Talent -Privately in Public domain

In the last few days Mr. Nandan Nilekeni, one of the founders of Infosys and hitherto an Officer of that Corporation joined the UID mission as Chief with the status of a Cabinet Minister while Mr. E Sreedharan, CEO of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation resigned after owning moral responsibility for a tragedy where five people lost their lives when a bridge under construction in South Delhi collapsed.

It is appropriate to look at the admission and retention of talent in this context.

Talent has to operate within the system. Government is ultimately only an operationalising arm of the will of the republic. It is a system. E Sreedharan has proved one can deliver the goods; all it calls for is commitment, caliber, conviction and courage.

What we refer to as The Government in India stands for a massive but slow and effete permanent executive and an aggressive, temporary and increasingly dominant political executive, i.e. those who carry out and implement policy and those who make it.

It has been repeated ad-nauseam that pliant babus have become willing accomplices at the hands of self-seeking netas thus corrupting the administration, killing bureaucratic initiative and jeopardizing the healthy and progressive growth of the larger India changing /India strengthening agenda.

In a country where cadre sensitivity of the bureaucracy is legendary it is of educational value to see how far the government can tap the talent available in the private sector to promote good governance.

In India, a government job is a slow train. The brute majority of Government personnel are the legendary ICS – No , not the Indian Civil Service, but the more ubiquitous and ultimately more powerful Indian Corridor Service i.e. the peons, the Lower and Upper divisional clerks and the section staff. Like the many coupes of a long train, they are classified as Class I, II, III or IV

In the past fifteen years or so, as the economy opened up, there was a flow of talent from the public to the private sector. It was easy picking for the private sector; they homed in on the experienced but poorly paid talent in the public sector. We saw this as the monopolies dissolved in commercial banking, insurance, power, steel, Oil, media, telecom etc

But not so much in the higher reaches of the civil service. Indeed, from time to time, senior civil servants have left government service to join the private sector and MNCs but by and large the 400 odd civil servants who run the show have been immune to cross-sector movements. Attrition would not rate a percentage point, one can guesstimate.


Admission of talent is not about a single person, it is not about admitting individuals. In essence, the culture of administration has to change. It is ultimately about the system. Consider :

Will we admit talent to only where those in power feel urgent and specific attention is required? On Missionary terms ?

How are the credentials vetted?

How are terms of reference decided for infusion of private individuals?

Private Interests in public domain who certifies caliber ?

What about infusion of external talent in the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy?

Why not a revolving door for the executive cadre at the Navratnas?

Can we consider the same in Policy Advisory Services, Governmental programs--Why not in the social sector? Customs, Taxation, Economic Diplomacy?

Why not every where and any where?

Unless we want to make this a case of voluntary sanyas on part of those who get admitted won’t we need to fix remuneration that is competitive enough to attract and more importantly retain talent?

Till the system is adaptive, such talent ingress and egress will continue to be just that : A "Private' decision in public domain.