Indian Administrative Service
| Service Overview |
| Abbreviation An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
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I.A.S. |
| Formed The date of establishment or date of founding of an institution is the date on which that institution chooses to claim as its starting point...
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1946 |
CountryA country is a region legally identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with a previously...
|
 India |
| Training Ground |
Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration The Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration is a research and training institute on public policy and public administration in India...
, MussoorieMussoorie is a city and a municipal board in the Dehradun District of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is located about 35 km from the state capital of Dehradun and 290 km north from the national capital of New Delhi...
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| Controlling Authority |
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions is the Union Govt. ministry for personnel matters including the recruitment, career development, training, staff welfare and post employment dispensation. The ministry is under the overall charge of Prime Minister of India , who is assisted...
, Department of Personnel and Training |
| Legal personality |
Governmental: Government service |
| General nature |
Policy Formulation
Policy Implementation
Civil administration
Advisors to Ministers
Managing bureaucracy (Center and State) |
| Preceding service |
Indian Civil Service (1893–1946) |
| Cadre Size |
5159 posts (direct recruitment - 66.67%, promotion 33.33%) (2009) |
| Head of the Civil Services |
|
Cabinet Secretary The head of executive officers of civil services of India is the Cabinet Secretary. The Cabinet Secretary is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister...
Current: A.K. Seth |
The
Indian Administrative Service (
IAS) is the
administrativePublic Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....
civil serviceThe term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
of the
Government of IndiaThe Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
. It is one of the three
All India ServicesThe All India Services are the three all India civil services of India namely the Indian Administrative Service , the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service ....
.
The officers of the IAS play a major role in managing the
bureaucracyA bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
of both the
Union GovernmentThe Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
and the
StateIndia is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...
governments, with its members holding strategic posts across the country.
Independence of the Civil Service
The
Constituent Assembly of IndiaThe Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitution of India, and following independence served as the nation's first Parliament.-Nature of the Assembly:...
intended that the bureaucracy should be able to speak out freely, without fear of persecution or financial insecurity as an essential element in unifying the nation. The IAS officers are recruited by the Union government on the recommendation of the
Union Public Service CommissionThe Union Public Service Commission is the central agency authorized to conduct the Civil Services Examination for entry-level appointments to the various Civil Services of India. The agency's charter is granted by the Constitution of India...
(UPSC) and posted under various State governments. While the respective State Governments have control over them they can not censure or take disciplinary action against IAS and other All India Services officers without consulting the Union Government(Central) and the UPSC.
The examination is conducted by the
Union Public Service CommissionThe Union Public Service Commission is the central agency authorized to conduct the Civil Services Examination for entry-level appointments to the various Civil Services of India. The agency's charter is granted by the Constitution of India...
. It has three stages: a preliminary exam, a main exam, and an interview, and is known for being extremely challenging. Recently the preliminary exam pattern has changed. There used to be 23 optional subjects along with a general studies paper. Now there will be no optional subjects in the preliminary examination. Instead there will be a second paper which will be common for all candidates. It covers aptitude, general mathematics, comprehensive English,social studies etc.
Entry into the IAS is considered very difficult. Almost all of the applicants rank IAS as their top choice because of the high prestige and diversity of career it offers. For example, in the 2005 batch, of the 425 selected candidates, 398 indicated IAS as their first preference, 29 chose IRS, and just nine chose IPS. But when it came to second preference, 200 candidates marked IPS as their choice, while only 199 marked IRS as their second choice.
Repeated attempts are allowed up to four times for General Merit candidates, seven times for
OBCOBC is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, including:*OBC , the DJ/Rapper duo consisting of NowWeJankin and Tweed Blazer*OBC secret society, a secret society at the University of North Carolina at Asheville...
candidates. There is no bar on the number of attempts for SC/ST candidates. The upper age limit to attempt the examination is 35 for SC/ST and 30 years for the General Merit Candidate. The candidate should not be older than 30 years of age as on 1 August of that year. The minimum age is 21 years.
About 850 candidates are finally selected each year out of the nearly 300,000, but only a rank i.e. top 50 guarantees an IAS selection — an acceptance rate of 0.01 percent, which makes it one of the most competitive selection processes in the world.
Recruitment into IAS
The direct recruitment of a candidate into IAS is by Civil Service Exam conducted by Union Public Service Commission. However, also the recruitment into IAS is done by appointment by selection through powers conferred by section 3 of the All India Services Act of 1951 (61 of 1951) and in pursuance of sub-rule (2) of rule 8 of the Indian Administrative Service (Recruitment) Rules of 1954 and in supersession of the Indian Administrative Service (Appointment by Selection) Regulations of 1956.
Allocation and placement
After being selected for the IAS, candidates are allocated to "cadres." There is one cadre in each Indian state, except for three joint cadres:
AssamAssam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
–
MeghalayaMeghalaya is a state in north-eastern India. The word "Meghalaya" literally means the Abode of Clouds in Sanskrit and other Indic languages. Meghalaya is a hilly strip in the eastern part of the country about 300 km long and 100 km wide, with a total area of about 8,700 sq mi . The...
,
ManipurManipur is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Manipur is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west; it also borders Burma to the east. It covers an area of...
–
TripuraTripura is a state in North-East India, with an area of . It is the third smallest state of India, according to area. Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to the east. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken are...
, and
Arunachal PradeshArunachal Pradesh is a state of India, located in the far northeast. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south, and shares international borders with Burma in the east, Bhutan in the west, and the People's Republic of China in the north. The majority of the territory is claimed by...
–
GoaGoa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
–
MizoramMizoram is one of the Seven Sister States in North Eastern India, sharing borders with the states of Tripura, Assam, Manipur and with the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Burma. Mizoram became the 23rd state of India on 20 February 1987. Its capital is Aizawl. Mizoram is located in the...
–
Union TerritoriesA Union Territory is a sub-national administrative division of India, in the federal framework of governance. Unlike the states of India, which have their own elected governments, union territories are ruled directly by the federal government; the President of India appoints an Administrator or...
(AGMUT).
The "insider-outsider ratio" (ratio of officers who are posted in their home states) is maintained as 1:2.
as 'insiders'. The rest are posted outsiders' according to the 'roster' in states other than their home states. Till 2008 there was no choice for any state cadre and the candidates, if not placed in the insider vacancy of their home states, were allotted to different states in alphabetic order of the roster, beginning with the letters A,H,M,T for that particular year. For example if in a particular year the roster begins from 'A', which means the first candidate in the roster will go to the Andhra Pradesh state cadre of IAS, the next one to Bihar, and subsequently to Chattisgarh, Gujarat and so on in alphabetical order. The next year the roster starts from 'H', for either Haryana or Himachal Pradesh.( if it has started from Haryana in the previous occasion when it all started from 'H', then this time it would start from Himachal Pradesh). This highly intricate system has on one hand ensured that officers from different states are placed all over India, it has also resulted in wide disparities in the kind of professional exposure for officers, when we compare officers in small and big and also developed and backward state, since the system ensures that the officers are permanently placed to one state cadre. The only way the allotted state cadre can be changed is by marriage to an officer of another state cadre of IAS/IPS/IFS. One can even go to his home state cadre on deputation for a limited period, after which one has to invariably return to the cadre allotted to him or her.
The centralizing effect of these measures was considered extremely important by the system's framers, but has received increasing criticism over the years. In his keynote address at the 50th anniversary of the Service in Mussoorie, former Cabinet Secretary Nirmal Mukarji argued that separate central, state and local bureaucracies should eventually replace the IAS as an aid to efficiency. There are also concerns that without such reform, the IAS will be unable to "move from a command and control strategy to a more interactive, interdependent system".
Functions of the civil servant
A civil servant is responsible for the law and order and general administration in the area under his work. Typically the functions of an IAS officer are as follows :
- To handle the daily affairs of the government, including framing and implementation of policy in consultation with the minister-in-charge of the concerned ministry.
- Implementation of policy requires supervision.
- Implementation requires traveling to places where the policies are being implemented.
- Implementation also includes expenditure of public funds which again requires personal supervision as the officers are answerable to the Parliament and State Legislature for any irregularities that may occur.
- In the process of policy formulation and decision making, officers at various levels like joint secretary, deputy secretary make their contributions and the final shape to the policy is given or a final decision is taken with the concurrence of the minister concerned or the cabinet depending upon the gravity the issue.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is remembered as the "Patron Saint" of India's civil servants for establishing modern all-India services. In an unprecedented and unrepeated gesture, on the day after his death more than 1,500 officers of India's civil and police services congregated to mourn at Patel's residence in Delhi and pledged
"complete loyalty and unremitting zeal" in India's service.
Designations
Most IAS officers start their careers in the state administration at the sub-divisional level as a sub divisional magistrate. They are entrusted with the law and order situation of the city along with general administration and development work of the areas under their charge. The post of District Officer is also known as District Magistrate,
District CollectorThe District Collector is the district head of administration of the bureaucracy in a state of India. Though he/she is appointed and is under general supervision of the state government, he/she has to be a member of the elite IAS recruited by the Central Government...
or Deputy Commissioner. Since it is the most identifiable position in the IAS services, it is also the post which most people identify with IAS. At the top of the hierarchy of IAS officers at the Centre is the
Cabinet SecretaryA Cabinet Secretary is almost always a senior official who provides services and advice to a Cabinet of Ministers. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powers, including general responsibility for the entire civil service...
followed by Secretary/Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary, Director, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary. These posts are filled according to seniority.
The details on the amount of salaries can be found in the recommendations and associated documents of the Sixth Pay Commission report.
Challenges
Transparency InternationalTransparency International is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development. It publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide...
, a global watchdog body, ranked India at a low 73 out of the 102 countries in its Corruption Perception Index, later in the 2008 survey, it ranked 85th in a 128 country list. The
World Economic ForumThe World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
on the other hand, ranked India 44 among 49 countries surveyed. A 2009 survey of the leading economies of Asia, revealed Indian bureaucracy to be not just least efficient out of Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Indonesia; further it was also found that working with the India's civil servants was a "slow and painful" process. This ranking, done by 1,274 expatriates working in 12 North and South Asian nations, ranked Asian bureaucracies in the following order:
Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Indonesia and
India.
Read more in
: The Times of India Survey - Indian bureaucracy ranked worst in Asia
By the 1990s, the
economic liberalization of the Indian economyThe economic liberalization in India refers to ongoing economic reforms in India that started on 24 July 1991. After Independence in 1947, India adhered to socialist policies. In the 1980s, Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao initiated some reforms...
and the end of the license raj, gradually opened up the economic skies and the end to the regulatory regime which flourished during previous era, loosened its hold over the resources. Though this brought to surface the practices of
kickbackBribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
s, both during disinvestment and offering government contracts, and while setting up of industries by foreign businesses were soon employing same corrupt practices used by Indian businesses for decades.
Over the years, several reasons have been cited by various scholars regarding the sustained existence of corrupt practices within the Indian bureaucratic system, also known as
babudom colloquially, leading among them is its nexus with
political corruptionPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
, lack of accountability and low regulatory controls. Others have suggested a rigid bureaucracy with a exclusivist process of decision making in a overly-centralized government as the reason its pervasiveness despite the passing years. In fact surveys have found it to be most resistant to transformation in its ways of functioning, even after repeated efforts by successive governments. Some experts believe that a fall out of the existing corruption and red tapism can be detrimental to the Indian economy in the long run, as foreign investors in a rapidly global, economies of the world still view entering into India as a challenge and plagued as it remains both with political and bureaucratic corruption as well systematic inefficiency which leads to long turn around period as project delays cause cost escalations in volatile market economies. Also in the recent years, several corrupt economies of Asia have faced setbacks, after the wave of economic upturn faded, this makes the urgency of corrective measures more than evident, they make it an imperative.
Further reading
- Indian bureaucracy at the crossroads, by Syamal Kumar Ray. Published by Sterling, 1979.
- Corruption in Indian politics and bureaucracy, by Satyavan Bhatnagar, S. K. Sharma, Panjab University. Published by Ess Ess Publications, 1991. ISBN 8170001234.
- Breaking Free of Nehru (particularly chapter 5), by Sanjeev Sabhlok, Published by Anthem Press, 2008.
External links