The practice of lateral entry into GoI is hardly a radical new idea. It has been practised in different forms for more than five decades. Manmohan Singh is, perhaps, the most famous lateral entrant of all, first in bureaucracy, then in politics. There are others, mostly economists - Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Bimal Jalan, Vijay Kelkar, Rakesh Mohan, etc - recruited by UPSC and then absorbed into the system.
