INDIA
The Indian Government’s much heralded plan to bring outside specialists into senior Public Service jobs is faltering, according to reports.
The proposed reforms are designed to plug skills gaps in specialist and technical fields such as global finance, disaster management and artificial intelligence.
However, in the face of opposition from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), which has had a longstanding monopoly on leadership roles, and Opposition politicians, the Government has had to scale back the plan.
It began with a small-scale recruitment program, aiming to fill 10 posts at the level of Deputy Secretary and Joint Secretary in fields including agriculture, road transport, environment and civil aviation.
Heavyweight Ministries such as Defence and Foreign Affairs were excluded from the first tranche of external recruitments, and those applying needed to show 15 years of specialist experience.
However, reports suggest the Government has received only about 6,000 applications — falling far short of expectations of around 100,000.
Applicants have also been of disappointing quality, failing to produce the hoped-for “domain experts”.
The reform has also been met by a legal challenge, launched by retired IAS officer Dr Chandra Pal, who alleges it violates India’s Constitution.
The Opposition Congress Party claims external recruitment represents an insidious attempt to bring in people sympathetic to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and argues that it infringes equality laws that require the Public Service to hire a portion of new recruits from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
New Delhi, 21 January 2019
