Centre directs secretaries to build in-house expertise, curb consultant hiring

The central government has directed all secretaries to prioritise training their own officers in specialised skills rather than engaging private consultants. The instruction, issued by Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan, lists areas such as preparing tender documents, drafting legislation, and managing dispute mechanisms as key competencies to be developed in-house.

The directive follows a meeting between secretaries and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 22. A week later, Somanathan circulated a note outlining action points from that interaction, explicitly asking ministries and departments to build internal capacity. He noted that existing courses on the Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT) platform provide theoretical foundations that can be leveraged for this purpose.

Somanathan described continuous upskilling as essential to meet the objectives of Viksit Bharat and to handle future demands. He also encouraged early inter-ministerial discussions before finalising Cabinet proposals, to prevent delays and ensure smoother implementation.

The move is significant given the widespread use of external firms such as McKinsey, Ernst & Young, PwC, and Deloitte across government departments. In July 2025, Minister of State for Rural Development Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani told the Lok Sabha that his ministry had hired 325 consultants in the Department of Rural Development and 37 in the Department of Land Resources. He said these consultants helped coordinate with states and allowed officers to focus on core policy issues.

Past disclosures show similar engagements. In 2017, NITI Aayog had hired Ernst & Young for infrastructure PPP promotion, and consortia involving McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group were engaged for health and education projects. In 2018, the consumer affairs ministry had engaged PwC for buffer stock management of pulses.