Summary: The government recently appointed nine private sector specialists as joint secretaries in various departments through lateral hiring. Lateral entry means the appointment of specialists from the private sector in government organisations. The Personnel Ministry had in June last year invited applications for the joint secretary-rank posts through lateral entry mode in revenue, financial services, economic affairs, agriculture and farmers welfare, road transport and highways, shipping, environment, forest and climate change, new and renewable energy, civil aviation and commerce departments. The government received over 6,000 applications in response to its advertisement. The task to select candidates was given to the UPSC which announced the result on Friday. Those selected are Amber Dubey (for civil aviation), Arun Goel (commerce), Rajeev Saksena (Economic Affairs), Sujit Kumar Bajpayee (environment, forest and climate change), Saurabh Mishra (financial services) and Dinesh Dayanand Jagdale (new and renewable energy), it said. Suman Prasad Singh has been selected for appointment as joint secretary in road transport and highways ministry, Bhushan Kumar in Shipping and Kokoli Ghosh for agriculture, cooperation and farmers welfare, the UPSC said.
