Positive selection: Why India needs a larger talent pool

Let’s start not with positive but negative selection. Negative selection, as a concept, originates in evolutionary biology, where it describes the process by which deleterious traits are removed from a population to ensure survival. In politics, however, it takes on a darker meaning: the deliberate elevation of incompetent or unqualified individuals to positions of power to secure the leader’s dominance.

This phenomenon is widely prevalent in authoritarian regimes and autocracies, especially the higher you go in the pecking order. But we often forget how it also poses a significant downside risk to large democracies, where the scale of governance and the complexity of institutions amplify its consequences. In a democracy, where leaders are expected to govern through competence and accountability, negative selection undermines trust, erodes institutional integrity, and jeopardises long-term stability.