Building India’s State Capacity: Takshashila’s Approach to Human Resource Management
India is positioning itself as a world power with significant geopolitical and economic prowess. While the Indian economy changed significantly in 1991, integrating with global markets and shedding its old autarkic norms, India's state apparatus has failed to reform itself at the pace its global aspirations demand. If one looks closely at India's governance system, one can see it lacks the personnel to run effectively. While the challenges regarding human resource processes differ in each domain under the Government of India, the overarching issue remains the same - insufficient human capital and capability management.
We at Takshashila have analysed the specific human resource challenges in India's governance system and suggested the following mechanisms to improve its human resource processes in strategic domains such as external affairs, intelligence and defence:
To improve the manpower shortage in the foreign service, India can consider a surge hiring strategy, in which the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) can hire a large number of individuals for positions below ambassadorial rank through fellowships;
To enhance the human resource management in India's intelligence agencies, India can adopt a four-fold approach encompassing recruitment, training, career progression and retention of intelligence officers at various stages of their careers;
To contain the burgeoning defence expenditure, a Human Capital Investment Model (a short-term transfer of personnel within various security forces) is proposed as a solution to lateral movement in India's national security system.
Human Capital Deficit in India's Foreign Policy
India's foreign policy is at a crucial juncture today with its increased engagements and global aspirations as an influential power in the international system. Foreign policy would increasingly play a role in protecting India's widening national interests and ensuring the movement of trade, technology and talent. However, as India engages more with the world, converting its aspirations into tangible outcomes requires substantial state capacity. Pranay Kotasthane, deputy director of the Takshashila Institution, argues in his piece for Hindustan Times that "India's foreign service is awfully short of its requirement to fulfill India's national interests" and the gap between its aspirations and its capacity is getting wider.
While a dramatic increase in entry-level recruitment for the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) through the civil service examination can be a long-term solution, Pranay suggests a surge-hiring strategy to fix the human capital deficit in foreign policy quickly. This strategy should try to hire a much larger number of people below ambassadorial positions, differing from the lateral entry approach taken by the MEA in 2015. While the lateral entry attempt provided opportunities for people in academia and the private sector, it was also perceived as a threat to the career progression of foreign service officers. Hence, rather than targeting joint-secretary levels, surge hiring should focus on fellowships for graduates and young professionals working within and outside the government. This approach would help build institutional knowledge within the ministry and ensure the smooth functioning of its headquarters in Delhi to manage its various engagements and initiatives. A surge in foreign policy capacity is essential to convert promising ideas into tangible policy outcomes.
Human Capacity and Capability Management in India's External Intelligence
Anand Arni, Pranay Kotasthane, and Shibani Mehta address a frequently overlooked issue in Indian intelligence reform—individual capability management—in their 2019 discussion document for the Takshashila Institution, part of its Intelligence Reform Project. The core challenge in implementing effective external intelligence reforms lies in the personnel involved; discussions often focus on legal frameworks while neglecting capacity management.
The document and a subsequent opinion piece by Kotasthane and Mehta for the Times of India highlight the pitfalls of recruiting external intelligence officers via deputation or the UPSC route instead of the Research and Analysis Service (RAS). They argue that "officers on deputation retain a lien on their parent service, allowing them to return if they become a liability to Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), creating little incentive for commitment to R&AW's goals." This "revolving door" mechanism hampers dedication and effectiveness. The differences in operational environments between the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and R&AW—domestic versus overseas, respectively—compound these issues. Kotasthane and Mehta note that transitioning police officers to intelligence roles requires extensive reorientation and training, which crash courses cannot adequately provide. They also criticise the six-month training course for recruits, a drastic reduction from the previous three-year programme, which fails to meet the growing complexities of modern intelligence work. Given the increasing importance of digital skills and advanced language proficiency, a sustained training curriculum is essential.
To address these challenges, the discussion document proposes a four-fold approach to enhance the capacity of intelligence officers in India. First, it advocates for better recruitment practices, focusing on individuals from diverse backgrounds aligned with the organisation's goals. Effective pre-recruitment planning—including vacancy forecasting and strategic recruitment—must be prioritised. The authors suggest opening recruitment to the free market, akin to the CIA's approach, and engaging university deans or retired officers as talent spotters. Second, the authors recommend discontinuing crash courses, arguing that the current training model hampers skill development and fails to address knowledge gaps left by retiring senior officers. Third, R&AW should dedicate more effort to instilling leadership skills in analysts through comprehensive training in project management and management techniques, potentially using contractors for non-classified training aspects. Lastly, leveraging retired officers as instructors can utilise their invaluable institutional knowledge to train recruits effectively.
Addressing the Human Capital Deficit in India's Security Services without Burgeoning Defence Pensions
Lt Gen Prakash Menon and Pranay Kotasthane argue that raising the retirement age for defence personnel could undermine India's military effectiveness. The military is fundamentally combat-focused, where age significantly impacts performance in high-stress environments characterised by danger, fear, and uncertainty. In their September 2019 discussion document, Gen Menon and Pranay examine India's rising defence pension expenditures and propose a solution: the lateral movement of armed forces personnel into the national security system. Their model suggests that this approach could yield savings of approximately ₹12 lakh crores if implemented effectively.
Track 1 of their model, termed Inverse Induction, involves recruiting personnel from Central and State Armed Police Forces (CAPF/SAPF) into the Indian armed forces for seven years (Figure 1). After training, these recruits serve for seven years before returning to their parent organisations. Upon their return, they undergo a three-month reorientation training period and retain their seniority within the CAPF/SAPF, receiving pensions as applicable to their recruiting organisation. This structure aims to maintain the defence preparedness of CAPFs and SAPFs despite the inverse induction process.
The operational model also addresses concerns regarding officers' advancing age by facilitating their lateral movement after seven years. To ensure effective engagement with the public, a three-month retraining period is proposed, enabling retired personnel to adapt to civilian interactions while serving in home security forces.
Figure 1: Illustration of Human Capital Investment Model for National Security System by Gen Menon and Pranay.
India’s aspiration to emerge as a global power is constrained by its governance system's limited state capacity, particularly in managing human resources across critical sectors such as foreign policy, intelligence, and defence. In foreign policy, surge hiring at sub-ambassadorial levels can help bridge the human capital deficit in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). In intelligence reform, India can consider a four-fold strategy to enhance commitment and operational effectiveness in agencies like R&AW. To curb burgeoning defence pensions without compromising combat readiness, India should adopt the Human Capital Investment Model, which enables lateral movement into broader national security roles. These strategies collectively address India’s pressing state capacity challenges in these key domains.
This blog will be updated with more ideas.
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