172 assistant secretaries to focus on DBT, e-governance

As many as 172 newly-inducted IAS officers will focus on the Centre's priority programmes like the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and e-governance.
During an interaction with the officers of the 2014 batch, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh said India inherited the legacy of civil services from the British, where the Indian civil service officers were designated revenue collectors, and in the independent India these IAS officers are designated development commissioners.
He said the government policies have focussed on good governance through 'minimum government and maximum governance'.
Singh said the concept of assistant secretaries was introduced by the government last year and this is the second batch to have this privilege which was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.

Earlier in his address, Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha said the posting of assistant secretaries will familiarise the officers with the working and policy formulation system of the government.
He said out of the 172 assistant secretaries, 140 are with a professional background. Sinha said these assistant secretaries will be mainly focusing on different schemes of the government such as the Direct Benefit Transfer, National scholarship scheme, e-governance, e-office and MyGov platform.

"These officers will also be exposed to the application of space technology, websites of different ministries and good governance initiatives of the government," a statement issued by Personnel Ministry said.

These IAS officers started their three-month stint at the Centre yesterday. They have been assigned 48 different central government departments.
Last year, 158 IAS officers of 2013 batch were appointed as assistant secretaries in different ministries as part of a first-of-its-kind initiative by the Union government to groom bureaucrats at the Centre before they move out to their respective cadre states.
As per the rules, IAS officers become eligible to come on central deputation only after completing nine years of service in their respective cadre.