The government has asked Central Secretaries to focus on building specialised skills among their own officers instead of relying on private consultants for tasks such as preparing tender documents, drafting legislation and managing dispute mechanisms, as reported by The Indian Express.
The direction was conveyed to Secretaries following their meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 22. A week later, Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan sent a communication to the Secretaries outlining the “action points” emerging from their interaction with the Prime Minister.
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One of the key areas highlighted by Somanathan was the need to strengthen the capabilities of in-house officers and develop specialised skills within government departments, rather than hiring consultants for such work.
The skills identified include preparing and tendering documents, drafting legislation and handling dispute resolution mechanisms.
“Officers should be trained in preparing, tendering documents, drafting of legislation, managing dispute mechanisms and other specialised skills by ministries/ departments instead of hiring consultants from various consulting agencies in Central Government," Somanathan wrote.
"Courses on iGOT (Integrated Government Online Training) platform also contain theoretical basic knowledge which can be utilised for capacity enhancement.”
Underlining continuous capacity building and upskilling of human resources in government, he said this is “necessary to meet the future demand and objectives of Viksit Bharat”.
Government Seeks Greater In-House Expertise
The move comes at a time when several government departments and ministries rely on private consulting firms for specialised assignments.
Companies including McKinsey, Ernst & Young, PwC and Deloitte are among the private firms that have been engaged by various government departments for consultancy and related services.
The government's latest emphasis suggests a push towards developing institutional expertise within ministries and departments, allowing officials to handle specialised responsibilities internally.
Somanathan also highlighted the importance of holding preliminary discussions among stakeholder ministries and departments before a Cabinet proposal is finalised.
Government Departments Have Hired Hundreds Of Consultants
The scale of dependence on consultants is evident from data shared by the government in Parliament.
In July last year, Union Minister of State for Rural Development Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani informed the Lok Sabha that the Ministry of Rural Development had hired 362 consultants so far.
The latest direction to Secretaries, therefore, places greater emphasis on developing specialised capabilities within the government workforce and reducing the need to outsource such functions to private consulting firms.
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“The consultants also provide support for facilitating smooth day-to-day coordination of the ministry with the States/UTs, enabling the officers to focus on core policy issues and ensure the meeting of milestones within the set deadline,” he said in a written reply.
“As on 25.07.2025, a total of 325 consultants were hired with different divisions of the DoRD (Department of Rural Development) and 37 consultants were hired by the DoLR (Department of Land Resources). These consultants are hired through institutions, autonomous bodies, public sector enterprises, etc.,” he added.
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