{"id":45748,"date":"2025-06-19T21:23:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T15:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=45748"},"modified":"2025-07-12T15:41:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T10:11:32","slug":"lateral-entry-policy-still-active","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/19-06-2025\/lateral-entry-policy-still-active","title":{"rendered":"Lateral Entry Policy Still Active"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus :GS 2\/Governance&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Union Minister Jitendra Singh clarified that the government has not given up on the idea of lateral entry into government departments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Lateral entry&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It refers to the hiring of specialists, including professionals from the private sector, to take up senior roles in the government.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It aims to bring in fresh talent and strengthen middle management by appointing specialists with domain expertise for specific roles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>View of NITI Ayyog and various commissions&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The policy of lateral entry originated from recommendations by the <strong>NITI Aayog <\/strong>in its <strong>2017 report, <\/strong>which highlighted the need for specialists in policymaking due to the economy\u2019s growing complexity.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It proposed inducting experts to enhance competition and bring fresh talent into governance.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The idea was to replace frequent officer rotations with longer, specialised postings.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Similar recommendations were made earlier by the<strong> second Administrative Reforms Commission in 2005<\/strong> under the UPA government.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Previous appointments<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Former <strong>PM Manmohan Singh<\/strong> and experts like<strong> Verghese Kurien, Homi Bhabha<\/strong>, and <strong>A.P.J. Abdul Kalam<\/strong> were lateral entrants who made significant contributions in various fields.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Post-independence, lateral entries helped overcome the shortage of civil servants, and the system gradually evolved with regular UPSC recruitment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Around 60 posts had already been filled through the lateral entry mode. \u201cToday 40 to 45 [lateral entry recruits] are still working.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Do you know?<\/strong><br>&#8211; In August 2024, the UPSC withdrew its notification for recruiting 45 officers through lateral entry\u201410 joint secretaries and 35 directors or deputy secretaries\u2014after facing political backlash.&nbsp;<br>&#8211; Opposition parties criticized the move for bypassing reservations for OBCs, SCs, and STs.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Advantages&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lateral entrants can&nbsp; <strong>bring domain-specific knowledge<\/strong> and professional experience, essential in today\u2019s complex policymaking environment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Private sector<strong> professionals may introduce new ideas<\/strong>, data-driven strategies, and outcome-based approaches to governance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The government <strong>faces a shortage of All India Services officers<\/strong>, especially at the Central level.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lateral entry helps fill these gaps.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>According to a 2023-24 parliamentary panel report on the DoPT, only 442 IAS officers were working with the Union government, against the required strength of 1,469.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Disadvantages&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lateral entry has faced criticism for<strong> not applying caste-based reservations, <\/strong>potentially sidelining marginalized groups.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Critics argue that such appointments bypass the DoPT&#8217;s roster system, which applies reservation to each department individually, not across ministries.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Entrants may lack knowledge of governmental procedures <\/strong>and hierarchies, leading to inefficiencies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cooperation related challenges with existing civil servants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/headlines-of-the-day\/30-08-2024\/headlines-of-the-day-30-08-2024\">lateral entry<\/a> holds promise for modernizing India\u2019s administrative machinery but\u00a0 it must be implemented with transparency, fairness, and clear integration mechanisms to ensure long-term success.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Source :IE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Union Minister Jitendra Singh clarified that the government has not given up on the idea of lateral entry into government departments.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Lateral entry\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It refers to the hiring of specialists, including professionals from the private sector, to take up senior roles in the government.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It aims to bring in fresh talent and strengthen middle management by appointing specialists with domain expertise for specific roles.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/19-06-2025\/lateral-entry-policy-still-active\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45748"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47910,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45748\/revisions\/47910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}