Part 12 · Project governance
Governance & Institutional Responsibilities
The steering committee, programme office, sectoral cells and coordinator corps; the RACI matrix that names accountability for every function; and the minimal-bureaucracy rule.
Governance principles
The programme coordinates nationally without building a new field bureaucracy. Four principles: (1) reuse existing structures — UGC for universities, existing ministries/departments for hosts, no new field offices; (2) separate policy, operations and oversight — steering committee decides, programme office operates, independent evaluators judge; (3) named accountability at every level — every function in the matrix below has one responsible institution; (4) publish by default — dashboards, statistics and gate evaluations are public; secrecy is the exception requiring justification.
The governance structure
Responsibility matrix (RACI extract)
| Function | Steering Cttee | Programme Office | Sector cells | University | Host office | Independent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allocation rule configuration | A | R | C | C | C | I |
| Seat approval within standards | I | A | R | I | C | I |
| University seat applications | I | A | I | R | I | I |
| Student nomination & booking | I | A (system) | I | R | C | I |
| Placement confirmation | I | A (system) | I | I | R | I |
| Attendance & supervision | I | I | C | I | R | Verify 10% |
| Completion verification | I | A (system) | I | R (review) | R (attest) | Sample audits |
| Grievance resolution | Appeals | R | C | R (tier 1) | R (respond) | Escalation |
| Gate evaluations | A (decide) | I | I | C | C | R (evaluate) |
| Public dashboards & statistics | I | R | I | I | I | Verify |
Coordinators — the people layer
Two coordinator roles carry the programme: university coordinators (eligibility, nominations, bookings — 1 per 200 participants) and receiving-office coordinators (supervision, attendance, evaluation — the supervisor corps of 5,000–15,000 by scenario). Both are trained and certified through the central training pipeline (a 30-person unit certifies ~15,000/year, ASM-17); both have platform roles with least-privilege access; neither can operate alone — the workflow requires university-books, office-confirms, and triangulated completion. The standing rule (RSK-09): scale never expands faster than the supervisor pipeline.
Minimal bureaucracy, by design
No new field bureaucracy is created: the programme rides existing institutions, adds one national office (50–150 staff at full scale), adds focal-point duties (not new posts) inside ministries, and gives universities a small coordination function. The heaviest new investment is people who train and supervise — and they are the programme's quality floor, not overhead.