TCS executive Ramanathan Ramanan to head Atal Mission under NITI Aayog

NEW DELHI: The government has appointed a senior executive of Tata Consultancy Services to head Atal Innovation Mission, its initiative to promote entrepreneurship in the country, in perhaps the first initiative to bring in best of private minds to drive innovation in governance.

Ramanathan Ramanan, senior vice president at TCS, has been appointed as mission director of Atal Innovation Mission, under the government’s premier think tank NITI Aayog, in the rank of additional secretary on secondment basis from the IT bellwether for two years initially, said a recent government notification accessed by ET.

Secondment refers to a situation where while being in employment in one organisation a person is sent to work in another organisation.

According to the notification, Ramanan’s appointment will be “without pay and allowances but with the provision of entitlement for government accommodation at New Delhi and all other official expenses including travel, etc. as admissible to an additional secretary rank officer in the government of India”.

Explaining the rationale behind such a unique kind of appointment to the government, a senior government official said that probably government salaries cannot match the salaries in the private sector, as a result of which top executives are reluctant to join the government. “This deprives the country of some of the best people when it comes to policy making for the nation.


Hence, an appointment of a private guy on secondment basis into the government,” the official said. Ever since its inception in 2015, NITI Aayog has been trying to get talent from the private sector, but appointments so far were confined only to the junior and middle levels and most people had joined the Aayog as officers on special duty or as young professionals.

Recently Aayog has also opened up lateral hiring even at high posts equivalent to that of secretary to ensure that the best, brightest and most talented people work for it. Under its revised recruitment rules, outside experts would be allowed to apply for all jobs along with career bureaucrats, and the selection will be on the basis of merit and performance.