The National Institute of Social Defence (NISD), under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dr. R.S. Tolia Uttarakhand Academy of Administration (DRSTUAoA) in Nainital on June 12, 2026, for collaborative capacity building on social defence issues in Uttarakhand.
The signing ceremony was attended by Shri Sudhaansh Pant, IAS, Secretary of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, and Shri B.P. Pandey, IAS, Director General of DRSTUAoA. The MoU was formally signed and exchanged by Dr. H.C. Sridhara Ranga Reddy, Deputy Director of NISD, and Dr. Mahesh Kumar, Joint Director of DRSTUAoA, in the presence of other officials including Dr. Anil Kumar Mishra, Project Director of DRSTUAoA; Shri Ridhanshu Sharma, Joint Director (Finance); and Shri V.K. Singh, Deputy Director.
The partnership aims to build capacities of state government officials, police, prison staff, NGOs, and field functionaries on emerging challenges related to drug abuse prevention, care of senior citizens, transgender welfare, and rehabilitation of persons engaged in begging. The collaboration leverages DRSTUAoA's training infrastructure and statewide reach combined with NISD's domain expertise and resource support to create a Uttarakhand model for convergence between social justice and governance training.
Under the agreement, NISD will provide technical, academic, and partial financial support, while DRSTUAoA will anchor implementation and monitoring in the state. The initiative represents an important step toward institutionalizing social defence training within state administrative systems and integrating social defence themes into the core training curriculum of officers to strengthen last-mile delivery of welfare schemes.