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After Agnipath, Need of a Nitipath for Civil Services

Posted on August 31, 2022 by admin1  851

In News

  • Recently the independent views on the requirement of “Nitipath” for the civil services along the lines of “Agnipath” were articulated.

General viewpoint

  • Many aspects of the Agnipath scheme offer a model for civil service recruitment.
  • Years of service:
    • Experts have called for officers to be filtered out after 10, 25 and 30 years of service. 
  • Boost to recruitment:
    • The government can recruit four times as many candidates at the entry level without being constrained by the number of apex-level positions and career paths. 
      • Instead of 600-1,000 candidates appointed to the All India Services, we can have 4,000 officers entering service every year. 
      • Only 25% of them will be retained after a performance review after the fourth year. 
  • Options for retired officers:
    • The 3,000 or so officers leaving the Union civil service after the fourth year can be employed in the state services, where there is a crisis of selection, a massive shortfall and acute demand for better governance.

Agnipath Recruitment Scheme

  • About: 
    • Around 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually, and most will leave the service in just four years. 
    • Of the total annual recruits, only 25 percent will be allowed to continue for another 15 years under permanent commission.
    • Recruits under the scheme will be known as “Agniveers”. 
  • Features:
    • Enrolment in all three services: 
      • Centralised online system to conduct rallies & campus interviews  at recognised technical institutes such as the Industrial Training Institutes, and the National Skills Qualifications Framework.
  • Eligibility criteria: 
    • It is only for personnel below officer ranks. 
    • On an ‘All India All Class’ basis with the eligibility age ranging from 17.5 to 21 years, with medical and physical fitness standards.
    • Educational qualification: Class X-XII
    • Recruitment will be done twice a year.

Significance

  • Rectifying the existing structure:
  • This would rectify the top-heavy structure, and create a culture of public service and performance.
  • Encouraging youths in the administration: 
    • This will bring a lot of young and energetic officers at the junior levels, give them strong incentives to perform, and give them work experience in government. 
    • Youthful, trained and experienced managerial cadre will benefit the broader economy.
  • Batter Quality assessment:
    • The average quality of the top 4,000 all-India rank holders will not be markedly different from that of the top 1,000. 
    • So, a four-year review period will allow the government to get a better pick than merely exam and interview scores.
  • Beneficial outcomes:
    • Filling vacancies has a massive impact on outcomes. 
    • For instance, experts estimate that on average 48% of the sanctioned positions at Block Development Offices (BDOs) are vacant, and filling them would increase NREGA employment by 10%.
  • Better proportion of the officials to its population:
    • It is well-known that we have too few administrators, police officers, diplomats and other officials as a proportion of the population, and consistently fall short of world averages. 
    • Experts point out that while the federal government in the US had just over 8 civilian employees per 1,000 population in 2014, India had 4.51, down from 8.47 in 1995. 
    • The capacity is especially weak at the local government level. 

What is Civil Service Reform?

  • Civil Service Reform is a deliberate change effort by the government to improve its capacity to effectively and efficiently execute policies.
  • The purpose of ‘reform’ is to reorient the Civil Services into a dynamic, efficient, and accountable apparatus for public service delivery built on the ethos and values of integrity, impartiality and neutrality.
  • The reform is to raise the quality of public services delivered to the citizens and enhance the capacity to carry out core government functions, thereby leading to sustainable development.

Recent reforms

  • Mission Karmayogi:
    • It was launched in 2020 with the objective of enhancing governance through “Civil Service Capacity Building”.
    • Aim: 
      • Comprehensive reform of the capacity building apparatus at individual, institutional and process levels for efficient public service delivery”.
      • To prepare civil service officers for the future by making them more “creative, constructive, imaginative, innovative, proactive, professional, progressive, energetic, enabling, transparent and technology-enabled.’
    • Focus:
      • On promoting ease of living and ease of doing business, by considerably enhancing the citizen-government interface. 
      • This involves creation of both functional and behavioural competencies among the civil servants.
    • Significance: 
      • It will improve human resource management practices among the officers.
      • It will focus more on role-based management. It will aim to allocate roles and jobs based on the competencies of the officers.
  • ‘Lateral Entry’ into Bureaucracy:
    • The term lateral entry means the appointment of specialists and experts, mainly those from the private sector, in government organizations and ministries. 
    • Aim: 
      • To recruit outstanding individuals, with expertise in revenue, financial services, economic affairs, agriculture, cooperation and farmers’ welfare, road transport and highway, civil aviation, commerce among many other sectors to serve for the benefit of the country.
      • Right talent for the right role is the principle behind it.
    • Details:
      • These lateral entrants into the civil service will be offered a three-year contract, which the government can extend to five years depending on performance.

Source: TH

 
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