{"id":96449,"date":"2021-03-20T10:24:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T04:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=96449"},"modified":"2021-03-20T13:20:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T07:50:29","slug":"lateral-entry-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/lateral-entry-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Flaws in design of lateral entry policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The government has approved the policy of lateral entry in civil services. However, it has some flaws over entry requirements, job assignments, number of personnel, and training. This calls for reforming the policy for lateral entrants.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government has often complained about the problems associated with the permanent structure of bureaucracy. Recently, the PM talked about the overreach of the elite IAS cadre.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Realising this, <strong>lateral entry is <\/strong><\/span><b>encouraged by the government<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at middle and senior positions.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In various ministries, there was recruitment of eight professionals for joint secretary-level positions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UPSC has also advertised some other positions at the joint secretary and director-level.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/issue-of-lateral-entry-into-the-bureaucracy-explained-pointwise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lateral entry policy<\/a> lacks on multiple fronts. This might reduce the efficacy of a lateral entrant.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Issues with Lateral Entry <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Age Ceiling:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The seniority rule decides the age of the lateral entrant. For instance, an IAS officer becomes a joint secretary at 45 years of age, so a lateral entry below 45 years is not allowed.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>discourages the attraction of the best talent.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> At this age, a person can reach top positions in the private sector (CEO, CFO, etc.).\u00a0 And they would also be unwilling to join the government sector.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Portfolio Assignment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: There is no provision to restrict lateral entrants to important portfolios. Providing an <\/span><b>unimportant portfolio<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> discourages the work potential and urges him\/her to resign.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is alleged that one lateral entry amongst the eight appointed joint secretaries had resigned due to this.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Control over decision-making<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The small number of lateral entrants can\u2019t disregard decisions of permanent bureaucracy who easily outnumber them. It hinders their work.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Training<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The current policy doesn\u2019t provide sufficient training to lateral entrants for understanding and working with the \u201cpermanent\u201d establishment. By the time networks get built, it is time to move on.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Way Forward<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government should <\/span><b>appoint more lateral entrants<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at all levels in ministries to enhance their decision-making.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, <\/span><b>sufficient tenure and training<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are a must to better assimilate with the permanent bureaucracy.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A recent lateral entrant like <\/span><b>Parameswaran Iyer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> succeeded because he was a former IAS officer who understood the system well.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> age ceiling for joint secretary-level should relax to 35 years.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Likewise, similar relaxation should take place at other levels to attract the best talents.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was seen in the case of <\/span><b>Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Bimal Jalan, and Vijay Kelkar.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They were joint secretaries in their mid-30s and secretaries by their late 40s or by 50.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government can also <\/span><b>reform the permanent system<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in order to reduce the unwelcoming behavior of senior bureaucrats towards the lateral entry.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first step could be a reconsideration of the seniority principle that allows promotion solely on seniority.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/india-ias-administrative-reforms-7234834\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Indian express\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: The government has approved the policy of lateral entry in civil services. However, it has some flaws over entry requirements, job assignments, number of personnel, and training. This calls for reforming the policy for lateral entrants. Background: The government has often complained about the problems associated with the permanent structure of bureaucracy. Recently, the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/lateral-entry-policy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Flaws in design of lateral entry policy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[1415],"class_list":["post-96449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gov_0","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700778796,"cached_date":1701682875},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}