A King’s college
A new college has been opened in the southern border district of the country under the leader of His Majesty the King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk.
Named Royal Institute for Governance and Strategic Studies (RIGSS) is not under the purview of the Royal University of Bhutan but directly headed by the king. Besides King Khesar as chairperson Thinley Gyamtsho, Chairman, Royal Civil Service Commission is the Vice Chairman of the college.
Board members include Major General Batoo Tshering (Chief Operations Officer, Royal Bhutan Army), Dasho Pema Thinley (Vice Chancellor, Royal University of Bhutan) Yeshey Dorji (Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Sangay Zam (Secretary, Ministry of Education), Karma T. Namgyal (Director, Bureau of Law & Order, Ministry of Home & Cultural Affairs), Karma Yonten (Chief Executive Officer, Druk Holdings & Investment), and Chewang Rinzin (Project Coordinator, RIGSS) as Member Secretary.
The institute was established with the mandate to promote excellence in governance, leadership and strategic studies.
The institute has 13-member faculty team, including six Bhutanese. They are ACC Chairperson Neten Zangmo, Head of Center of Bhutan Studies Karma Ura, GNHC Secretary Karma Tshiteem, National Council Thrizin Sonam Kinga and NC Eminent member Tashi Wangyal.
Other foreign faculty members are Adrian Chan from Singapore with expertise in leadership development, Professor Anup K. Sinha at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Secretary of the Technology Development Board, GoI Harkesh Mittal, Horacio Falcão who is an affiliate Professor of Decision Sciences with INSEAD where he has been teaching both Negotiation and International Management, Lt General (Retd) Dr. Rajesh Kochar as former Chief of Staff of the Army Training Command, of the Indian Army, Dean R. Sudarshan who has had distinguished careers in research, development programme design and implementation, and governance working with the St. John’s College, University of Cambridge and UNDP and the Ford Foundation with several international publications and Ms. Olivia Baciu, who is international development consultant, trainer, and evaluator, having worked in 21 countries.