UPSC Issue at a Glance | Lateral entry and civil service reforms: 4 Key Questions You Must Know for Prelims and Mains

What is the issue?

Recently, the Central government instructed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to withdraw its advertisement of applications for lateral recruitment to senior bureaucratic positions at the Centre. Opposition party leaders had criticized the policy for not including reservations for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates. In this context, it becomes crucial to understand the lateral entry policy and civil service reforms from a broader perspective.

UPSC Syllabus: 

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: GS-II: Role of Civil Services in a Democracy, Government Policies & Interventions

Other areas of relevance: UPSC Aspirants will find it useful in Essays, and Current affairs for their Personality tests.

Question 1: What is the policy of lateral entry in bureaucracy?

Lateral entry refers to the practice of recruiting individuals from the private sector for administrative positions within the government, even if they have not been part of the traditional bureaucratic setup. 

Under the lateral entry policy government recruits some prominent persons for specific assignments in government, keeping in view their specialized knowledge and expertise in the domain area. Generally, these recruitments are made at the level of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary. The officers at these levels play an important role in policy-making.

In 2017, NITI Aayog, in its three-year Action Agenda, and the Sectoral Group of Secretaries on Governance in its report submitted in February, recommended the induction of personnel at middle and senior management levels in the central government. These ‘lateral entrants’ would be part of the central secretariat which, till then, had only career bureaucrats from the All India Services/ Central Civil Services. They would be given contracts of three years, extendable to a total term of five years.

Points to Ponder: 

— What are the constitutional provisions related to the Union Public Service Commission?

Question 2: What were the reasons behind the introduction of lateral entry? 

The question often arises as to why we need lateral entry into the bureaucracy when we already have mechanisms for recruiting bureaucrats who have the necessary experience for efficient administration, policy-making, and implementation. However, there are several reasons behind the introduction of the lateral entry policy.

1. Bringing in Fresh Talent: In 2019, Minister of State for the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Jitendra Singh told the Rajya Sabha that “lateral recruitment is aimed at achieving the twin objectives of bringing in fresh talent as well as augment the availability of manpower”.

According to Ravi Kapoor—“Lateral entrants, particularly those from the private sector, can infuse the bureaucracy with fresh ideas and innovative approaches, which are often lacking in government institutions…The private sector’s emphasis on efficiency and innovation is something the public sector can benefit from, and lateral entrants bring that much-needed perspective.”

2. Domain expertise: The idea behind lateral recruitment is for the government to tap into individuals’ domain expertise and specialised know-how, regardless of whether they are career bureaucrats or not.

On August 8, 2024, while responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Jitendra Singh said, “Keeping in view their specialized knowledge and expertise in the domain area, lateral recruitment at the level of Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary in Government of India, has been undertaken to appoint persons for specific assignments.”

3. Augmenting Manpower: The adoption of the lateral entry policy is also driven by the need to address the shortage of personnel, especially in mid-level and higher-level services.

Points to Ponder: 

— What is the expertise vs generalist or speciality vs lack of public service experience?

Question 3: What are the criticisms of lateral entry? 

The fundamental concept of lateral entry is to bring in experts to the bureaucracy. However, this policy has faced criticism on various fronts.

1. Issue of Reservation: Lateral entries have been criticised on the grounds that there are no quotas for SC, ST and OBC candidates in such recruitment. Files obtained from the DoPT by The Indian Express under the RTI Act state that “In a single post cadre, reservation does not apply. Since each post to be filled under this scheme [lateral entry] is a Single Post, reservation is not applicable”.

2. Lack of clarity with a mandate for the lateral entrant: The lateral entry policy has also been criticised for the lack of clarity regarding the mandate for the lateral entrant.

Dhiraj Nayyar writes— “There is a difference in bringing expertise and being part of the decision-making process. For the former, the government doesn’t strictly need to hire “outsiders”. Expertise is widely available and used by almost every ministry — expert committees, consultations, think tank engagements, etc. To be disrupters, lateral entrants need to be able to stamp their authority on decision making. For this to happen, there need to be more lateral entrants at all levels in ministries. Anyone familiar with the functioning of government knows that there is a long chain in decision-making and a minority of one cannot override it. Also, it requires an understanding of the system and an ability to work with the “permanent” establishment. No training or orientation is provided for this. By the time networks are built, it is time to move on.”

3. Uncertainty with loyalty: Lateral entrants, often appointed for shorter tenures, may lack the long-term commitment and loyalty that permanent civil servants develop. Moreover, potential conflicts of interest between public service and private sector backgrounds could influence decision-making. To mitigate these risks, the selection process by UPSC must be transparent, and contractual clauses should address conflicts of interest, enforce non-disclosure agreements, and ensure accountability, Ravi Kapoor says.

4. Issues of Transparency and Conflict of Interest: From time to time, the lateral policy has also been criticised on the grounds of transparency, accountability, and conflict of interest.

Lateral entry into the Indian bureaucracy is a complex issue with potential benefits and concerns regarding social justice, accountability and transparency.

According to Express View on lateral entry in bureaucracy—

“The fact is that lateral entry is desirable and that, as it has done in the past, it can bring in much-needed fresh ideas and energy. It is required to enrich state capacities to meet the increasingly complex tasks of governance. While lateral entrants are no magical cure for systemic ills and deficiencies, and a case may be made for a more fundamental restructuring, they can help fill the gaps of expertise and specialisation for specific durations, for well-defined objectives. 

Be it the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, 2005, or the Sixth Pay Commission, 2013, or the recommendations of the Niti Aayog in 2017, the need for the induction of personnel at senior and middle management levels in government has been repeatedly upheld and affirmed. 

In recent years, the government has also expanded the scale and ambit of the lateral hiring strategy. And yet, the problem arises when the demands of “expertise” and “merit” are ranged against the imperatives of “social justice” and “equality”. They need not be seen as antagonistic, and they are, in fact, aligned and mutually reinforcing. As the Supreme Court underlined in its recent judgment on subquotas for SCs and STs, the binary of merit vs reservation must be challenged in a country of great inequalities. Merit should be understood in terms of the social goods of equality and inclusivity — the conflict is between haves and have-nots, and not between merit and distributive justice.”

Points to Ponder: 

— Why are there no quotas in lateral recruitment?

Question 4: What are the other civil services reforms suggested by various committees?

Administration is meant to achieve something and not to exist in some kind of an ivory tower following certain rules of procedure and Narcissus-like looking on itself with complete satisfaction. The test, after all, is the human being and their welfare.

—Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

The recent controversies related to the Union Public Service Commission and lateral entry have brought the need for civil service reforms to light. Various expert committees, the Finance Commission, and the Administrative Reforms Commission have extensively provided recommendations for civil service reforms.

1. Making Civil Service Citizen-friendly: P.C Hota committee recommended that civil service should be more responsive and citizen-friendly. It said “to make the civil service citizen-friendly, each office/Department/Ministry must identify the points of citizen interface in their programmes…The office/Department/Ministry will also have to benchmark the quality of services and the period within which services can be delivered. The grievance redressal mechanism should be strengthened and held accountable.”

2. Capacity-building of Civil Servants:  P.C Hota committee report highlights that special emphasis should be given to the intellectual growth of the civil servants and on upgrading their domain knowledge. It says “Apart from the stagnation at various levels, some of these services no longer serve the purposes for which they were set up. Their services are no longer being utilized optimally. If it is decided that a particular service is no longer required or requires a different set of skills, steps should be taken to either upgrade the skills of the existing incumbents or modify the recruitment processes to achieve the desired outcome.”

Srivatsa Krishna writes— 

The bureaucracy that took India through the last 75 years can’t be the one to take it through the next 75 — we need a proactive, imaginative, technology-savvy, enabling bureaucracy

3. Reform in the recruitment process: The Hota Committee recommended that the age for entry into the higher civil services should be between 21 and 24 years, with a relaxation of 5 years for SC/ST candidates and 3 years for OBC candidates.

The committee also suggested that aptitude and leadership tests may be introduced for selection, and that probationers may be allowed one month after commencement of training to exercise their option for Services.

Srivatsa Krishna writes— “Changes in recruitment procedures, like the interview group spending considerable time with the candidates and not deciding based on a half-hour interview, along with psychometric tests, will improve the incoming pool of civil servants. Most importantly, after 15 years of service, all officers must undergo a thorough evaluation to enable them to move further, and those who do not make it should be put out to pasture.”

4. Promoting E-governance in Civil Services: To promote transparency and efficiency in civil services, e-governance should be implemented in administrative processes.

Points to Ponder: 

— What is iGOT Karmayogi Bharat learning portal?

— What are the recommendations of the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission?

— What administrative reforms have been taken by the government for making governance more accessible?

Post Read Questions

Prelims

(1) Consider the following statements:

1. iGOT Karmayogi is an online learning platform being developed as an integral part of the Digital India stack for capacity building of all government employees.

2. It will provide ‘anytime-anywhere-any device’ learning to train users.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

(2) Consider the following statements regarding reservations:

1. Reservation in public jobs and universities is through “13-point roster”.

2. A candidate’s position on a roster of openings is determined by dividing the quota percentage of their group by a hundred.

Which of the statements given above is/are not correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Mains

1. “Institutional quality is a crucial driver of economic performance”. In this context suggest reforms in the Civil Service to strengthen democracy. (UPSC CSE 2020)

2. What do you understand by the terms ‘governance’, ‘good governance’ and ‘ethical governance’? (UPSC CSE 2016)

3. Discuss the specific rules and guidelines that govern the behaviour of civil servants in India.

(Sources:  Centre directs UPSC to withdraw ad for lateral entry into bureaucracy,  Baswan Committee Report, Lateral Entry: A challenging reform, Express View on lateral entry, Hota Committee report (2004), UPSC Essentials | Expert talk : Is lateral entry a disadvantage for Civil Services?)

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