PM MODI FIRM ON LATERAL ENTRY OF PROFESSIONALS

This entry of professionals from various fields at the Joint Secretary level will happen in spite of stiff resistance from the country’s powerful IAS lobby.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to go ahead with the much needed but delayed reform in the top bureaucracy by directly inducting private individuals, a process better known as “lateral entry” of officers. This entry of professionals from various fields at the Joint Secretary ( JS) level will happen in spite of stiff resistance from the country’s powerful IAS lobby. The IAS lobby is being supported in this by the Opposition parties and some caste lobbies in a big way. Sources say that there has been a lot of blowback from these officials and others who want the exercise postponed, preferably after the Lok Sabha elections. In fact most of them want the “experiment” to fail. But the Prime Minister is determined to clean up administration and make it more efficient and has made it clear that he wants to choose talent from a greater pool of people. Sources add that around 300 names in the private sector and government have already been vetted by the intelligence agencies. To this will be added the pool of names selected from the applications coming in response to an advertisement released all over the country. Applications are expected to come from both inside the country and from Indian nationals working abroad.

Sources say that since the pool of professionals is expected to be vast, it is certain that the process will go beyond the selection of just 10 officers, who will be the initial inductees. The number will increase exponentially in the near future.

Highly-placed sources say that the government thinktank NITI Aayog had made a detailed presentation before Prime Minister Modi in