The government has selected a panel of 20 professionals to assist the GOI departments / ministries achieve their annual targets, a report in the Mint says. As reported the choice of panelists has been left to the ministries and the panelists are to be paid Rs 10000 a day as retainership.

The government has already established a performance management division within the cabinet secretariat headed by a professional (Dr. Prajapati Trivedi )  handpicked by the prime minister himself. The various ministries and departments are preparing their Result Framework Documents (RFD) which is to be submitted to this division and the performance of the ministries will be monitored based on these documents only. First, the ministries are themselves setting their targets and secondly they have huge manpower ranging from senior bureaucrats to employees under central secretariat scheme (CSS).  In such circumstances are the outside professionals needed?

Then there are specialist organizations like the planning commission, national advisory council, economic advisory council of the Prime Minister to further assist the ministries in their planning and targets.  There are also multiple committees / council  like PM's Council on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), PM's Council on Trade and Industry, PM's Council on Climate Change, PM's National Council on Skill Development and more bodies assisting  the Prime Minister.

Many ministries / departments have also appointed private consulting organizations for inputs on specific programmes.  There are also multiple government funded academic institutions like IIPA, IIMs, NISG, CGG, MDI within the central government preview whose experts had been advising various private organization .

With such experts and career bureaucrats already with the government, do we need more professionals to advise the government?  Are external consultants needed to help central ministries achieve annual targets?