<span style="color: #222222;">Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh today approved 181 new members of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), including 56 Professors, Associate Professors, and Assistant Professors. He is also the National Chairman of IIPA.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Presiding over the 322nd meeting of the Executive Council of IIPA, Dr Singh informed that since he decided in November 2021 to throw open the IIPA membership to the serving officers, which was earlier reserved for only retired officers, over 700 members were enrolled so far.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Minister noted that apart from the wide range of ages, the fresh members also came from Allied and Defence Services and Academic and Professional fields. He urged the regional branches of IIPA to speed up the membership drive to bring quality manpower to the IIPA fraternity.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Earlier, Dr Singh inaugurated the one hundred and first branch of Kendriya Bhandar on the IIPA premises with a variety of ready-to-eat food items and a "Karmayogi Dwar". He said, Kendriya Bhandar which was running in losses in 2014 and a paper was also initiated for its closure was given a complete facelift by the Union Government.</span><br />