Andhra Pradesh: PM inaugurates new campus of National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new campus of the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics on January 16, 2024. The ceremony took place at Palasamudram in the Sri Sathya Sai District of Andhra Pradesh. The event marks a crucial step in enhancing the infrastructure for customs, indirect taxes, and narcotics training, showcasing the government’s commitment to bolstering these crucial sectors

He also took a walkthrough of the exhibition showcased on the occasion and interacted with Officer Trainees of the 74th and 75th batches of the Indian Revenue Service (Custom & Indirect Taxes) as well as officer trainees of the Royal Civil Service of Bhutan.

Addressing the gathering, PM highlighted the speciality of the region of Palasamudram saying that it is associated with spirituality, nation building and good governance and represents the heritage of India. He mentioned Shri Satya Sai Baba’s birthplace in Puttaparthi, the great freedom fighter Padma Shri Kallur Subba Rao, renowned puppetry artist Dalavai Chalapathi Rao and the good governance of the glorious Vijaynagar Empire as sources of inspiration from the region.

He expressed confidence that the new campus of NACIN will create new dimensions of good governance and give a boost to trade and industry in the nation.

Noting Thiruvalluvar Day today, the Prime Minister quoted the great Tamil sage and underlined the role of revenue officers in collecting taxes that lead to people’s welfare in a democracy.

NACIN spread in 500 acres, NACIN, the academy is the apex institution of the Government of India for capacity building in the field of Indirect Taxation (Customs, Central Excise and Goods and Services Tax) and Narcotics Control Administration. The national-level world-class training institute will impart training to the officials of Indian Revenue Service (Custom & Indirect Taxes) as well as to the central allied services, state governments & partner nations.

With the addition of this new campus, the NACIN will focus on the use of new age technologies such as Augmented & Virtual Reality, Block-chain as well as Artificial Intelligence and other emerging Technologies for training and capacity building. This campus has a 40,000 sq.ft. building exclusively to function as a library.

Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister, hosted Bhoomi Pooja at NASIN on March 5, 2022. Speaking on the occasion, she recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to establish the NASIN Academy during the partition of Andhra Pradesh. She also mentioned that in April 2015, then-Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley unveiled the plaque commemorating the establishment of the NASIN Academy.

The Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy in Mussoorie trains IAS officers, while the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Academy in Hyderabad trains IPS officers. This NASIN Academy will provide world-class training to IRS trainee officers. This campus is 90 min drive from Bengaluru International Airport.

As per internal circular, NACIN would expand its active collaborations with various other Central Training Institutes and other Institutes of repute including the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) and National Police Academy (NPA), National Industrial Security Academy (NISA), Wild life Institute of India (Wil), National Law School of India University, (NLSIU), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (1FT), Indian Business School (ISB) and lIM, Bengaluru etc.

During his visit PM Modi also visited had darshan and puja at Veerbhadra Temple in Lepaskhi. This temple was built in the 16th century, the architectural features of the temple are in the Vijayanagara style with profusion of carvings and paintings at almost every exposed surface of the temple. It is one of the centrally protected monuments of national importance. The fresco paintings are particularly detailed in very bright dresses and colours with scenes of Rama and Krishna from the epic stories of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas and they are well preserved. There is a very large Nandi about 200 metres (660 ft) away from the temple which is carved from a single block of stone, which is said to be one of the largest of its type in the world.

The temple has been built on the southern side of Lepakshi town, on a low-altitude hillock of a large exposure of granite rock, which is in the shape of a tortoise and hence known as Kurma Saila. It is 140 kilometres from Bangalore.

The temple was built by Virupanna Nayaka and Viranna, both brothers who were governors under the Vijayanagar Empire during the reign of King Achutaraya, at Penukonda. According to Skanda Purana, the temple is one of the divyakshetras, an important pilgrimage site of Shiva.