Winds of change appear to have started blowing across North Block, headquarters of the Union finance ministry. The department of economic affairs in the ministry has launched an internship programme for 2012-13, essentially aimed at getting up to 15 academically-bright scholars to spend two months working with its senior officers in charge of different divisions.
The stated objective of the programme is interesting. The ministry sees the internship programme as a win-win opportunity for both the department of economic affairs and the intern. According to the ministry’s notification, the internship programme will “ensure interaction of the officers of the department with the young scholars with brilliant academic background from reputed academic institutions in the country.” Not only will “refreshing ideas from the field of academics” help the department assess the relevance of its activity and take corrective steps, but the programme will also provide an opportunity to interns to familiarise themselves with the process of economic policy formulation.
The internship programme is open to undergraduates pursuing five-year law courses or students pursuing post-graduate courses or undertaking research in economics, finance or management. The internship will not result in a job, but there will be a token remuneration of Rs 5,000 per intern per month, subject, of course, to satisfactory completion of the internship and submission of a report. The interns selected will be given office space and computers with internet facility and they will be attached with one of the deputy secretaries or directors in the ministry.
The specific areas of work on which the interns will be able to focus during their two-month association with the finance ministry make the programme attractive. These relate to the functioning and regulation of capital markets, economic reforms at a macro level, development assistance to India from multilateral financial institutions and bilateral aid from countries, exchange management, foreign investment in India and Indian investment abroad, monetary policy, fiscal policy, tariff policy, domestic regulations, inflation management, debt market operation, debt management, small savings, modernisation of Budget documents and framing of economic laws administered by the department of economic affairs.
The success of the programme will, of course, depend on how well the ministry monitors its implementation. It is important that the ministry puts in place a system through which bright scholars from the country’s best academic institutions are encouraged to join the programme. Equally important is to identify officials at the level of deputy secretaries or directors, who are capable and keen on exposing young scholars to the way the ministry functions and frames policies. The programme stipulates that all interns will have to furnish a declaration of secrecy, but government officials are known for their reluctance to share information and the procedures of decision-making. Ensuring that the exchange of information and experience remains smooth and unhindered will be the key to the programme’s success.
The long-term benefits of the programme, however, will accrue only when the finance ministry can over time make it the basis for identifying young talents who could be drafted into government service with the specific responsibility of working in important economic ministries. There is no denying that today the government’s economic administration suffers from an acute shortage of high-quality technocrats, who also understand the way the government functions and who, because of their experience, are easily accepted by the system. The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) has produced several quality economic administrators, but unlike in the past, they are no longer supplemented by a good number of non-IAS technocrats who bring expertise and domain knowledge of a different variety to contribute to better policy making in the ministries of finance, commerce and industry. The internship programme for bright scholars can help the finance ministry identify potential candidates who could be later considered fit for employment in these economic ministries at an appropriate level and fill the gap that now is proving to be a major weakness in the government’s economic policy-making.
To make the internship programme a bigger success, the finance ministry ought to consider also a more remunerative package for interns. Spending just Rs 5,000 for an intern per month is too little to attract bright scholars for an internship programme that should build the foundations of the government’s talent-hunt. Assuming that 15 interns will be selected in the first year of the programme, the annual outgo at the current rate is a measly Rs 1.5 lakh. If the government is serious, it should cast its net wide and at least treble the stipend level. For the government, the annual burden as a result will be only Rs 4.5 lakh, but this can be a new avenue for the government to attract the best talent from the country’s top academic institutions and assess if any one of them should be given entry into government service at a lateral level through short- or medium-term contracts.