Trifurcate The IAS To Reform It

Context: Bureaucracy generally, and the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) particularly, is crucial, but in its current avatar, it has lost its purpose and is in need of deep reform.

Issues with the Indian Bureaucracy:

• Generalist approach: The “learn on the job” thing is no longer useful. There is simply far too much to learn.
• Sabotaged Public Sector Units: In 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru had started a service called the Industrial Management Pool, which was sabotaged by the ICS/IAS, wanted key posts reserved for themselves).
• Quality issues: the better officers desert their cadres, leaving the states seriously short of competence and energetic officers.

Reformative Suggestions for Indian Administrative Services (IAS)

• Trifurcate IAS: to ensure domain specialization and do away with the inefficiencies of current generalist and learn on the job approach.
  • Larger vertical (V1): it should run districts which only IAS and Indian Police Services (IPS) were originally and legally empowered to do.
    • Officers on passing aptitude exam to join V2 and V3 (after ten years of service) should be posted either to state capitals or in a central ministry and remain there for the next 25 years, undergoing periodic re-training in their chosen domain.
    • After 25 years, they will once again be placed in a general pool to compete for higher posts while the rest will carry on as before in executive functions.
  • Second, smaller or sectoral vertical (V2): it should be a specialist one with officers opting and staying in it in the 10th year of service.
  • Third smallest or policy vertical (V3): it will consist of officers from parent service (who have completed ten years in their cadres).
• Stop the rotation principle currently in force and enforce specialization at the state level.
• Retain quality: recruit, gauge aptitude, segregate, train energetic officers
  • Amend 311: to include incompetence as a condition for their removal (currently limited to Madness, depravity, and alcoholism)