Over 6K lateral entry applicants for 10 posts

NEW DELHI: As many as 6,077 people have applied for the contentious Union government scheme to hire 10 specialists from the private sector for key decision-making roles otherwise reserved for career members of the Indian civil services, said officials familiar with the matter.

The government had on June 10 notified positions of joint secretaries to be hired through a “lateral entry” route and put out advertisements in leading newspapers asking for aspirants to come forward.

The advertisement called for applications from those working at “comparable levels in private sector companies, consultancy organisations, international/ multinational organisations with a minimum of 15 years’ experience”. The lateral entrants would have three- to five-year tenures, according to the advertisement.

“We intend to complete the process of hiring by the end of this year and now deliberations are on to scrutinise these applications in a structured way,” said an official on condition of anonymity.

“Though, no final decision has been taken, but we may involve the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) in this process of vetting applications and conducting interviews as well. The

THE MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL SAID IT WAS LOOKING FOR TEN OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUALS

involvement of human resource experts (from outside the government) is also not ruled out. We want to institutionalise the lateral entry process which will allow us to hire such specialists in future also,” added the official.

The ministry of personnel is spearheading the process.

“The move is inspired by the intention to attract the best of the best talent, from whatever source available. This may add value to the delivery in jobs requiring specialised expertise,” said Jitendra Singh, the minister of state for personnel.

The last date to send applications for the scheme was July 30. The vacancies were open to even those who were working in the government sector.

The ministry of personnel said it was looking for 10 outstanding individuals with expertise in the areas of financial services, revenue, economic affairs, agriculture, cooperation and farmer welfare, road transport and highways, shipping, environment, forest and climate change, new and renewable energy, civil aviation and commerce.