The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has issued an advertisement to recruit 30 persons at the Joint Secretary and Director level in the Central administration through lateral entry in the second round. Earlier, eight persons, mostly domain experts, were selected for various Departments and Ministries.
In the latest round, of the 30 positions advertised by the UPSC, three are for Joint Secretary, and 27 are for the Director level.
According to the UPSC advertisement, online applications have been invited for Ministries, Departments, PSUs (public sector undertaking) and autonomous bodies of the Central government by March 22. The contractual appointment would be for a period of three years and extendable up to five years depending on performance.
For the Joint Secretary level, the lateral entry positions have been opened in the Ministries of Agriculture and Farmers’ welfare, Commerce and Industry, and Finance, while for the Director level, the applications have been invited for more than half-a-dozen Departments and Ministries.
The basic qualification for a Joint Secretary lateral entrant is 15 years of work experience, and for Directors it is 10 years of work experience.
The government’s idea is to bring in domain expertise from the private sector to the Central administration, which also faces a shortage of IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers working on deputation in the Centre. Another objective of inducting specialists is to improve efficiency and create competition in governance delivery.
The UPSC will conduct the process of recruitment, from shortlisting candidates based on their applications to inviting them for interviews and subsequently placing them for appointments after the hiring process.
