Only 10% mid-level IAS officers were posted with the Union government in 2021, a sharp fall from 19% in 2014. The decrease in central deputation of IAS officers becomes even more stark as the total pool of such officers at this level expanded from 621 in 2014 to 1130 in 2021, an increase of around 80%.
According to data available with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the number of central deputation reserve of IAS officers has gone down from 309 in 2011 to 223.