Lateral Entry into the Civil Services
- December 7, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Lateral Entry into the Civil Services
Subject – Governance
Context – The government has approved appointment of 38 candidates, including 10 joint secretaries, from the private sector through the lateral entry system
Concept –
- Lateral entry means when personnel from the private sector are selected to an administrative post of the government despite them not being selected in or being part of a bureaucratic setup.
- In 2018, the government decided to undertake lateral recruitment of joint secretaries to fulfil the twin purpose of bringing in domain expertise to the civil services and addressing the problem of shortage of IAS officers at the Centre
- The lateral entry appointments are done on a contractual basis. Since it is not a permanent post like regular government jobs, it will dilute the monopoly of bureaucrats in the government departments.
- The appointments are mainly made to the post of Director, Joint Secretary, and Deputy Secretary.
- The maximum age limit for joint secretaries is 45 years and for director-level posts, it is 35 years.