Role of IES Officers
- A distinguishing feature of the Service is that its Cadre posts are spread across different Ministries/ Departments of the Central Government. It is an inter-Ministerial and inter-Departmental Service. Officers serve in a diverse range of subject areas, such as finance & economic affairs; social sector including health, education, rural development; agriculture & allied sectors including food processing; industry & services; commerce & external affairs; infrastructure & technology and energy & environment. The number of ministries / departments have increased from 10 in 1979 to 55 in 2011 and to 72 in 2023.
- IES officers are, exposed to development issues in diverse sectors and contribute to policy-making in the Central Government over the entire span of their service career. With the economic reforms having transformed the nature and domain of economic policy-making in the country, the IES, as a service, provides a pool of in-house economic expertise that is well-placed to meet the growing demand for analytical economic inputs for policy-making in the government.
- Direct recruits joining the service, after being offered appointment, undergo a comprehensive probationary training comprising the Foundation course (conducted for the All-India Services and the Central Civil Services), training on Economics at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, and training/ attachment at various national level Institutes of repute across the country.
- Capacity building of serving officers is carried out on an ongoing basis by conducting various in-service training programmes suited to the officers’ needs, from the point of view of building up professional capacity at work as well as developing soft skills. The flagship in-service training programme is the mid-career training programmes comprising domestic learning and foreign learning components, conducted at reputed management institute in the country. Officers of the service are required to participate in three such mid-career training courses at different phases in their career.