Govt seeks to fill up posts with hires from non-IAS pool, sparks debate

The decision to extend the application date for head of the competition watchdog underlines the old debate over reserving regulatory heads exclusively for administrative service officers

Two recent developments refocused attention on the familiar debate over whether Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers or others outside the IAS would be effective heads of the numerous regulatory bodies in the country. Earlier this week, the date to apply for the post of chairman at the Competition Commission of India (CCI), headless for several months now, was extended. Last week, Deepak Mohanty, an economist at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), was appointed chairperson of the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA). While Mohanty, like many of his predecessors at PFRDA, is not an IAS officer, most other