The men who rule India: towards reforms in IAS

Dear Friends,

Here is one more article on Personnel Administration and administrative reforms. Can be linked to these both topics in upsc syllabus. Highlighted points can be part your notes

Regards
GMStudyCenter

(Source http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/12001341/The-men-who-rule-India-toward.html?h=B)

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. Second, there are innumerable examples of deviants in the civil service. There have been recent examples of officers indulging in sexual harassment, shoplifting, copying in examinations and large-scale corruption. The government must not let them off or allow them to take voluntary retirement to escape punishment. It must try them in special courts and demonstrate certainty of punishment, no matter how powerful the officer is. Without demonstrable and quick punishment, there is no way to check deviant behaviour in IAS.

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, nor are they as poorly paid.

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.

Personnel Administration Stuff

Dear All ,

Here below is an article from business standard related to personnel administration. The article talks about some terminologies teeth - tail ratio which is nothing but decision makers and decision implimenters which has to be part of our answer writing to make the difference in our answer.
Regards
GMStudyCenter

 Fat In the wrong Place


The generally accepted view is that the government runs a bloated bureaucracy. Its current employee strength is 3.32 million. But over 80 per cent of this number is accounted for by specific service departments: posts, central police forces and the railways. Logically, these should not be counted as part of a “bureaucracy”, which as a consequence stands reduced to a relatively modest 600,000. Since the overwhelming majority of even that consists of clerical and support staff, the operational part of the government is quite simply too small. In almost any direction one looks, there is a shortage of the required people. India has too few judges, one of the smallest foreign offices in the world, overworked officials dealing with trade negotiations in the commerce department, and desperate under-staffing at regulatory bodies in charge of areas like pollution control and drug safety. If service delivery is to improve in important social sectors like healthcare, water supply, education and irrigation (many of which involve state governments as well), governments need to hire more people. Governance standards too will improve if India’s jails are not over-crowded, its police forces not so stretched, and its district administration staffed adequately to deal with multiple responsibilities. Be it teachers, health workers or policemen, the level of employment in each of these areas is inadequate by any contemporary yardstick, and certainly well short of international norms. Matters are made worse by the fact that, in almost every branch of government, there is a large number of vacancies—in the courts, in the defence services, among policemen, in the game parks, in the forest department, and elsewhere.

An associated problem is the misallocation of resources, limited as they are. There is no reason why the commerce department should have a strength of 7,000, or the ministry of civil aviation as many as 1,100 people on its rolls. Commerce has actually seen an increase in its staff strength by over 30 per cent since the reforms began, yet other countries are able to mount much bigger negotiating teams to handle the intricacies of talks at the World Trade Organisation, while India fields a handful of officials. The department of civil aviation has seen its size shrink somewhat, but it is nowhere near fulfilling a former civil aviation minister’s promise that his primary task was to preside over the liquidation of his ministry!

The unfavourable teeth-to-tail ratio (between decision-makers and clerical/support staff) is made worse by a remuneration policy that rewards junior employees more than what the market is willing to pay, while the compensation package for senior employees is far too low to attract people of the required quality—as testified to by the steady drop in the calibre of those joining the all-India administrative services. Lateral induction too is made virtually impossible by the vast gap between government and private sector salaries. While many administrative reforms are required in the country, an essential component has to be a re-invention of the government itself.

Personnel Administration - Generalist Vs Specialist

Hi All ,

This Article gives couple points in favour of bringing outside people who have

not worked in govt environment to top posts. In a way not promoting those who are seniors in the system but bringing in fresh blood in the system.I have highlighted the important stuff which you can make a note of these things

Rgds

GMStudyCenter

If Kaushik Basu of Cornell University is chosen as the next chief economic advisor in the finance ministry, and Subir Gokarn of Standard and Poor’s as deputy governor in the Reserve Bank of India, the government would have made a significant departure from the convention of filling such top-level positions with economists who have prior experience of working within the government system. The last time the government chose a chief economic advisor from outside its band of economists was four decades ago, when Ashok Mitra was appointed to the job. Since then, all chief economic advisors have had prior experience within the government system in different departments, ministries and organisations. In the case of the Reserve Bank, there are more recent precedents for inducting economists from outside the government system, one example being C Rangarajan who was brought in from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad.

The lack of prior government experience need not be a handicap. It may even be an asset, because it might bring in new thinking. Economists like Ashok Desai, Parthasarathi Shome and Subhashis Gangopadhyay have been lateral entrants in the finance ministry at different points over the last couple of decades, and they did make a difference. They may have found the going tough (as Nandan Nilekani, who has just taken charge of the Unique Identity Authority of India with similar lack of government experience, might testify), for the system does not easily adapt to “outsiders”. But there is no doubt that such lateral entrants bring a whiff of fresh air into a hide-bound system.

The other way to look at this is that the government system is no longer throwing up competent economists who can fill posts like that of chief economic advisor. There was a time when all the key economic ministries could boast of well-known economists on their staff. In the 1990s, Shankar Acharya in finance, Vijay Kelkar in petroleum, Rakesh Mohan in the industry ministry and Jayanto Roy in commerce, would in their different ways contribute to a formidable line-up of economists who could function as the government’s economic think tank. Today, following the superannuation of Arvind Virmani as chief economic advisor and the departure of Rakesh Mohan as deputy governor, the cupboard is pretty bare.

It is likely that the market for economists has widened and become more attractive outside the government. This may not have been so even a decade or two ago. Economic reforms and a vibrant corporate sector have also had a role to play in the government’s inability to attract and retain qualified and high-quality economists. What may have made a difficult situation worse is the government’s decision to reserve more posts for a cadre like the Indian Economic Service, which has become a poor cousin for smart young economists who would aspire above all to get into the Indian Administrative Service, and failing that a variety of other civil services. This has made lateral induction at the economic advisor level next to impossible, and the cadre economists are simply not good enough for the top jobs.

 

(Source http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/too-few-good-men/370846/)

Promotion Or Demotion

Our govt is notorious for policy confusion - either during formulation or during implimentation. Here is one classic example - where state civil servants promoted to IAS are getting less salary than they were getting in state services. 

Regards

GMStudyCenter

Pay Disparity has babus seething

Gandhinagar: A group of newly promoted IAS officers, who are disgruntled that they are effectively being paid less after being inducted to Gujarat's IAS cadre, made a representation to the financial department of the state government.

Their contention is that they would have been benefited their pockets had they continued being part of state civil services (SCS).

According to an official, who talked to DNA on condition of anonymity, the officers who were promoted from SCS to Indian Administrative Services (IAS) in the year 2006 and 2007 have got a raw deal, thanks to finance department's interpretation of sixth pay commission recommendations.

Significantly, the IAS promotee officers belonging to 1999 and 1998 batch were actually inducted in the year 2006 and 2007. This meant that from the top of the pay band for the SCS officials, these officers came at the lower levels of pay scales for IAS officers.

However, after the implementation of sixth pay commission, the rise or increment for SCS officials at that level was substantial. On the other hand, the pay band for IAS, in which these officials were included, did not offer similar huge gains in the terms of arrears and consolidated pay.

According to sources, the finance department is considering the matter and is expected to take a positive decision favouring the IAS officials. An official of the department said that though the recommendations have been implemented, there were a number of issues still coming up at regular intervals that needed to be sorted out.

However sources say, the finance department is said to have asked these officials if they wanted immediate high amount in the form of arrears or better pay leading to better post retirement benefits. No wonder that some of these officials rue their own short-sightedness for the loss.

One of the officials blamed state government for leaving it open ended, rather than calculating and informing the officers as to which option was better for them. He also cited government rules indicating that they could be at loss despite being given a promotion.

Personnel Administration - Stuff - IAS (Indian Administrative Service) Officers – What should be the Minimum Age

Seems like I am getting lot of material on personnel  administration stuff. Here author of the article opines that min age for IAS should be 30-31 yrs. Interesting thought ! ARC ( Second Administrative Reforms Comission ) thinks age should be reduced. As a student of pub ad we need to know both views ! ..here it is ..read and enjoy.

Regards

GMstudycenter

(source : http://www.indiademocracy.org/article/viewArticle/id/1213)

IAS officers belong to elite administrative setup of Indian Society. IAS officers handle affairs of the government, they frame, implement & execute policies. An IAS officer is considered to be wisest, experienced, person with sharp mind, highly educated, with well versed with the rules and regulations.They represent the Government in other countries and in international forums. They are the highest level decision makers of Govt. They sign agreements on behalf of government. In the divisional level the IAS officers look after Law and Order, general administration, and development work. 

“Indian Administrative Service” the name it self commands respect from all the sects of society. But the qualification for being an IAS is mere graduation with no experience. As per my knowledge there are only two places where experience is not required or is considered as drawback one is IAS and other is marriage 

IAS service is looked high by the society, but the selection procedure requires lot of review with changing time and should be based on the need of the society. Are the newly appointed IAS officers fit for these highest posts? Does they have the knowledge of family, society, country. Till the appointment they don’t have the experience of running the home, how they will lead the country. 

Indian Culture was always combined family. Though today small families are there but still our children won’t be much matured compared to western countries. Age old procedures should be abolished. The YES SIR policy introduced by the British should be kicked out the and new methods and modalities should be adopted to make the IAS service regain its original dignity

Today the minimum age for IAS officer is 21 year. A final year appearing student can also fill the application form of Administrative Services. It means after clearing Preliminary, Main and Interview in a very less age of 22 to 23 year a boy or girl can appoints as IAS officer. No doubt the Civil Services exams are very tough. Only few brilliant students can clear the IAS exam. 

Is only Graduation should be base for appearing IAS. As per our Constitution, Indian Marriage Act a boy cannot marry even a single day before the age of 21 years – reason he may be physically fit for marriage but mentally and socially he is not matured before 21 years of age. Is it not funny that a boy cannot marry a day before 21 years of age stating that he is not matured to run his family and only few days – months after he can manage or bear the burden of our Country?

As per traditional Hindu Culture also the minimum age for marriage is 26 years. Reason is that boy is not fully mentally matured for taking policy decisions. Upto this age he can get higher education but he don’t have the practical experience / knowledge. He is considered to be learner by these age. 

For any technical post besides B.Sc. / engineering / technical diploma is compulsory. For accounts post accountancy course is compulsory besides commerce graduation / PG. So as for IAS officer why only graduation and not any other qualification. For Sports, Police, Military, Electronics young age is preferred for better results, but for decision making posts, experience is always preferred. This is a real truth which has been totally neglected in our constitution. A Doctor / Professor and other highly qualified personalities salutes the IAS. It is a matter of deep analysis.

The minimum age for appearing for IAS Exam must at atleast 30 to 35 years. Qualification for appearing should be minimum PG and having various qualifications as : 

1. 6 to 8 years of knowledge of working in field of Education, culture, society, science, technology etc after Graduation. 

2. Other Higher qualifications / achievements. 

3. Bonus marks for other qualifications, awards etc. 

4. Preference should be given to National Awardees, Athletes, Artists. 

5. Reservation must be totally avoided. 

6. Instead of Police Verification – an open notice should be circulated in News Papers, public places for inviting NOC for the candidates from the public and it should be verified strictly. 

The scrutiny of IAS officers should be totally free from corruption because how much corruption done by hundreds of clerks in month-years more than that is done by a single signature of a corrupt IAS officer. IAS is a person who makes rules for government. They are the key posts. Only school knowledge is not sufficient, they should be having social, cultural, family knowledge.

Knowledge and experience cannot be learnt / gained from books, it needs time. Experience cannot be learns in school, it is gained by age itself. If the selection procedure of IAS is revised, the more and more experienced / deserved / personalities will come to serve the nation with their knowledge and experience. 

These are authors personal views. You might not be fully or partly agree with author. Author has not commented any particular newly appointed IAS officer. Author doesn’t mean that every newly (new aged – below 25-26 years) appointed IAS don’t have experience. These are based on commerce rule ‘in-general’ 

An officer and a manager: IAS gains from IIM

The Article below has to be read keeping in view of Generalist Vs Specialist
and Personnel administration in mind,
Regards
GMStudycenter
(Article is selected from ibnlive.com)


Sample this conversation from the book, Yes Minister, between Dr Cartwright, a bureaucrat, and Right Honourable Jim Hacker, Minister, Department of Administrative Affairs.

“I’m a professional economist,” he explained. “Director of Local Administrative Statistics.”

“So you were in charge of Local Government Directorate until we took over?”

He smiled at my question.

“Dear me, no.” He shook his head sadly, though apparently without bitterness.

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“No, I’m just Under Secretary rank. Sir Gordon Reid was the permanent secretary. I fear that I will rise no higher.”

I asked why not.

He smiled. “Alas! I’m an expert.”

They say all analogies are imperfect, yet the reason 45-year-old Shailesh Pathak resigned from the prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 2007, bears an uncanny resemblance to Dr Cartwright’s last comment.

“The reason [to resign] was simple. I wanted to spend the rest of my life in infrastructure financing and execution. And I realised that being a generalist kind of a job, the IAS could not permit me to do that,” says Pathak.

Pathak, a 1990 batch officer, graduated from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta, in 1986. He spent a lot of time associated with the infrastructure sector during his stint with the government. He served as Managing Director of the Madhya Pradesh State Infrastructure Development Corporation as well as the Secretary in the Public Works Department (PWD). In 2000, he was selected as one of the 15 emerging leaders in India for the Eisenhower Fellowship and went on to study infrastructure and governance in the US. Later, in 2003, he visited the European Union to study their institutions.

Currently he is the senior director at ICICI Venture in Mumbai and heads the Infrastructure division.

Lobbying for effectiveness

Pathak’s case epitomises a basic problem with the way government-sponsored projects are administered: Leadership positions are typically assigned based on seniority, not knowledge of the sector. As a result, actual implementation of projects is the weakest aspect of governance in India.

A recent McKinsey report titled Building India: Accelerating Infrastructure Projects also points out that it is not financing, but poor implementation that is the real hurdle in India’s infrastructure growth.

And that is what Pathak and a group of likeminded people in the civil services hope to change.

Before he quit the civil services, Pathak formed IIM-G, an informal grouping of ‘IIM graduates in government services’. It represents a group of people with a proven track record and is a resource available within the government for projects where effective delivery is important. Today it has over 100 members.

“IIM-G just hopes that the selection mechanism will become more output oriented,” says Bharat Salhotra, a 1988 batch officer of the Indian Railway Accounts Service and an alumnus of IIM Calcutta and the Sloan School of Management. He is currently General Manager (Finance) and the Chief Information Officer for the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCCIL) in New Delhi.

However, both Pathak and Salhotra are quick to explain that IIM-G is not asking for any special assignments for its members. It is only making a case for looking beyond seniority and hierarchy when appointing heads of infrastructure projects, both social and physical.

They believe that ideally one should be allowed to have a crack at any such top job, irrespective of whether one is from within the government or outside it. That idea comes from Pathak’s experience during the Eisenhower Fellowship when he witnessed “tremendous mobility between business, government, and academia in the US.”

But such a radical change is not going to happen overnight. “So the logical way is to begin by throwing open competition from within the government, irrespective of the service and batch. Once this gains ground, at a later stage, even people from the private sector could be allowed to compete,” says Pathak.

B S Baswan, director of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) and a 1967 batch IAS officer welcomes such a move. “It’s really not an anathema to the government. It is true that our delivery systems are weak and there are flaws in our public policy,” he says.

What is wrong with the current setup?

Salhotra cites the case of the much vaunted Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) which was conceptualised in 2004 and the initial deadline was 2012-13. However, the revised completion date has shifted to 2017-18. Costs have gone up so much that the internal rate of return is near negative. According to his estimates, each day’s delay costs the DFC close to Rs. 70 crore.

Such delays happen in practically every project, be it highways, ports or power. Why? You cannot start a project of this scale, involving Rs. 50,000 crore, without first spending enough time on the drawing board. I am pretty certain that nobody from IIM would have advocated this kind of philosophy,” says Salholtra.

A flawed system

IIM-G members play down the hurdle posed by so-called excessive governmental procedures in achieving targets. They believe that the right man will find a way out while the unwilling one will hide behind the same procedures.

In their view it is a flawed system of performance appraisal where seniority scores over merit, and a lack of accountability allows delays to go unpunished.

That’s a view shared by the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) headed by the union law minister, M Veerappa Moily. “The assurance of a secure career path is the… main shortcoming because it tends to discourage initiative by reducing competition and abets complacence…. It is difficult not only for highly qualified and competent persons outside the government, but also for high performers from other branches of the civil services to get selected for top positions in government,” states the ARC’s 2008 report, Refurbishing of Personnel Administration.

Bipul Kiran Singh, CEO of Torque Communications, a New Delhi-based public relations firm (he is an IIM graduate who resigned from the Indian Information Service in the mid 1990s), feels that unlike the private sector, it is difficult to define profit, or a similar metric, in most government organisations. As a result, performance appraisal is not as sharp and government officials are not accountable for delays. On the flip side, the system gives little reward for those who push the envelope and innovate.

Singh gives the example of N P Singh, a Karnataka cadre IAS officer who was singularly instrumental in bringing the Delhi Metro Rail project--first conceptualised in 1985--back to life in 1994-95. “Today he is faceless. Nobody knows about his contribution. If he was in the private sector, he would have been a hero,” says Singh.

The situation is made even worse with the transferable nature of the job.

Salhotra recounts his experience, from 1994 to 2001, as the Director of a World Bank supported Long Range Decision Support System Group, which essentially was a software to help Indian Railways prioritise investments over the next 20 years. But even after its successful completion, the software hasn’t really made much difference.

“That’s the tragedy. The system in the government is such that one has to move on and the team just withered away and the tools have got obsolete over time,” rues Salhotra.

The IIM-G advantage

Vini Mahajan, Joint Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office and a 1987 batch IAS officer, perhaps best embodies the skill set that an IIM-G member brings to the table. Her background and understanding allowed her to create the templates for Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode of infrastructure development, during her stint as the Managing Director of the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB). The templates were later adopted by the Government of India.

She put in place automatic and transparent penalties since she understood that terminating a contract for any and every infringement would actually hurt public interest in the longer term by turning away investors. She introduced the concept of having an independent regulator to avoid conflict of interest within the government.

“All these concepts were relatively new to government. But now they have become part of the central government’s approach as well,” says Mahajan.

So how far has IIM-G succeeded in getting through its message in the corridors of power?

For starters, the Sixth Pay Commission, which gave its final report in March 2008, has included the IIM-G proposals almost verbatim. This is the first time a pay commission has recommended for the senior administrative posts to be filled by a new selection process that will open such posts to all eligible central government officers and not remain restricted to only one service.

The Pay Commission has also recommended that the government should open all the posts which require technical or specialised knowledge to eligible candidates, regardless of whether they are from within or outside the central services.

The ARC had earlier recommended lateral entry from the private sector. The Cabinet Secretary is now working on finding better selection methods and ways to tap the professional skills available within the government after the IIM-G made a presentation in February this year.

Pathak had left the civil services hoping that if he wanted, he would be able to come back in the future through the lateral entry route. It appears that may be possible after all.

Personnel Administration Stuff - More quota candidates make it to civil services

The following article gives some points regarding reservation and can be used to build your arguments for or against the reservation. You can have any view but again you need to be balanced and diplomatic as long as you convey your message clearly with sufficient examples you should be ok.

Rgds
gmstudycenter@gmail.com

More quota candidates make it to civil services

Recruitment trends of civil services show it could be time to take a fresh look at the quota system that accords favourable entry to candidates from the three reserved categories.

The Supreme Court has withheld its verdict in the civil services recruitment rules case. But the entry pattern of all-India and central services over the past three years shows the percentage of new bureaucrats from the reserved categories - Other Backward Classes  (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) - exceeds that of general candidates.

The "backlog" of quota vacancies is one reason for this, but the pattern also establishes that a large number of OBC, SC and ST candidates have been consistently bagging high ranks on the merit list.

At present, 49.5 per cent of central government jobs are reserved for the three categories - 27, 15 and 7.5 per cent for OBCs, SCs and STs respectively.

But statistics show that while in 2008, as many as 384 (53 per cent) of the 720 entrants to the civil services belonged to the reserved categories, the figure in 2007 was 349 (55 per cent) of 635 selections by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). In 2006, the number was 246 (55 per cent) out of 451 recommendations.

The entry trend for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is more revealing. Of the 116 candidates recommended for the coveted service in 2008, 67 (58 per cent) came from the reserved pool. This number was 62 (56 per cent) in 2007 when 111 IAS appointments were made and 52 (58 per cent) the year before against 89 recommendations.

That reserved category candidates have been consistently performing well in UPSC's civil services exam is evident as 58 of the top 200 candidates in 2008 came from the three categories, while their number was an impressive 83 in 2007 and 63 the year before. In all three years, OBC candidates bagged the lion's share; their entry figure in top-200 was 43, 65 and 44 respectively for 2008, 2007 and 2006.

Official sources said it was an evident case of "upward mobility" by civil service aspirants from the three quota pools because of an improvement in education system and other logistical support available exclusively to them.

"But taking a relook requires a great deal of political will and the courage to call a spade a spade. Given the country's politico-electoral matrix, no government will dare to bell the cat," a senior official said.

A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is yet to pronounce whether reserved category candidates selected on merit should be appointed against reserved posts or under general quota.

The apex court had earlier stayed a Madras High Court order that such candidates should be accommodated in the general list so that reserved category candidates get the maximum benefits.

The high court had nullified Section 16(2) of Civil Services Examination Rules, holding that it ran counter to the benefit of OBC, SC and ST candidates and was not affirmative in achieving social justice.

The rule provides for migration from one service to another based on a candidate's option and preference.

The government contended that it could be done only if reserved category candidates forego the benefit of getting a more preferred service, an advantage they can avail of by using their reserved status. The government also cited Supreme Court judgments which say that the quantum of reservation should not exceed 50 per cent.

"Till a few years ago, the reserved vacancies were not being filled as there weren't enough candidates who qualified for the civil service jobs. Now the situation has changed. The government's directions to fill the backlog have also changed the entry pattern," an official said.

Generalists Vs Specialists

One of the long fought war between civil servants is of Generalist Vs specialist Debate - who is better.Appointing Generalist IAS to a job which really requires a specialists ability is an irking factor for many civil servants ..for example IAS officer heading revenue services when senior most IRS officers are available to do the job. There are many points which supports Generalists as well as specialists. While writing answer in mains it is very important to maintain the balance between the same. If the job is of highest importance say atomic / nuclear related and of defense related then obviously the job calls for a specialist not a generalist. However if the job requires the person need to have a good over all understanding of the circumstances then it calls for a generalist. 


While writing answers it is very important to give examples to support your answers. In these articles you need to select the appropriate examples and put it in a diplomatic way.


The following article gives some stuffs in this direction  ,please make a note of highlighted points.


Rgds
GMStudyCenter


Latha Jishnu: The IAS grabs the patent office too


India’s patents office, or the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks to give its full title, was one of those dreary government departments, badly-equipped and poorly-staffed, its decrepit state of little interest to officialdom — or to the media — till January 1, 2005. That’s when India introduced product patents on pharmaceuticals, food and chemicals under its World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations. Things had to change because the big boys of the global pharmaceutical and chemical industries were descending on this country to seek marketing rights and patent protection along with our home-grown drugs industry

So the shabby offices of the patent controller — there are four in all — became the focus of much attention and, of course, controversy. The biggest problem was that the offices were neither digitised nor linked online till even last year. Then there was the shortage of qualified examiners and controllers although Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, under whose ministry the Controller General of Patents (CGP) functions, was assuring us that we had a state-of-the-art patent office. Along the way, another, almost inevitable, problem has cropped up: The whiff of corruption. Some of the offices were showing a tendency to approve patents without going through the due processes and favouring the foreign patent holder even in cases where patents were barred by a special section of the Indian Patent Act. So things were a bit messy, but par for the course of government functioning.

Now comes the news that a career bureaucrat has been appointed the CGP, marking a sharp break with tradition. The new boss is from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and not a specialist. P H Kurian, the 50-year-old civil servant with a post-graduate degree in chemistry, was last with the industries department of Kerala, after going through the bureaucratic mill in Orissa and Kerala.

So one more office of significance has fallen to the IAS, which is notorious for grabbing posts that have traditionally belonged to the specialist and for undermining the independence of technically superior organisations. Take one example, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the apex regulatory body for the power sector. With help from their political bosses, the IAS lobby gradually emasculated the CEA and finally made it an appendage of the power ministry in 1998. This was soon after IAS officials had begun to replace engineers as the heads of the state electricity boards which were going to wrack and ruin. That was not a reflection of the competence and efficiency of the engineers, all risen from the ranks, who were heading the utilities but was a result of the political meddling.

Is the appointment of an IAS man a good thing for the patent office which is clearly in need of an overhaul? But so is the vast machinery of the Government of India which has the very same babus at the senior level. Will this be yet another case of the IAS being allowed to spread its grasping tentacles further without any thought for the outcome? Some patent analysts are clearly delighted with the development merely because it marks a change, which they believe is for the better. Perhaps the change at the head may help to overcome the primary problems of the patent office: A gross shortage of examiners and infrastructure. Would a generalist be able to run an organisation that is manned entirely by technical and legal experts? Perhaps.

Interestingly, the appointment of a bureaucrat as CGP coincides with a public scrutiny of the IAS official’s competence to hold specialised posts. Pushing this inquiry is well-known campaigner for transparency in governance, Arvind Kejriwal, a Magsaysay award winner, who is seeking information on all senior bureaucratic appointees to find out if these met the norms of ‘specific suitability’ as per central government regulations. Since the candidates are drawn mainly from the generalist stream, Kejriwal wants to find out how the government met the norms in appointments at the level of secretary and additional secretary. The CGP post, it appears, is of joint secretary level, which might exclude it from Kejriwal’s prying eyes.

But if one were to go by practices elsewhere, then the CGP clearly needs some expert muscle to beef up his administrative arm. The US, for example, and I cite the US because it provides the inspiration and direction to the Manmohan Singh government on most matters, seeks formidable qualifications from the person who heads the US Patents & Trademarks Office (USPTO). The director usually has a background in different specialisations (science, law and finance) and is an official who has worked closely on intellectual property issues.

The new acting head of the USPTO is John J Doll, who has been with the patent office since 1974. He is a man who has risen from the ranks and has been given numerous awards for developing patenting tools. His expertise is trusted. Do we have no one of this calibre?

Personnel Administration - Stuff - Pressure on IAS officers

Dear All , 

Once inducted to civil services one of the most important things to learn is to cope up with pressure from political heads - to something which you thing is not right but compelled to do. Especially in the coalition regimes that will be common in future .The following story gives the same reason for mass resign of IAS officers. We can use this one point in the mains answer which requires to analyse the problems faced by civil servants

Regards
GMStudyCenter


(News obtained from pakistan's website)


12 Indian bureaucrats resign


NEW DELHI: A major crisis has hit the Indian bureaucracy after a dozen senior Indian Administrative Service officers have resigned from service.


Most of them joined service in 1979 and were all likely to be promoted as additional secretaries by mid-June. From various state cadres, the officers include Sandeep Madan, Rajiv Krishnaswami, Vivek Srivastava, Pradeep Puri, Debi Prasad Patra, Vijay Laxmi, Padmini Desikachar, D Prakash, Mukesh Kackar ,Sanjay Kaul and OP Agrawal.


Sources in the Department of Personnel said their requests for taking premature retirements were under consideration. They said the cabinet secretary (CS) had called some of the officers to know the reason behind their resignations.


Reportedly, one of the officers said he was sick of the political pressure, interference in decision-making since the coalition government came into power.


Another officer has written to the CS that he had resigned, because a union minister had threatened him with dire consequences. 

( Now please dont ask me why it took almost 30 years for these officers to realise that there is political pressure :-) )

Personnel Administration - Stuff - Fresh Faces In Government

Dear All ,

The following is one more article related to personnel Administration gives a perspective of lateral recruitment and some sort appraisal mechanism for govt servants.

Regards

GMStudyCenter

Fresh faces in government

It is time to review the notion that public policy roles must be a monopoly of career bureaucrats.The most interesting comment about Nandan Nilekani’s appointment last month as chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India was posted by an anonymous but self-declared civil servant on the Web, who said: “It’s amazing that (the) government could not find a single competent IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer to head this authority. Mr Nilekani will soon discover that government is different from business.” This antibiotic reaction against lateral entrants is not new; it echoes the recoil by teachers against education entrepreneurs, pharmaceutical company lifers against non-scientist CEOs,tech-lifers against nonengineer leaders, and NGO types against private sector migrants.But the arguments for lateral entry into public policy— contrary to public perception—are not about injecting competence or rooting out corruption; they involve diversity and performance management.The competence argument is shallow because many career bureaucrats have strong IQs and sharply developed emotional intelligence—it would be ludicrous to suggest they don’t, while their private sector counterparts do. And the corruption argument falls flat because many private sector Indian fortunes have been made by regulatory capture; it’s even arguable whether India’s poverty would be substantially lower without corruption.

First, let’s consider diversity.Just as French leader Georges Clemenceau said that war is too important to be left to generals—and Kapil Sibal is proving that education is too important to be left to teachers—public policy is too complex to be restricted to people with no other experience. The upsides of diversity are well documented: The book Organizing Genius by Warren Bennis finds that “great groups” have lots of diversity.Indian policy debates polarize between two extremes: totalizing a problem (give me a policy that works for 500 million people because individual small projects don’t move the needle), or micro-fragmenting it (give me a project or centre of excellence for 30 people because policies are hard to implement in a democracy).

Lateral entry means diversity and performance management: the right person in the right job at the right time But India’s solutions lie at the intersection between strategy and execution; creation and preservation; and people and processes.While no individual can possibly have all those abilities, organizational  capabilities are unlike height or shoe size (something that can’t be changed), but are more like muscles (that can be built up), and acquired by putting together teams. Public policy diversity leading to effectiveness has strong historical precedent in India; Akbar (who had Tansen, Man Singh, Todar Mal, Birbal and so on) and Ranjit Singh (who had Zorawar Singh, Hari Singh Nalwa, Fakeer Azizuddin and Dina Nath) were two great leaders who accomplished the rare combination of big dreams and flawless execution because of deep and diverse meritocracies hired from outside. 

Second, there’s performance management. Promotions in Indian bureaucracy are based on objective but ineffective criteria such as a civil servant’s year of joining. I argued with my “1964” civil servant father for years about the insanity of such a “line”, but gave up when he explained that, all other things being equal, the promotion within a batch went to whosoever had a higher rank in the qualifying exam taken more than three decades ago! We need to instil a “fear of falling” or “hope of rising” within the bureaucracy: This will happen not just with tweaking the seniority criterion, but could also arise from outside competition for top policy slots. Obviously, we need to find a balance between the US system (where about 4,000 people are appointed by every new president) and where India is today (where outside appointments to influential and non-ceremonial roles are probably fewer than 20). Public policy education has not taken off in India because of the lack of an entry ramp into real policy action; even the small window that got us  Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and finance commission chairman Vijay Kelkar is now closed.This is not a rant against career service bureaucrats: To be sure,they provide the continuity and memory needed to balance change.

They service difficult bosses who have temporary jobs. And any thinking about fixing public policy human capital has to include politicians, because there is some truth in the cynical comment that the only highways to get ahead in Indian politics are either genetic or geriatric. The problem is complex but, as Lant Pritchett at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government says, the Indian state’s inability to deliver outcomes ranks as one of the world’s top 10 biggest problems — right up there with AIDS and climate change.Getting the right person in the right job at the right time is half the battle. Even cynics agree that Nilekani’s appointment is joint testimony to his capabilities and this  government’s courage.Now that Nilekani has actually begun his job, many people are curious about his long-term plans. But does it matter if lateral entrants into public policy are like the Roman general Cincinnatus—who was summoned from his farm to deal with an enemy attack, but returned to the plough once his duty was done—or, like Manmohan Singh, who stayed the course and rose to bigger things? No, because both outcomes leave India less poor and more just.

Personnel Administration - Stuff

This section is for your mains answer writing. Select some key stuffs from here and make your own notes. This should help for the main exam.

Regards

GMstudycenter@gmail.com

The following article is in indiatoday and is available at the link

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&issueid=111&id=58154&Itemid=1&sectionid=114&secid=0

IFS regaining lost edge with toppers

The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) hasn't been able to win back the popularity it  used to enjoy with civil service recruits in the past, but the diplomatic corps is steadily turning into a preferred option of many UPSC top-rankers.

The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) continues to be the hot favourite of  the bureaucrats-to-be but the IFS has definitely stolen a march over Indian Police Service (IPS) and the revenue services. In the past four years, the first candidate to opt for the IFS has always been ranked above the first to join the IPS or a revenue service.

Recruitment trends of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which  conducts the civil services exam every year, show that in the past four years, an average 10 out of the top 100 rankers opted for a career in diplomacy, preferring it even over the IAS. By Ashish Sinha in New Delhi

Although annual vacancies in the IFS are only around 20, in 2008 there were  25 diplomatic jobs up for grabs by those who cracked the civil services exams and the first slot was taken by a woman. The year 2008 was a significant break also because as many as 13 IFS officers were from the top 100 bracket and as many as eight women opted for the service.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the IFS used to be the first choice of the UPSC toppers.It was extremely difficult to join the diplomatic service for a candidate who was not among the top 20. In the later years, especially after the practice of rejecting candidates only on the basis of personal interview was done away with, the IAS became more popular.

"There was a marked decline in the popularity of the IFS. Possibly it was a result of a change in the perception of the diplomatic service. But I was surprised to note that good rank holders preferred the revenue services over the IFS," said former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh, who had joined the IFS in 1963.

There is also an increase in the number of women with good ranks opting for the foreign service. In the four years from 2005 to 2008, as many as 24 (or 29 per cent) of the total 84 recruits in IFS were women, a marked improvement over the past.

While it is a matter of personal choice of the candidates, the low popularity of IFS in the past decades also indicates the reasons why the youth wants to join the civil services at all.

"It is felt that IAS officers enjoy a lot of power in a purely societal sense. Diplomacy, on the other hand, is more about finesse. An IFS officer has to spend a lot of time outside the country and many people do not find that attractive enough," a senior IAS officer, who was ranked in the top five in his batch, said.

But Mansingh, who has also served as an expert on the UPSC's board, said "financial preferences" could also have made other services more popular than the IFS. "In our days, IFS was the service that people wanted to join. It was highly coveted also because most of the top rankers came from upper-class public school background. But even now the quality of recruits is very good," he said.

While there has been a definite democratisation of educational background of those joining the IFS, most of the recruits are still from the metros and state capitals. Only 27 of the 84 entrants during the past four years came from small towns or villages.

The shrinking of the world because of new technologies appears to be another reason for the rising popularity of the foreign service.Diplomacy is a highly specialised career now with immense focus on economic relations between nations.

This, experts said, draws a lot of well informed youths towards the IFS.