New Delhi, March 16 A parliamentary committee has recommended that the Centre examine the feasibility of establishing a structured 360-degree review mechanism for the appointment of officers to Joint Secretary and other senior positions across all central services.
The committee believes that this approach would promote consistency in evaluation standards, strengthen merit-based selection at senior levels, and enhance confidence in the objectivity and robustness of the appointment process.
The process of appointing IAS officers to the level of Joint Secretary in the Indian government involves a structured process conducted by the Department of Personnel & Training.
This process includes evaluating officers based on their service records, annual performance appraisal reports (APARs), vigilance status, and overall career profile.
In its report, the committee stated that over the past several years, the appointment process for IAS officers has incorporated a 360-degree assessment mechanism, which involves obtaining feedback from senior officers, peers, and other stakeholders who have worked with the individual officer.
This process aims to supplement formal performance records with qualitative input regarding leadership qualities, domain expertise, integrity, decision-making capacity, and overall suitability for senior policy-making roles in the Indian government, according to the 160th report of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice on Demands for Grants (2026-27) pertaining to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
"Therefore, the committee recommends that the department (DoPT) examine the feasibility of institutionalizing a structured 360-degree review mechanism for appointing Joint Secretary and other higher posts from services other than the IAS," it said.
The committee believes that the principles underlying the assessment mechanism – holistic evaluation, multi-source feedback, and qualitative assessment of leadership attributes – are relevant not only for IAS officers but also for officers from other services considered for appointment as Joint Secretaries and other senior posts in the Indian government.
The committee also highlighted a shortage of IAS officers at the national level and suggested steps to address this.
At the national level, nearly one-fifth of the sanctioned IAS posts remain vacant, which is a serious concern, it stated.
Out of the sanctioned strength of 6,877, there are 5,577 officers in position, meaning 1,300 positions are vacant.
An examination of the cadre-wise distribution of vacancies reveals that the shortage is uneven and disproportionately severe in certain states. While the national average shortage is 18.90 per cent, several cadres are functioning well above this level, the panel said.
Nagaland faces the most acute shortage at 43.62 per cent, followed by Kerala (32.03 per cent) and Manipur (30.43 per cent). Tripura (27.45 per cent), Odisha (25.40 per cent), AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories) (25.09 per cent) and Sikkim (25.00 per cent) are also operating with one-fourth or more of their sanctioned strength vacant, the panel said.
"The committee is particularly concerned that a number of North-Eastern and smaller cadres are experiencing disproportionately high shortages in percentage terms. Given their strategic location, developmental priorities and administrative sensitivities, such persistent vacancies may adversely affect governance delivery, supervision of field administration and effective implementation of central and state schemes in these areas," the report reads.
Moreover, even larger and administratively significant states are not insulated from this challenge.
West Bengal (19.84 per cent), Rajasthan (19.28 per cent), Haryana (20 per cent) and Jharkhand (20.98 per cent) are functioning with nearly one-fifth of their sanctioned strength vacant, it said.
The AGMUT cadre, servicing multiple Union territories including the National Capital Territory of Delhi, has a deficit exceeding 25 per cent, which raises concerns regarding administrative capacity in centrally-governed regions, the panel said.
The Committee said that no cadre is currently operating at full sanctioned strength, indicating that the issue of shortage is systemic rather than isolated.
The panel is of the view that persistent shortage continues to adversely affect administrative capacity at the Centre and in the states, particularly at the field-level positions where timely decision-making and policy implementation are critical, the report said.
"The Committee, therefore, urges the department (DoPT) to immediately prioritise filling the 25% vacancies in the AGMUT cadre, considering its unique administrative spread across multiple Union Territories and the National Capital Territory. Moreover, the Committee feels that there is a need to formulate a special filling strategy for North-Eastern and smaller cadres such as Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim, where percentage shortages are disproportionately high," it added.