Niti Aayog to hire more young professionals

Niti Aayog is hiring around 65 odd young professionals (YPs) to assist it in the day-to-day functioning and also three other key bodies including the recently-constituted Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.

Around 45 of them will work for the Aayog for a period of two years, which could be extended. The Aayog had interviewed over 290 candidates over two days this week for these 65 odd vacancies.

A senior government official told ET that with the creation of independent bodies like the Development, Monitoring and Evaluation Organisation (DMEO), the Atal Innovation Mission and the EAC-PM, all of which have their secretariat in the Aayog itself, there is need for outside professionals to deliver on the tasks assigned.

The Aayog is of the view that participation of external professionals in the running of government can fill a number of gaps in the career-based system characterizing India’s civil services, whether it is a shortfall in numbers, a need for specialisation or a tendency towards complacency.

“Young professionals have made Niti Aayog a dynamic institution,” Aayog's CEO Amitabh Kant said.

While lateral hiring including the hiring of YPs has become a norm in the government since the UPA days, the Aayog has opened up its doors to experts and professionals from outside in a big way since its inception in 2015 when the institution was set up in place of the Planning Commission.

This is the second round of hiring of YPs at the Aayog, which has been following a transparent hiring system with clear objectives and positions. Earlier, lateral hirings of YPs or experts from outside were confined only to the junior and middle levels and most people joined as officers on special duty or young professionals.