and confidence of the government and industry. ASCI is thus relied upon and entrusted with assignments of varied scale, scope and specialization spanning across general and functional management areas, theme-specific domains as well as sectoral disciplines. Accordingly, it is ASCI’s constant endeavor to integrate economic, social, cultural, financial, technological, regulatory, human, organizational, and environmental aspects as appropriate and applicable in the research design and analytical framework to work out as a set of bias-free, apolitical, evidence-based and objective recommendations for tackling the issues of topical interest and current concern. ASCI thus contributes to a two-day cycle of theory and practice, each shaping the other, focusing as much on the effectiveness of outcomes as on the efficiency of outputs.

On the strength of its successful accomplishments over the years, ASCI has come to be acknowledged as an institution of excellence and national importance. Today, it stands tall as an institution of higher learning recognized by the Department of Personnel and Training, GoI as well as by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, GoI. ASCI is also a recognized Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO) by the Ministry of Science and Technology, GoI. ASCI is the preferred research and consulting partner for several multi-lateral institutions too like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific, Department for International Development (UK), Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Commonwealth Secretariat, Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (Germany),. Etc.

In its ongoing association with the DST in the realm of capacity building and sponsored research studies, ASCI has, over the past five years, built a stronger rapport with the scientific community and gained valuable insights into the various issues concerning S&T governance and management. As is being widely acknowledged, the research inputs and training initiatives of ASCI are yielding good results and are being welcomed by the scientific community at large.

With its focus on policy, strategy, governance, regulation and socio-economic impact evaluation, ASCI brings knowledge-inputs, informed advice, best practice and innovative ideas to bear on its advocacy, advisory and implementation-assistance services. In the process, it provides opportunities to state and central government ministries and departments, public sector enterprises as well as non-governmental and private agencies, to gain new perspectives, evolve inclusive strategies and formulate implementable plants towards improved economic performance and long-term effectiveness.

ASCI is a registered society by constitution. At the apex of its governance structure is a policy-setting, oversight body, the Court of Governors (CoG). It is a virtual who’s who of eminent professionals, public figures and industry leaders who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields of specialization in education, enterprise, administration, management and governance spanning a wide variety of sectors like agriculture, banking, defense, engineering, economics, judiciary, law, manufacturing, medicine, science and technology and public administration. The Chief Executive, the Director General, functions under the overall guidance of the CoG, leading, facilitating and coordinating the functions of the College and the activities of a complement of fifty strong inter-disciplinary faculty members, who have higher degree and well-rounded experience in a wide range disciplines and domains.

Over years, the college had undergone dynamic improvement in research and consultancy due to its progressive infrastructure. ASCI has full-fledged facilities to conduct residential and non-residential management development programmes (MDPs), short-duration programs, conferences, seminars, and workshops with 160 conference rooms and state-of-the-art technology. The ASCI Library is acknowledged as one of the finest in the country and has an impressive collection of over 1 lakh volumes, full text access to nearly 4000 international journals through online subscriptions, apart from 550 hard copy journals and magazines, industry / business databases. The library’s Virtual Information Centre provides full time access to web-based information systems.

The state-of-the-art Computer Centre at ASCI’s Bella Vista campus is fully equipped with Pentium-based systems for the use of participants and faculty and for participants attending training programmes on information technology. The Computer Centre also supports computer-based training methodology in other training programmes.