Lateral entry: Why appointing specialists to bureaucracy is a good idea

But the government would do well to maintain the overall representation of reserved categories at different levels of bureaucracy as mandated by relevant rules

The Union Public Service Commission’s invitation for applications to fill 45 posts at the joint secretary and director/deputy secretary levels on a contractual basis for three years, extendable to five years, shows the central government’s continued commitment to the idea of lateral entry into the bureaucracy. The advertised positions in various departments and ministries, such as the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance are for specialists. For instance, the Union government is looking for a joint secretary in