Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s India Development Service prescription including repeated calls for improvement of the quality of governance and his latest proposal for upgrading the knowledge and skills of India’s steel frame- the Indian Administrative Service (IAS)- is a major milestone in hitherto failed efforts to transform the bureaucracy into an effective agency for development. Earlier attempts by several Administrative Reforms Commissions and the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s appeal for streamlining procedures failed to make any significant impact. Now it has become painfully apparent that drastic reforms in governmental systems and attitudes are the prerequisite of resolving the complex problems of India’s economic development which have defied 57 years of Central planning and economic liberalisation and deregulation since 1991.

Essentially post-independence India has been stuck with a public administration system designed by the British 100 years ago for conventional functions of governance, which is not at all suitable for evolving and implementing modern social upliftment policies and development programmes.

As individuals, most IAS officers are brilliant. They perform well in jobs outside the government, and even in public sector companies. But in the matter of development management, they retard progress because of their lofty attitudes and style of functioning, their mistrust of people, hostility to entrepreneurs and lack of transparency, their public administration bred decision making through the archaic file noting system which can easily hide illegitimacy and ignore merit, their subservience to politicians and contempt for project implementation deadlines. The Indian bureaucracy’s penchant for wooden application of obsolete rules, regulations, procedures and precedents has sapped the native entrepreneurial drive of the people and drained the life out of the economy. Every case file begins its long, winding and wandering journey from the desk officer, the most subordinate and ill-informed official, through a chain of section officer, under secretary and so on, until it reaches the secretary. Every noting, based on ignorance or prejudice can be interpreted in any manner to suit vested interests. The bottom line is that India’s public administration system is inanimate, impersonal, with no accountability.

Independent India opted for a socialistic pattern of society which meant government domination, ownership and management of the economy, with disastrous results. Today India’s once highly rated IAS officers are like Gullivers, chained hand and foot by procedural niceties and the necessity of observing abundant caution, while entrepreneurial and development economics demand dynamism, risk-taking and quick decision-making.

Therefore, quite clearly the administrative system requires a dramatic change towards managerialism. On their own, the small minority of committed IAS officers are unable to re-orient the public administrative system. Reports of consultants recommending structural and procedural reforms to dynamise the system and make it challenging and innovative to manage the country’s development functions, have remained on the shelves for decades. Though heaven born, members of the IAS cadre need management education and skills as well as positive attitudes in the service of the nation. From perfunctory careerism, they have to transit to professionalism and service.

Against this backdrop, it makes good sense to draw a distinction between conventional public administration and development management functions. I propose the creation of a new India Development Service (IDS) into which IAS and other government officers who display managerial competence and project management skills may be seconded after a few years of government service. In particular economic and social welfare (education, health, drinking water mission, rural employment etc) ministries should be manned by IDS cadre professionals who should be given long tenures for acquiring the know-how and special knowledge in a particular sector as officers in the IFS, IRS, IAAS cadres do.

IDS officers should be trained in management concepts and specialisation functions to be preferably given by IIMs and IITs. Currently India’s 950 management institutes cater solely to the needs of business and industry which employ only 6 million workers. On the other hand, 22 million people are employed in government, manning the economic ministries, infrastructure, railways, transport, ports, irrigation, power, communication, water supply, municipal services etc. These vital infrastructure services are government and poorly managed. Government’s need for well-trained managers is much greater than of the private sector and corporates.

The academic infrastructure for creating a development oriented India Development Service is readily available. The IAS and Union Public Services Commission recruitment system and procedures can be utilised to recruit IDS trainees who could attend foundation lectures at the IAS training academy in Mussorie followed by a stint in one of the IIMs and specialist institutions across the country.

Drastic situations require drastic solutions. Following the liberalisation and deregulation of the Indian economy in 1991, peoples’ expectations of political parties, academia and industry and the Central and state governments have risen exponentially. In particular in the new ICT (information communication technology) age, the failure of government to deliver results and accountability is being exposed as never before. The creation within government of a special India Development Service is the best possible insurance against the people’s revolution of rising expectations turning violent.

(Prof. N.S. Ramaswamy is the founder-director of NITIE, JBIMS, Mumbai and IIM, Bangalore)

Also read: The power and prestige of the IAS