Ashwajit Singh spoke on Government’s lateral scheme for bureaucratic posts to private sector employees
‘Definitely it’s important to give the candidates a clear term of reference. It should be more of a mission mode where they know what output or deliverables is expected from them. At the same time we may also probably look at the ways of trying to incentivize them to perform and if they are performing well I see no reason why they should not be given any extension or promoted to other levels of additional secretary.
At the end of the day they are not competing with the India Administrative services, I think they are getting a new way of thinking some fresh ideas from outside and it’s a collective effort that has to be made. I don’t think we need to make such a political issue right now, it’s a good idea, a pilot that is being tested. It’s not enough to really think whether the skill is working or not and we have a lot of people who resign from government every year, more than 10% are resigning from the IAS to take on the jobs in the private sector. But it is important to give them some thought of mandate and observe them into the service or a second round of 3-5 year contract. They need to take decisions and change really happens at the ground level, this would help in filling up the gaps level policy because some of them are coming from international levels or different agencies. Overall it’s a good move and we should encourage as it is an experiment to go.’
