Public sector jobs challenging & fulfilling: Rakesh Mohan  

January 12, 2010

Rakesh Mohan, one of India's former senior-most economic policy makers, says that the public sector offers a challenging and fulfilling career and the country's young professionals must mull over joining such services rather than being solely focused on lucrative jobs in non-government fields, reports PTI.

Back after a six-month stint at the Stanford University, the former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that there was a need to inculcate a sense of social responsibility in educational courses and easing of recruitment procedures in the public sector.

"I have spent my life mostly in the public sector. And it's been a fulfilling life. I couldn't hope for anything better,” he told PTI in Bengaluru.

Mr Mohan quit RBI in a surprise move in May last year, a full year before his tenure was supposed to come to an end. At RBI, he looked after monetary policy, financial markets, economic research and statistics, among other fields.

"I had a very, very fruitful six months in Stanford and I had gone there with the objective of putting together my second book on monetary policy and financial policy. I have succeeded in doing the first draft. Hopefully, it will get published,” he said.

The book focuses on India's monetary policy and its approach to financial policy, with some chapters also dealing with the global crisis.

Mr Mohan is currently trying to set up the Indian Institute of Human Settlements which last week announced plans to establish India's first university, exclusively devoted to urbanisation and settlement issues, along with eminent personalities such as Nandan M Nilekani, Shirish Patel, Keshub Mahindra, Deepak Parekh and Jamshyd Godrej.

He said that there was too much focus in the media on lucrative private sector jobs. "Most of the private sector is not like that (high-paying). There is much greater insecurity from jobs in the private sector,” said Mr Mohan, who has also worked as secretary in the finance ministry's Department of Economic Affairs.

"No one seems to be interested in what's happening to the country. I would hope that the education that we impart in the Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS) would provide a sense of social responsibility and professionalism.”

He expressed the view that at present, it's not easy to enter the public sector—whether it's urban development or infrastructure or any other segment. With the new pay commission report implementation, wages in the public sector are quite reasonable. The public sector offers challenging and different issues to deal with.

"I would assume students will trade off the relative virtues and vices of the public sector and private sector (before deciding on their career),” said Mr Mohan, a masters’ degree holder and a doctorate in economics from Princeton University. He also noted that professionally-run NGOs were on the rise.

— Moneylife Digital Team