NEW DELHI: Over the past fortnight, two senior bureaucrats, recently empanelled as secretaries to the government of India, were surprised when they got a call from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). They were asked about their areas of interest and the departments they might be interested in handling as and when an opening comes up.
The phone calls are part of a larger informal human resources competency mapping exercise being driven by the PMO to identify the best officials suited for vacancies that have arisen and would arise in the central government in the coming six months. The idea behind the initiative steered by additional principal secretary in the PMO PK Mishra, is to get the right men for the right job to implement the Modi government's agenda over the next three to five years, said officials.
This human resource management exercise is part of the Prime Minister's efforts to make a clean break from the UPA tradition where ministers had a disproportionate say in babu appointments, said officials. There has been no purge in the bureaucracy as many policymakers had feared after the change of government on May 26 another sign that this government is thinking differently from its predecessors.
The manpower planning effort is not restricted to the top echelons of departments and autonomous agencies, but includes roles at the joint secretary and additional secretary levels too. Indicating that the Modi regime would rather think through its appointments rather than fill up vacancies in a huff, one of the first vacancies to arise under this government, for a joint secretary in charge of exploration issues in the petroleum and natural gas ministry, is yet to be filled.
"The new government has neither affected a major bureaucratic reshuffle nor is it in a hurry to fill vacancies as it wants to identify the strengths and weaknesses of top officers before deciding their next roles.
The phone calls are part of a larger informal human resources competency mapping exercise being driven by the PMO to identify the best officials suited for vacancies that have arisen and would arise in the central government in the coming six months. The idea behind the initiative steered by additional principal secretary in the PMO PK Mishra, is to get the right men for the right job to implement the Modi government's agenda over the next three to five years, said officials.
This human resource management exercise is part of the Prime Minister's efforts to make a clean break from the UPA tradition where ministers had a disproportionate say in babu appointments, said officials. There has been no purge in the bureaucracy as many policymakers had feared after the change of government on May 26 another sign that this government is thinking differently from its predecessors.
The manpower planning effort is not restricted to the top echelons of departments and autonomous agencies, but includes roles at the joint secretary and additional secretary levels too. Indicating that the Modi regime would rather think through its appointments rather than fill up vacancies in a huff, one of the first vacancies to arise under this government, for a joint secretary in charge of exploration issues in the petroleum and natural gas ministry, is yet to be filled.
"The new government has neither affected a major bureaucratic reshuffle nor is it in a hurry to fill vacancies as it wants to identify the strengths and weaknesses of top officers before deciding their next roles.
The PM's personal interactions with secretaries and the PMO's assessment of the challenges facing each department are likely to play a crucial role in the Centre's personnel strategy in coming months," said a senior official, requesting anonymity.
Just three weeks after taking charge, Modi had reconstituted the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet to a two-member body comprising the PM and home minister Rajnath Singh.
Just three weeks after taking charge, Modi had reconstituted the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet to a two-member body comprising the PM and home minister Rajnath Singh.
"The PMO has a firm eye on achieving big-ticket outcomes of this government by 2018-19, so it is not thinking of vacancies as a short-term problem that needs to be plugged," said another official, adding that ministries have been asked to upload all major vacancies that are arising in their domains, including their public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies onto an online vacancy tracking system.
Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
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