New Delhi: After four years of relentless preparation, two failed attempts and one interview, S finally walked through the gates of India’s most powerful classroom. High in the hills of Mussoorie, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, or LBSNAA — with its manicured lawns, grand slogans on the walls, and reputation as the cradle of the civil services — is where every successful UPSC candidate begins their journey. For those who prepare year after year, entering LBSNAA is the dream. For S, that dream became a reality in 2023.
The first phase of training was exhilarating, she said. Corridors buzzed with chatter, hostel rooms echoed with laughter, and debates ran late into the night. Days were packed with lectures, field visits and activities designed to shape young administrators for life in the districts. But when the trainees returned from their district attachment, the environment had changed.
“‘No-device’ zones appeared. Photographs were discouraged. Memos, warnings and punishments became part of daily life. You could tell something had changed just by the number of notices being issued,” S told ThePrint. “It stopped feeling like a training academy for officers and started feeling like a boarding school.”
She is now posted as a sub-divisional magistrate.
Former trainee officers say discipline and formal rules have always been part of life at LBSNAA. What they argue has changed in recent years is the campus atmosphere. Routine guidelines, they say, have hardened into a regime of tighter controls—mark deductions as punishment, frequent hostel room inspections, and a growing distance between trainees, faculty and staff. Former directors warn that fear-based discipline can dilute the purpose of officer training.
“If training is driven primarily by fear of penalties, you risk producing officers who are good at following instructions but hesitant to take responsibility in complex, real-world situations,” said a former LBSNAA director said, requesting anonymity.
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Director’s role in LBSNAA training
At the academy, the director and course coordinator shape almost every aspect of life—from curriculum and guest faculty to field visits and institutional culture. That leadership, several former officers say, determines not just how trainees are treated, but how they respond. Members of recent batches say their time at LBSNAA bore little resemblance to what seniors described as a “golden period”, with many simply waiting for the training to end rather than embracing it.
“All this depends on the director. We should remember that we are training officers,” the former director cited above said. “We should not teach them through fear. Officers should follow rules because they are right, not because they will get punished. The entire point is to train them to become good officers. With more strictness, you will only get rebels.”
In 2024, LBSNAA issued detailed social media guidelines for officer trainees, restricting activity across platforms including X, YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Meta. Notices were circulated, and instructions were put up on campus notice boards. The move followed growing concerns over online content being created from within the academy.
The academy has also seen frequent leadership changes in recent years. Srinivas R. Katikithala served as director from September 2021 to September 2023, after which IAS officer Sriram Taranikanti took charge. Trainees who passed out during the current tenure describe their time at LBSNAA as “horrible”, marked by stricter rules and tighter controls.
“All this depends on the director. It is his connections that bring in guest lectures,” another former director said. “Officers should be treated like officers—only then will they respond like officers. If you treat them like students, they will respond like students.”
Taranikanti, a 1992-batch IAS officer of the Tripura cadre, has spent much of his career in district administration and regulatory institutions. While his earlier postings focused on training serving officials and overseeing sectoral systems, LBSNAA represents a different challenge: a residential, foundational training environment meant to shape officers at the very start of their careers. He is due to retire in July 2026.
Some officers who worked with him in the Tripura cadre describe him as difficult to work with and not very sociable.
“He was a good officer, but he didn’t get along with many people here in the cadre,” said an IAS officer from Tripura, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Journalists and senior editors in Tripura recall him as competent but largely inaccessible, someone who kept a low profile. They even said that his behaviour was standoffish.
Memos and mistakes
Rules around punctuality, dress code and mobile phone use have existed at LBSNAA for decades. Earlier, trainees say, mistakes were usually met with verbal warnings. Today, they argue, there is little room for error.
“In one class, someone yawned and the teacher asked him to go take a swim,” said a 2024-batch IAS trainee from the Uttar Pradesh cadre. “It was an honest mistake. We have tight schedules, and we should be allowed to yawn. A jail is a better place than this.”
Former trainees say there were days when more than 40 memos were issued. ‘Violations’ ranged from being a minute late and talking in corridors to not wearing the tie the right way, sleeping in class, or speaking out of turn. In some cases, they say, trainees didn’t even know what they had done wrong.
But a former trainee says that memos have been given since the beginning of the training in LBSNAA. The problem is that it used to “teach, not torture”.
“Memos were always part of training, but earlier they were meant to teach, not torture,” said a former trainee. “Now, it has become a joke. They distribute memos as if it is candy. For every small thing, there is a memo. And after that, you have to face the discipline committee, then marks are cut, then daily assessment and exam.”
As part of the punishment, they are made to report for physical training 45 minutes before the regular 6:45 am session.
Officers who trained nearly a decade ago say the severity with which memos are served now is new.
“I received memos and even punishments, but they weren’t as brutal as [what] the current batches have witnessed,” said a 2016-batch IAS officer posted in Odisha. “In our time, punishment would mean being sent to the library. Now marks are being cut. This is intense.”
There are also concerns about the content in the classroom. During a lecture on professional conduct, one faculty member reportedly used photographs of women officers to demonstrate how not to dress in the field.
“She showed pictures of women wearing tight clothes while going to the gym and said, ‘See how the constable is looking at her, so we should be mindful about dressing’,” said an officer from the 2023 batch. “I objected, but nothing changed. If this is how you think about women in the academy, what change are you expecting us to bring?”
Not everyone is against stricter discipline, though.
“What is being described as ‘tightening’ is, in many ways, a return to long-standing norms after a period of drift,” said Shailaja Chandra, a former IAS officer. “Training cannot be built on either indulgence or excessive control. It requires structured freedom, close mentoring, and an academy that knows every trainee well enough to guide, caution and, when needed, correct.”
Training by design
Many officers trace the recent shift at LBSNAA to the fallout from the Pooja Khedkar case, which shook the UPSC system. No one imagined that someone could enter the service and fool everyone. One immediate response was a clampdown on social media use within the academy.
“It was the right thing to do. Some trainees had crossed limits. They had even started making vlogs,” said the 2024-batch IAS officer. “Notices were distributed, guidelines were framed, and now people don’t click pictures or post photos on social media from campus.”
Restrictions don’t just cover the trainees, but have been extended to their families as well. Earlier, rules were relaxed for family visits, but now they require multiple permissions and follow a strict no-photography policy.
“When discipline is detached from rational foundations, it becomes an exercise of personal discretion — one that others are expected to follow without question,” said an officer who trained at LBSNAA last year. “When institutions enforce rules born from whims and fancies, discipline ceases to be a principle and becomes a tool of control. In cases of violations, punishment should follow an established procedure rather than being driven by impulse, anger, or wounded ego.”
Phone use has also been curtailed. Devices are banned from corridors, the mess and much of the campus. One trainee officer said it’s permitted only inside hostel rooms, where inspection can happen anytime.
“Raids like this never happened earlier,” said a 2016-batch officer from West Bengal. “Things were strict in our time, but this is another level.”
Under such restrictions, former directors say, the academy runs the risk of distancing its trainee officers.
“There are no bad trainees, only bad trainers,” said another former director. “There is another way to teach discipline. I used to chat with people over tea, understand the new generation and design the course accordingly.”
For years, the director’s post was often held by officers with experience in training institutions or the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). Several former directors, including Upma Chowdary (IAS, Himachal Pradesh cadre) and Sanjeev Chopra (IAS, West Bengal cadre), brought extensive administrative and training experience to LBSNAA. Under Taranikanti, however, critics say the academy is being run by someone encountering a training institute for the first time.
“You have put a person in charge who has no experience of a training institute, and that becomes difficult. Managing a training academy requires different skills,” said a former director. “Experience matters.”
Some officers also point to growing elitism within the academy.
“Faculty members keep telling trainees they are the ‘cream’ of society,” said one officer. “One of the core objectives of the government is to remove colonial elitism from bureaucracy and society. It is time to introspect whether this elitism is being curtailed or nurtured in these foundation courses.”
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)