Community wants Jain kids to crack civil service exams in Gujarat

They may have been blessed with the inborn talent to whittle out their best shots in the biz world, but the Jain elders want their kids to venture into newer territories like the administrative services, so long an uncharted path for the community.

Typified as the country’s moneybags or glorified for their entrepreneurial skills, the newer members are now eyeing at attaining recognition in other sectors, especially the babudom. And if their plans concretise, the state would soon be able to boast about its own brigade of Jain administrative officers! For, the Ahmedabad chapter of Jain International Trade Organization (Jito) is set to launch Jito Administrative Training Foundation (JATF) in the city — state’s first such centre — aimed at promoting Jain children into civil services.

At present, Jito members are searching for a land or an academy in the city where the kids can be imparted necessary training. Not only this, the organization has roped in many IAS and IPS officers from the state’s babudom to train the students rigorously for the UPSC examinations. The training centre will also provide all the Jain students lodging and boarding expenditures, which will be either free or nominally charged.

For decades, the Jains are associated with business and never with government services. But with this initiative, the Jains of the city and the state will be taking a step towards placing their future generations into administrative services. It is to be noted that JATF was launched in the city five years ago too, but with very little response from Jain families, the venture died after a year or two’s struggle.

However, over these years, Jito seems to sense a different trend in the city and has therefore, decided to re-launch the academy by October end.

This time, members of the organization have planned a systematic launch of the academy.

Talking to dna, the chairman of JATF- Ahmedabad chapter, Prakash Sanghvi, who is also the vice president of Jito, Ahmedabad, said: “We’ll motivate students from Class 12 onwards to join the administrative services. The whole idea is to bring out the talented youths from our community serve the country by joining the administrative services.” Together with aggressive marketing, the organisation hopes promote the centre among state’s entire Jain student community.

“Over these years, all enquiries and applications with regard to UPSC exams were sent either to Mumbai or Delhi where such academy exists,” explained Chetan Shah, secretary of Jito, Ahmedabad. He said that this made them think about opening an academy in the city itself to help interested Jain students looking out for such academies.