Indian Administrative Service

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The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) (Hindi: भभारततीय प्रशभासननिक ससेवभा Bharatiya
Prashasanika Seva ) is the administrative civil service of the Indian government. One of
the three All India Services (along with the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest
Service), the IAS plays a major role in managing the bureaucracy of both the Union
Government (Central Government) and the state governments, with its officers holding
strategic posts across the country.

The career path of IAS officers is well defined. About 60 to 90 officers are inducted every
year from about 300,000 applicants based on the results of a competitive civil service
examination. Training for IAS officers is also noted for its rigor.

Contents
[hide]
 1 History
 2 Selection, Cadre Allocation and Federalism
 3 Independence
 4 Training
 5 Designations
 6 See also
 7 References

 8 External links

[edit] History
The Karmashila and Dhruvashila buildings at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of
Administration at Mussoorie, where new officers of the IAS and many other Indian civil
service bodies undergo training.

The precursor of the IAS was the Indian Civil Service (ICS) during the British Raj era.
ICS officers (known as "Collectors"), were generally held in high regard as incorruptible
and good administrators. There were critics, however; Jawaharlal Nehru recounted a
popular saying that the ICS was "neither Indian, nor civil, nor a service" in his Discovery
of India. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George referred to the colonial ICS as the
"steel frame" of the British Raj for its role in influencing and implementing government
policies and decisions.[1]

Upon independence, the new Republic of India accepted the then serving Indian Civil
Service officers who chose to stay on rather than leave for the UK, and renamed the
service the Indian Administrative Service.

[edit] Selection, Cadre Allocation and Federalism

The officials of the IAS are involved in civil administration and policy-making. Like
many other civil services bodies, officers of the IAS are selected by the Civil Services
Examination, a three-stage a competitive selection process consisting of a preliminary
exam, a main exam, and an interview. This Civil Services Examination is administered
by the Union Public Service Commission once a year.

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 as '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 & 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, Cabinet Secretary Nirmal
Mukarji argued that separate central, state and local bureaucracies should eventually
replace the IAS as an aid to efficiency[2]. 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"[3].

[edit] Independence
IAS officers are appointed by the President of India. The Constituent Assembly of India
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 Commission (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 and the UPSC.This independence has been sometimes severely
criticised by many quarters of civil society. However there is no considered consensus
about the need for such an elite corps of the bureaucracy. In response to the questionnaire
of the Sixth Pay Commission under Justice Sri Krishna in March 2008 overwhelmingly
those who replied opted for a Unified Civil Service in its place. As a corollary they seem
to spend very little time in the areas of governance involving the vast majority of people
below poverty line, disadvantaged groups and consequently what should be legitimately
expected of the bureaucracy has to be sought from the politicians which has led to overall
degradation. .

[edit] Training
AFTER India became independent, the Indian Civil Service(ICS) probationers were
given general training in four British Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and
Dublin for a period of one to two years. During the Second World War, when it was not
possible to do so, a temporary training camp was organised at Dehradun. After
Independence, the ICS was converted into IAS, and IAS Training School was setup in
1947at the Metcalfe House in Delhi. It provided one year multi-purpose training to the
IAS probationers. In 1957, the IAS Staff College was established at Shimla to provide a
refresher training course for senior IAS officers of six to ten years of service. Both these
training institutions of Delhi and Shimla were merged in 1959 to setup the National
Academy of Administration at Mussoorie(Now called Lal Bahadur Sastri National
Academy Of Administration,LBSNAA). Since then, this academy has been imparting
training to IAS probationers.
[edit] Designations

Progression of IAS officers in State and Center Government

IAS officers time scales:

 Junior Time Scale (entry-level)

 Senior Time Scale (four years of service) - equivalent to an Under Secretary
 Junior Administrative Grade (nine years of service) - Deputy Secretaries
 Selection Grade (13 years of service) - Directors
 Joint Secretary (GOI)
 Additional Secretary (GOI)
 Secretary (GOI) - highest rank (basic pay of 80,000 Indian rupees)
 Cabinet Secretary - only one (basic pay of 90,000 Indian rupees).
The State Governments however have a kind of a leverage to post these officers.
Normally when an IAS officer joins the State, he is placed as a Sub Divisional Magistrate
(SDM). Ideally he is to be made in charge of a District after completing 9 years of service
and entering the Junior Administrative Grade but in certain States, even younger IAS
officers are made in charge of Districts (Known as District Magistrates (DM), Deputy
Commissioners (DCs) or Collectors).

[edit] See also

 All India Services
 Indian Police Service
 Indian Foreign Service
 Pay commission

[edit] References
1. ^ "Battling the babu raj." The Economist 6 March 2008.
2. ^ Mukarji, Nirmal. Speech published "Restructuring the Bureaucracy: Do We Need the
All-India Services?"in Arora, Balveer and Radin, Beryl, Eds. The Changing Role of the
All-India Services: An assessment and agenda for future research on federalism and the
All-India services. New Delhi: Centre for Policy Research, 2000.
3. ^ Radin, B.A. (2007). "The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the 21 stCentury:
Living in an Intergovernmental Environment". International Journal of Public
Administration 30 (12): 1525-1548. http://www.informaworld.com/index/788492605.pdf.
Retrieved on 2008-06-11.