Lateral entry inadequate to fill 22% vacancies’ gap in IAS posts

The lateral hiring initiative by the government for the bureaucracy may have stirred up a debate but the number of appointees is insignificant to bridge the gap, especially as India faces a shortage of civil servants, primarily for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

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These individuals, who would make a “lateral entry” into the government secretariat, would be contracted for three to five years. These posts were “unreserved”, meaning were no quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs.

NITI Aayog, in its three-year Action Agenda, and the Sectoral Group of Secretaries (SGoS) on Governance in its report submitted in February 2017, recommended the induction of personnel at middle and senior management levels in the central government. These ‘lateral entrants’ would be part of the central secretariat which in the normal course has only career bureaucrats from the All India Services/ Central Civil Services.

Lateral recruitment is aimed at achieving the twin objectives of bringing in fresh talent as well as augment the availability of manpower.