Usually, the empanelment of IAS officers for secretary-level postings take place around June-July. But this year, it seems to have been advanced to the third week of April. And in a rather unusual way, two batches of 1984 and 85 are said to have been combined for consideration of empanelment. But why are the two batches being taken together? There are several theories floating in the power corridors. One view is that since average residual service of 1984 batch is too low, the Govt may have a very small sample size to select competent officers for secretary rank posts. However, this does not sound logical as out of 55 officers from 1984 batch in wings for empanelment, only 03 will retire this year followed by 11 retirements in 2018 and more than 39 officers will retire between 2019 & 2022. Secondly, though not convincing at all, some believe that since Establishment Officer Rajeev Kumar belongs to the 1984 batch, it might have prompted the preponement of empanelment. The fact is that in the NaMo administration none has the authority to prepone or delay such a crucial matter. The third view which has also been doing the rounds is that since former Principal Secretary to NaMo G C Murmu belongs to the 1985 batch and has service till November 2019, it might have had prompted the idea of empanelment of the two batches together. This too does not stand the test of scrutiny as it does not tally with NaMo's style. It may be mentioned here that the 1985 batch is bigger than 1984 and approx 66 officers are waiting in the wings to find a place on the empanelment list. The fourth and the last view, that looks more reasonable is that PM Modi probably wants to have Secretaries with longer tenure (around 4-5 years) so that the administration acquires a higher degree of consistency and focus. In addition, the empanelment of two batches together will provide much bigger sample and size of officers with competence, wide and varied set of experience. The new secretaries would be the gainers as the move planned would increase their service tenure to 4-5 years from a short 1.6-2 years.