The major thrust areas identified by the Academy include Good Governance, Sustainable Rural Development, Effective Urban Management, Capacity Building of Panchayati Raj Institutions and other Local Self Government Bodies, Watershed Development, Micro-regional Environmental Planning, Disaster Management, Gender Equity, Human Rights, Social Justice, Effective Financial and Project Management, HRD Strategies, Training Quality Management, Information Technology and Training Methodology. The substance and scope of the training, research and consultancy and publication related activities are determined by these thrust areas. In order to achieve the objectives of the Academy, the well equipped academic establishment with the support of the administrative wing performs mainly three types of activities - (i) Training (ii) Research & Consultancy, and (iii) Publications.

Training

YASHADA, in a typical year trains around 50,000 persons, including trainee groups of government officials and non-officials, executives of NGOs and members of academia.

The annual programme calendar, formulated every year in consultation with Training Need Analysis Teams, Departmental Training Coordinators, is based upon the directives of BoG and EC and feedback obtained from trainees and trainers alike. The Calendar has an element of flexibility to accommodate emerging and topical issues. Annually about 1200 institutional and off-campus training courses are conducted. The various types of training courses conducted by the Academy include:

Types of Training Programmes

• Foundation / Induction courses for newly recruited or promoted State Government Officers,
• Refresher /Orientations courses for in-service Officers, and
• Workshops, Seminars and Conferences on specific issues, mainly related to development administration for officers from various departments of the Central and State Governments, public sector undertakings and non-government organisations.

Workshops, seminars and conference on critical and topical subjects are often supported by various agencies of the GoM, GoI, United Nations (like UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, ILO), and other international and bilateral agencies.

The Academy's training related performance has grown in recent years.

Year	No. of Trg. Courses	Participants
2003-04	239	7,956
2004-05	516	19,282
2005-06	846	29,157
2006-07	965	35,039
2007-08	1428	53,329

Academic Programmes : Post-graduate Diploma Programmes

The Academy is initiating long term contact-and-distance learning programmes, including:

Course	Duration	Affiliation
Post-graduate Diploma in Urban Development	One Year	University of Mumbai
Post-graduate Diploma in Rural Development	One Year	University of Mumbai
Post-graduate Diploma in Child Labour	One Year	University of Pune