Internship Programme Of The Department Of Expenditure(IPDOP)

Overview

About IPDOP

The department that scrutinises how the rest of the Union government spends money runs its internship the way it runs everything else, by office order. That order does not promise a monthly stipend. Token remuneration at Rs 10,000 per month per intern is payable on satisfactory completion of the internship and on submission of the report or paper (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15). The paper you write at the end is what releases both the money and the certificate.

The Department of Expenditure is the nodal department for overseeing the public financial management system in the Central Government and matters connected with state finances, and it is responsible for implementing the recommendations of the Finance Commission and the Central Pay Commission and for preparing the Central Government Accounts (About DoE). Nobody interns for the department as a whole. The order places each intern with a DS or Director level officer in one of its divisions, keeping in view the areas of interest the candidate expressed and the preference of that division (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15).

Which division takes you is therefore the real description of the work. The department's own account of itself carries its business through the Personnel and Establishment Division, Public Finance (States) and Public Finance (Central), the offices of the Controller General of Accounts and the Chief Adviser Cost, and the Central Pension Accounting Office, with the National Institute of Financial Management at Faridabad under its administrative control (About DoE). A stint in the Procurement Policy Division sits on public procurement legislation, the administration of the General Financial Rules 2017 on goods, services and works, the Central Public Procurement Portal, Government e-Marketplace matters and Global Tender Enquiry proposals from other ministries (Procurement Policy Division). A desk in Public Finance (States) has nothing to do with any of that.

Read the objective clause with that in mind. It says the programme is meant to familiarise interns with the overall process of formulation of economic policies of the Government, which is the Ministry of Finance's general language rather than a description of expenditure control, and the same clause adds that the internship is neither a job nor any such assurance for a job in the department (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15). What an applicant writes under Subject of Specialisation and Project Preferences on the form does more to fix the actual subject matter than the objective does.

One practical detail that every page describing this internship still gets wrong is the address. They all place it in North Block, which is where the order was signed, and the department's own contact page now gives Room No. 16088, Kartavya Bhawan-I, New Delhi, on 011-24012028 (Department of Expenditure, Contact Us). Post an envelope to the room number printed in the order and it is going to a building the department has left.

Whether a cycle is running is the first thing worth settling. The most recent internship notice the department publishes is dated 23 February 2017 and is filed for the financial year 2017-18 (the department's 2017-18 internship notice). A search of its site returns that notice and its Hindi twin and nothing else on internships, so an application sent today answers terms last reissued for a financial year that closed years ago. The department has not withdrawn the programme either, and no clause in the order limits it to one year, so what a candidate is looking at is an offer left standing rather than one either opened or cancelled.

There is one quirk in reading it. The file the department still hosts is a four-page scan with no text in it, so the wording quoted on this page comes from the archived order for 2014-15, which repeats every clause below word for word apart from its own financial year, its own March cut-off and the officer it names for applications (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The order sets one deadline for the start of the financial year and a rolling one for every month after it, which is why no single date reaches the public record.

The annual clock is set in the notice. The order for 2014-15 required applications to reach the department by 15 March 2014 for the months of April and May 2014, and the order now on the department's site repeats that clause with its own dates (the identically worded order for 2014-15) (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force). The rolling clock takes over immediately afterwards: thereafter, applications may be submitted by the 1st of the month preceding the month from which the candidate intends to join. A March start means a February application, and nothing waits for a fresh advertisement.

The notices themselves came out in February, year after year. The order for 2013-14 is dated 15 February 2013, the one for 2014-15 is dated 28th February 2014, and the one the department still publishes is dated 23 February 2017 (the order for 2013-14) (the identically worded order for 2014-15) (the 2013-14 main and reserve panels) (the 2014-2015 result) (the department's 2017-18 internship notice). Nothing later has been posted, so February is a description of what the department used to do rather than a date anybody can hold it to.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

There are two separate doors, and they are not variations on each other.

The first is by subject. An Indian national pursuing post-graduation or research courses in Economics, Finance or Management, at universities or institutions of national and international repute, may apply. The second is by year of study rather than by subject: a student in the 4th or 5th year of a five year integrated course in Law, or in any other professional course, is eligible on the same footing (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15).

Three marks conditions hang off those doors. A student pursuing a post-graduate course should have obtained a first class graduate degree. A research scholar in Economics, Finance or Management should have obtained at least 50% in post-graduation. A student in the 4th or 5th year of the five year integrated Law course should have obtained at least 80% marks in the 12th class examination (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15). The last of those is worth reading twice, because it reaches back to school for a candidate who may be five years past it, and it applies only on the integrated course route.

The institution filter is the loosest clause in the whole document. Universities and institutions of national and international repute is tied to no ranking list, no recognition register and no named set of schools anywhere in the text, which leaves it to the Selection Committee to read.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The only bar the department writes down in full sits at the foot of its own application form. The applicant certifies the information as true and agrees that in the event of any misrepresentation or falsification of information, the internship shall be liable for termination without notice and without prejudice to any other administrative or legal proceedings the Department of Expenditure may deem fit to initiate (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15). That undertaking survives selection, so a claim made on the form stays live for the whole term.

Beyond it the order bars nobody by name. It fixes no age limit, no ceiling on how often a candidate may apply, and nothing against someone who has already interned in another department of the Ministry of Finance, which leaves the marks floors, the subject list and the citizenship clause carrying the entire weight of filtering. Nothing appears under exclusions on the public record because the order gives it nothing to list.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

The order fixes the term once and lets the applicant nominate its length. Duration runs from two to six months at different points of time during the financial year, and the form asks the candidate to specify a preferred duration in months rather than assigning one (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15). Nothing in the text extends a term that has started, carries an intern into a second stint, or treats a completed internship as a claim on the next cycle.

A longer stay is therefore decided before the application goes in, not after. Six months asked for at the outset is inside the clause. Two months asked for and then stretched is not something the order provides for.

What you get

Award & benefits

Read the remuneration clause as a lump sum computed by the month rather than as a salary. Token remuneration at Rs 10,000 per month per intern is payable on satisfactory completion of the internships and on submission of the report or paper, and the certificate of internship is issued on the same two conditions plus the evaluation of that report by the DS or Director level officer in the concerned division (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15). An intern who stops short of the end, or who finishes the weeks but never files the paper, is paid nothing and certified for nothing.

What the department supplies during the term is stated narrowly: the necessary logistics support, meaning office space and a computer with internet facility. Travel, accommodation and living costs in Delhi appear nowhere in the order, in either direction, so they are neither promised nor formally the intern's burden. Budget for them as unfunded.

• Token Remuneration @ ₹ 10,000/- per month per intern, payable on satisfactory completion of their internships and on submission of their Report / Paper.
• Certificate of Internship
• Certificates will be issued to the interns on satisfactory completion of their internship and on submission of their Report/Paper and its evaluation by the DS/Director level officer in the concerned Division.

What to prepare

Documents required

The application is the enclosed proforma plus a CV, and the proforma is longer than most internship forms in Delhi.

The first labelled field on the form asks about somebody else entirely. It wants the phone number of the sponsoring institution, printed above the bio-data and ahead of a single question about the applicant, so the department expects to be able to ring a real academic supervisor before it reads anything else. Under that come the ordinary fields: full name, date of birth with the age reckoned as on 1 April of the year, a postal address with email, residence and mobile numbers, and a qualification table of exam, university or institute, year of passing, percentage of marks and subject stream. Then additional qualifications, with CA, ICWA and computers given as the examples, subject of specialisation or interest, extra curricular activities, projects undertaken, project preferences under a warning printed in capitals that it may not always be possible to allocate the project of your choice, and the preferred duration in months (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15).

What the form leaves to the applicant is two attachments, and they carry more weight than anything typed into the boxes.

The write-up is the first. Applicants are required to submit a write-up, in their own hand and duly signed, not exceeding 500 words, on why they would consider this programme useful and how it fits in with their career growth (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15). A typed statement of purpose does not answer that instruction.

The college is the second. The department asks for no No Objection Certificate; what the form carries instead is an authentication block at its foot, where the institute or university certifies that the information above is correct to the best of its knowledge, adds recommendations if any, and signs and seals it as an authorised official. An applicant who cannot get that seal has nothing else on the form worth weighing.

Step by step

How to apply

The order names two different officers for the same envelope. Its How to apply row sends the application, with a CV, in the enclosed proforma to D.S. (Admin), Department of Expenditure, Room No. 76, North Block, New Delhi, and its closing paragraph asks willing and eligible students to send that same proforma to the Section Officer (Admn-I), Room No. 264-B, in the same building (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15).

The predecessors show where the split came from. The order for 2014-15 addressed the row to Director (Admn) at Room No. 76 and the closing paragraph to the Section Officer at 264-B (the identically worded order for 2014-15); the order for 2013-14 had named Director (Admn) at Room No. 76 in both places, so the two-officer arrangement dates from 2014 and only the designation on the first of them has moved since (the order for 2013-14). Address whichever officer the notice you are answering names, and copy the other rather than choosing between them.

The route is paper. The public scheme record lists the application mode as offline with no application URL beside it, and nothing about the department's side of the process is electronic: what arrives is an envelope, which should carry the current Kartavya Bhawan address alongside the room number the order prints.

Nothing on the department's side ever confirmed that an application had landed; the only public trace this programme left was at the other end. The order promises no acknowledgement, but the department used to publish its selections as named result sheets, each captioned against the circular number and date it answered: the 2014-2015 round was decided against Circular No. A.33025/1/2014-Ad.1 dated 28th February 2014 (the 2014-2015 result). Keep the circular number of the notice you applied against, because that number, not your name, is what identifies the round a result sheet belongs to. No such sheet has appeared for any round since, and the certificate has no tracker of its own at all: it follows the concerned division's evaluation of your report.

How winners are picked

Selection process

A Selection Committee reads everything that arrives, but its approval is only one of the three things an offer needs. A vacant slot and the consent of the division that would take the intern are the other two, and above all of them sits the ceiling: the department shall accommodate interns not exceeding five at any point of time (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15).

That ceiling counts desks, not applications for the year, and the department's own published results are what show the difference.

Two things in that record are useful to an applicant and appear in no listing of the scheme. The department has run more than one selection inside a single financial year, and it has published a reserve panel in order of merit beside the main panel, so a candidate left off the main list was not necessarily out. No interview, test or presentation is mentioned anywhere in the order, which leaves the marks table, the specialisation, the project preferences and the handwritten write-up as the whole of what the committee reads.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The declaration of secrecy falls due before the first day rather than on it. It is a joining condition, and it follows from where the desk sits: an expenditure division reads other ministries' spending proposals while those proposals are still being decided.

Two obligations fall due together at the end. The intern presents a report or paper on the allotted subject to the Head of the Division, and simultaneously gives the concerned HoD mandatory feedback on the experience of the programme and on the monitoring and supervision by the Director or Joint Secretary concerned (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force) (the identically worded order for 2014-15). Feedback is a requirement rather than a courtesy here, and it is pointed at the supervision, which is unusual in a government internship.

The allotment clause is the one most likely to disappoint. Placement follows the areas of interest expressed by the candidate and the preference of that division, and the form warns in capitals that it may not always be possible to allocate the project of your choice.

Get help

Contact

The Administration section is the only desk this programme has. Every version of the order prints the same number under the signature of the Under Secretary who issued it, 011-23095695, and only the version for 2013-14 also carried that officer's nic.in email address (the order for 2013-14) (the identically worded order for 2014-15) (Internship Programme of Department of Expenditure, the order in force). The result sheets were signed off by a Section Officer reachable on 23095718 (the 2014-2015 result).

Those numbers belong to the North Block years. What the department publishes now is Room No. 16088, Kartavya Bhawan-I, New Delhi, on 011-24012028, with jsecoord-doe@gov.in as the single email address it gives for the whole department (Department of Expenditure, Contact Us). Nothing separate is published for the programme, so a question about it joins the department's ordinary correspondence.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

Explore more

Related scholarships

References

Sources