NITI Aayog moves towards lateral entry of private sector professionals

Earlier, the Planning Commission had also hired professionals from private sector

The NITI Aayog’s reported decision to hire professionals from the private sector at all levels, including that of secretary and joint secretary rank, is not the first attempt to hire people from the private sector.

In fact, in the previous Planning Commissions, too, there had been attempts to rope in people from the private sector into the government set-up.

In the current NITI Aayog, the head of its land policy cell, Dr Tajmul Haque, is one such example of a lateral entry into the government set-up. A former chairman of the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices, he joined the Aayog at the level of secretary to the government of India for a period of two years, which can be extended by another one-year.

In the past, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Vijay Kelkar came from outside the government to head top government bodies. 

The last Planning Commission too had several advisors and senior advisors from outside the government set-up.

The previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had institutionalised the entire process with many senior professionals – such as Nandan Nilekani from Infosys, former Tata Consultancy Services vice-chairman S Ramadorai, Arun Maira from Boston Consulting Group, Mahindra Land Systems CEO Raghu Raman, Rohini Malkani from CITI – have all been part of top government bodies (see chart).

The UPA government had, in fact, made it a point to look for talent from outside the government set-up to head its various expert panels and councils. Many of them were granted the minister of state rank.

The NITI Aayog’s attempt is slightly different on the grounds that it follows a transparent and open recruitment system with clear objectives and positions.

The Aayog has been following the same procedure for recruitment of consultants, senior consultants and young professionals, all of whom have been either attached to members or have been assigned specific tasks.

In the new draft rules framed by the Aayog, the consolidated salary package for senior advisors would be around Rs 3.64 lakhs, while that of advisors would be around Rs 2.88 lakhs.

Both could be matched with equivalent salary packages and perks like government accommodation and vehicle, among other things.

Past experience with the erstwhile Planning Commission and later with hiring professionals from the private sector directly into senior government positions has been mixed, with some doing commendable work and others struggling to make their way through the water-tight bureaucratic set-up in India.

The lower bureaucracy is also sometimes less receptive to suggestions made by people from outside the system.

“There have been several past attempts to rope in people from the private sector into the Planning Commission and elsewhere and some of them have been really good, while others have not been that successful,” N C Saxena, a former member secretary of the Planning Commission and retired IAS officer, told Business Standard.

He said that there have been instances of people who have radical ideas facing difficulty in making their way. He cited the example of Mid-Term Appraisal of the eighth Five-Year Plan when people from the civil society resigned en-masse from the then Planning Commission as their views weren’t incorporated in the appraisal document.

“There have been both good and bad experiences with people from the private sector in government bureaucracy, but I welcome the initiative and it should be continued,” Saxena added.