India, Dec. 7 -- A foreign training programme advertised for Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers by a United States university has triggered concerns about overseas institutions directly approaching serving civil servants without going through Government of India. Under existing rules, serving IAS officers can participate in foreign training or capacity-building programmes only through proposals routed and vetted by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). Such programmes must be government-to-government, with scrutiny of funding, hospitality and institutional affiliations. Direct invitations from private foreign institutions are not permitted.

These concerns intensified after the "21st Century India Center" at Universit...