THE MAN WHO RULES INDIA- IAS

Defending the indefensible is an uphill task.

Defending the indefensible when popular public perception views it as being indefensible is even harder to do. Philip Mason wrote his class many years ago by the name The Men Who Ruled India about the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and how it shaped India's destiny. Since then, much water has flowed under the proverbial bridge, and as an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who has travelled, interacted and negotiated with civil services around the world, I can say with a lot of pride that IAS is, even today, despite a number of fundamental flaws, world class in several respects.

Sadly, India has one of the finest higher civil services in the world, sitting on top of one of the worst lower civil services, which accounts for many, but not all, of its flaws.

Let's start with the system of recruitment:

About 500,000 candidates write a year-long, multi-stage examination, competing for just 80 seats--half of which are reserved--in IAS, and is considered by many to be one of the most rigorous contests in the world. That's a success percentage of 0.02% versus about 250,000 candidates appearing for about 6,000 Indian Institutes of Technology seats each year, with a success rate of 2.96%. No other examination in the world has odds the national civil services examination of India has.

Yet, while the latter are, justifiably, celebrated, the former, often regarded as the "best among the brightest", are today the object of scorn and disgust, blamed for the various ills that plague the country. Still, quite a few officers from IAS are wooed at astronomical salaries by the private sector for their talent, relationships, education, and rich and diverse ground-level experience, which should give some idea of their market value.

People are quick to criticize IAS, but they forget that corporate titans such as the redoubtable Russi Mody, Yogi Deveshwar and many others failed even in autonomous entities such as Air India. Many have fallen prey to the political class, handling whom and keeping them away from the spoils of office is in itself often a full-time vocation for the honest IAS officer.

The classic Westminster model, on which IAS is based, expected that while politicians would debate and legislate policy, civil servants would implement policy.
This has over the years been turned on its head, for politicians have found it "profitable" to get into every aspect of execution, while the civil service is left to write policy. With the advent of criminals in politics and the huge role that money plays in elections, bureaucrats prefer masterly inaction to any form of risk-taking.

Reforms in IAS are needed urgently.

First, IAS must not necessarily be a lifetime appointment. The initial appointment should be for a period of, say, 15 years, after which every officer's performance should be evaluated by a constitutional authority such as the Union Public Service Commission, based on a 360-degree kind of appraisal which is considered superior to traditional forms of assessment. Then, they should be hired on five-seven-year contracts with specific performance targets through a competitive process.

The terms of the contract should incentivize performance with accountability to results, not just to process.

There is no gainsaying the fact that the contribution of IAS officers is often extraordinary but overlooked. We often forget that M. Damodaran, who turned the former Unit Trust of India around, and Y.V. Reddy and D. Subbarao, responsible for steering India's central bank under trying global economic circumstances, are all from IAS. Rentala Chandrasekhar led India's e-government revolution. T.V.
Somanathan designed a world-class blueprint for the Chennai Metro, with minimal fiscal burden on the government.

S.R. Rao cleaned up Surat in circumstances where no private sector chief executive would go for any amount of money or incentive. Countless faceless IAS officers work selflessly every day in circumstances which many of us won't work in.

Except the civil services of Japan, China, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, there is not much to write home about most of them. In these countries, civil servants are invariably masters of their subject matter, courteous and efficient. But then, they don't report to the kind of political masters IAS does, they don't deal with the numbers and complexity that India offers.

India cannot have a 21st century economy run by a 19th century civil service using Jurassic era rule books and laws.

Unless IAS is reformed where necessary and celebrated where due, good governance will remain just good rhetoric.

(Srivatsa Krishna is a Harvard MBA and an Indian Administrative Service officer. He writes weekly on business, government, infrastructure and entrepreneurship. The views expressed here are his own.)

PM TALKS WITH IAS PROBATIONERS 2008 BATCH

Text of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s address to the IAS Probationers 2008batch in New Delhi 4TH aPRIL 2009:

“I am very happy to interact with you in this golden jubilee year of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy and what your Director has told me of the composition of this Batch of the IAS Probationers fills my heart with joy. That you have the largest number of women as part of this team, that a very large number of probationers have professional background. I think this augurs well for the future of our country. You are a very privileged Service. And when I look at the history of India, I marvel at the wisdom of great men and women who wrote the Constitution of India. They recognised that India would need an All India Service to keep India as one large common market, as a Union which would have in it mortal unity in diversity.

We are of course, a parliamentary democracy and peoples’ representatives are the ultimate masters of policy planning, policy making and policy implementation. But we all know the various trends and tendencies in our political life. Today, our national polity faces a great threat of fragmentation. And in this background, there is more than ever before a need for a Service like the Indian Administrative Service with an All India perspective, committed to goals and ideals enshrined in the Constitution of India in the chapters on Fundamental Human Rights, in the chapter on Directive Principles of State policy and a Service which serves of course in States. And India of course lives in States. But we are a Union of States and we must never forget this all India perspective. When you go to various States, you are incharge of various departments, you look after the interests of your departments, the interests of your States but you must never lose sight of the wider perspective that there is a wider perspective of strengthening the unity and integrity of our country which must be the paramount concern of all Services in our country and foremost of a Service like the Indian Administrative Service.

During the British times, revenue collection, maintenance of law and order were the primary concerns of the administrators. But since then, our Constitution makers and our people have entrusted more and more functions to the Government and development and inclusive development which takes into account the interest of all segments of our population, an inclusive development which pays particular attention to the interests and well being of the most under privileged sections of society, the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Minorities and women and children and therefore it is your bounden duty as the servants of the people of India to pay particular attention to these concerns of development.

Development with a human touch, development which pays attention to the well being of all sections of society, a development process which is forward looking, which looks to the future of India with hope, with confidence and yet it is mindful of the pitfalls that might derail this process. And in all these, it is very important that you must pay particular attention to equipping yourself with latest trends in thinking about development, about environment and all other aspects which have a bearing on the processes of governance. Today, the world is changing at a pace which was unthinkable even a decade ago. Science and Technology have become the principle determiners of the wealth and well being of people all over the world. Human knowledge is therefore exploding and it is therefore very important that our Civil Servants should keep abreast of the latest trends in the development of human knowledge, knowledge which as I said is growing at a speed which was unthinkable even a decade ago. In all these, it is essential that our civil servants should be mindful of the concerns about what makes for balanced, equitable development. India is a country where 65% of people still live in rural areas. Therefore the development of agriculture, the development of rural areas, the well beings of all those who are connected with rural activities, is of paramount importance. We have decentralised the governance processes, we have now in most States , a three tier system of governance. You have the Central Government, you have the State Government, you have the Panchayati Raj institutions. It is therefore incumbent on the civil servants to work with all the three tiers of public administration with dedication. You would be working in the first few years of your life at the district level. Therefore you will come in contact with peoples’ representatives who are represented in various Panchayati Raj institutions. You must learn to win their affection and respect. You must guide them. You must at the same time, warn them of the pitfalls that have to be avoided. And district collectors have enormous responsibilities in our system. Apart from the maintenance of law and order, sustained development through district level development agencies, district planning is an equally important part of the work of district collector. And therefore what goes in the name of economic and social planning must engage your attention all the time. And as I said, planning has to take into account of the fast changing circumstances. There is the concern about environment, that development has to be environment friendly, there are concerns arising out of the challenges that we have to face when disaster overtakes us, therefore, issues concerning management of disaster have to figure as importantly in your programme, in your training, in your understanding of development processes as processes of development.

As I said, since agriculture and rural development account for nearly 70% of our people, rural development and agricultural development and all the various elements which go to make for balanced rural and agricultural development must play a prominent role in your training, in your thinking, in your education and that is the one thing which I would impress upon you that you must never forget that you are privileged to be the servant of the people of India. Also I would urge you to take account of the challenges that we face as a nation. There are today forces which seek to destabilise our economy and our polity. There are threats of terrorism. There are threats of naxalism. We must understand the ferocity of these disturbing, disruptive elements and we must devise ways and means how we can equip our economy, polity to meet the challenges of terrorism, to meet the challenges of naxalism and simultaneously we must also recognise that communalism and religious hatred can be a very disruptive element and therefore, as public servants we must be alive to the dangers of communalism, of casteism, of regionalism. We work in States, we work in regions, the development of various States and regions is no doubt the primary responsibility of civil servants working there but you must never forget the wider entity called the Union of India. You are Secretaries to various departments, but you are first Secretaries to the Government and the Government you must view as a collective, cohesive entity. And therefore I would urge you that your thought processes preserving the unity and integrity of India must have the top most priorities along with the challenges of development.

Governance is a buzz word today. There are many areas where governance is not keeping in contact with the requirements of the situation. There is growing concern about corruption in public life. There is growing concern that civil servants are not mindful of their duties. I would therefore urge that you must be mindful of the fact that the people of India have entrusted you these responsibilities and it is your solemn obligation to serve the people with the greatest dedication. Furthermore, I would urge you to be mindful of the developments that are taking place around our neighbourhood. We are today faced with a neighbourhood which is far from peaceful. You all know about the developments in Pakistan. You all know about the developments in Nepal, you all know about the recent developments in Bangladesh, you all know about the recent developments in Sri Lanka. They all impinge on our development. South Asia is in turmoil. And therefore in planning for our own development, we have to be mindful of the environment within which we have to operate. So you have enormous opportunities but also enormous challenges and I have every reason to believe that the training that you have received at the Academy will equip you to discharge your functions with great credit to yourself, to the Academy, to your parents and to your country at large.

I have great pleasure in welcoming you to the Prime Minister’s House and I wish you all Godspeed in your career.”

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