Indian Administrative Service

The Indian Administrative Service (Hindi: भारतीय प्रशासनिक सेवा) (abbreviated as IAS) is the administrative civil service of the Government of India. Indian Administrative Service officers hold key positions in the Union Government, State governments and Public Sector Undertakings. The Administrative Service is one of the three All India Services.

The Constituent Assembly of India intended that the bureaucracy should be able to speak 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 Commission (UPSC) and posted under various State governments. The officers carry high respect and stature in the society coupled with the significant task of administering public offices, making it one of the most desirable jobs in India. 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 and the UPSC.

The examination is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. It has three stages (preliminary, mains and interview) and is considered to be 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 (CSAT). It covers aptitude, general mathematics, comprehensive English, social studies, etc. in it's notification of CSE-2013, UPSC has incorporated major changes in the main examination. Instead of two optional subject at Mains stage, there will be one optional subject. Two additional papers of General Studies have been introduced. The paper of essay now contains a precis writing and a reading comprehension exercise as well. The paper on Indian language or Hindi has been done away with.

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 2011 batch, of the 425 selected candidates, 390 indicated IAS as their first preference, 35 chose IRS, and just nine chose IPS. But when it came to second preference, 226 candidates marked IRS as their choice, while only 159 marked IPS as their second choice.

Repeated attempts are allowed up to four times for General Merit candidates, seven times for OBC 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 550,000 (2010 data) but only a rank in the top 80 guarantees an IAS selection — an acceptance rate of 0.025 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 the Civil Service Exam conducted by Union Public Service Commission. However, recruitment into IAS is also 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 super-session 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: Assam–Meghalaya, Manipur–Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh–Goa–Mizoram–Union Territories (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/Officer

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.

The salient features of Present Indian Administration

 Indian Administration has following salient features :
(i) Federal System : Our constitution divides the powers between Centre and States in terms of the Union List, State List and Concurrent list in the Seventh schedule (Art.-246). This principle is borrowed from Canada .
(ii) Welfare administration: Indian administration is welfare oriented i.e. it works for the basic requirements of a common man.
(iii) Development Oriented Administration: Various development progrmmes are being run to attain the objectives of a welfare state.
(iv) Written, lengthy and detailed constitution: The Indian constitution is the lengthiest and the most detailed written constitution in the world
(v) Partly rigid and flexible: The constitution of India is rigid to the extent that those provisions which are concerned with the federal policy (i.e. Centre-State relations and judicial organisation) can be amended by the Centre only with the approval of majority of States.
(vi) Parliamentary System: In this system the executive is responsible to the legislature for its policies and acts. The principles of Parliamentary government in India are – Nominal & real executive majority party rule, Collective responsibility, political homogeneity. Leadership of Prime Minister, dissolution of the lower house and secrecy.
(vii) Fundamental Rights: The fundamental Rights are contained in Part III of the constitution from Article 12 to 35. Inspiration came from USA (Bill of Rights). In this regard, at present there are 6 fundamental rights. They are –
               a) Right to Equality
               b) Right to Freedom
               c) Right against Exploitation
               d) Right to Freedom of Religion
               e) Cultural and Educational Rights
               f) Right to constitutional remedies
viii) Fundamental Duties: They were added by the 42 constitutional amendment Act of 1976 on the recommendation of the Swarn Singh Committee. There are eleven fundamental duties at present.
(ix) Independent Judiciary: The Indian judiciary is headed by the Supreme court to settle disputes between the centre and the States or between the States. It also protects the supremacy of the Constitution through its power of judicial review.
(x) Adult Franchise: It means all the persons above 18 have the right to vote.

The British Impact on Indian Administration

The British Impact on Indian Administration, when the constitution was framed:

The Indian Administrative Structure is largely a legacy of the British rule.
The British legacy in Indian administration can be studied under following heads.
1) Indian Civil Services : This was the most important legacy. The officers of Indian Civil Service can be posted in any State. Even after independence, these services were continued and at present there are three all India Services i.e. IAS, IPS & IFS.
2) Secretarial Services : Secretariat is a high level administrative organisation which constitutes politicians or secretary and other personnel. Secretariat is a very important part of the government whose function is to plan policies, law and control and most important advising the Ministers in performing their functions.
3) Rigid bureaucracy : System of bureaucracy was started in British period to execute the laws rules land programmes of the administration. File system was also introduced.
Civil servants consider themselves as superior and different. This tendency was inherited from Britishers.
Indian bureaucracy is traditional and conservative.
4) Federal System and National unity : In a federal government, policies are divided between the Central Government and State Government by the constitution itself. The federal features of Indian constitution are dual policy, double government, division of power into Central list, State list and concurrent list, bicameralism, rigid constitution.
Besides, it is also unitary in nature, as it has single citizenship, governor is appointed and the removal is by the President and more powers to the Centre represent the strong federal system.
5) Administrative anonymity & Secrecy : The norm of anonymity means that the civil servants must work from behind the curtain without praise or blame. This trend came into existence during British period. Along with this, the principle of secrecy of procedure also operates. It means the ministers cannot divulge information about their proceedings.
6) Committee System : The committee system was started by Britishers to do different work of government and administration such as amendments, investigate and advising. Different types of permanent and ad-hoc committees are formed in all government organisations.
7) District Administration : Warren Hastings in 1772, first time created the post of Collector. After independence, the collector became key figure from political geographical and district public administration point of view.
8) Revenue administration : First of all, Board of Revenue was set up in 1786 in Bengal. After independence, it has been established in most of the states as an independent body.
9) Police Administration : In 1808, post of Superintendent of police was introduced. Present police system is working under Police Act 1861, which is concerned with law administration.
10) Financial Administration : Yearly income and expenditure account is called Budget. Our budget formulation, implementation and execution and auditing is based on British traditions.
11) Local Administration : Lord Rippon is known as Father of local Self Government in India. In 1882, he made arrangements for electing representatives in village local bodies. This proposal of
Rippon was also known as “Magnacarta of Local Self Government”.
Local self-government has been given constitutional status in 1992 by passing 73rd constitutional Amendment (rural government) and 74th Constitutional Amendment (Urban Govt) Act. These constitute an important part in democratic decentralization.