Over 6,000 applications for 10 vacancies in the Central govt.
What's the story
Over 6,000 aspiring candidates have put in their applications in response to a recent job vacancy announcement for the posts of 10 joint secretaries in the Central government. The notification was released recently by the Personnel Ministry in a bid to attract specialists from the private sector via a "lateral entry" mode. Here are the details.
Information
What are these 10 joint secretary posts?
10 vacancies had been announced for the posts of joint secretaries in revenue, financial services, economic affairs, agriculture and farmers welfare, road transport and highways, shipping, environment, forest and climate change, new and renewable energy, civil aviation, and commerce departments. Application deadline was July 30.
Details
Details about the thousands of applications
Of the 6,077 applications received by the Central government, there were a maximum of 1,100 applications against one post, and a minimum of 290 applications. Which posts received the maximum and minimum applications aren't clear yet. Meanwhile, the government has said that it has started short-listing of candidates from among the applicants to fill the vacancies.
Norm
Normally, civil servants man joint secretary posts
Posts of joint secretaries are usually manned by civil servants, namely the IAS, IPS, IFS, and IRS officers appointed through civil services examinations conducted by the UPSC. However, considering that there are only 5,004 IAS officers in India against the sanctioned strength of 6,500, the Central government decided to offer the posts to specialists in the private sector on a contractual basis.
Lateral recruitment
Lateral recruitment had been suggested by the NITI Aayog
The government's decision to laterally recruit 10 specialists from the private sector was driven by the twin objective of bringing in fresh, specialized talent and augmenting respective departments' available manpower. Notably, the lateral entry mode of recruitment was suggested by government think tank NITI Aayog in its three-year action agenda spanning from 2017 to 2020.
Do you know?
Many prominent bureaucrats had been appointed laterally
Commenting on whether lateral recruitment had been used earlier, Minister of State for Personnel, Jitendra Singh, said that ex-Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, ex-finance secretary Vijay Kelkar, ex-RBI governor Bimal Jalan, and several chief economic advisers, among others, had been appointed this way.