Fixing the steel frame: 

Fixing the steel frame: 

Context:

• Since 1947, India continued to adopt the civil service system inherited from the British with no major reforms.
• But in reality, the colonial civil service system was unsuitable for a politically free, socially feudal and economically poor country such as India.

Indian bureaucracy: legacy of British Colonialism

• Colonial bureaucracy: Colonial bureaucracy was an instrument or apparatus which included the employment of officials to assist in the administration of the colonial states.
• India inherited an administration which was created by its British rulers to serve the interest of their Queen and the British parliament.
• The whole set of Indian Civil Services was designed and trained by the British with the aim of extracting maximum revenues from the local Indians.
• The country segregated the civil services as the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IAAS), etc.

What are the problems of Indian bureaucracy?

The inherited bureaucracy of India is crippled by

• political interference,
• outdated personnel procedures,
• and a mixed record on policy implementation.
• The bureaucracy has continued to be deeply hierarchical and rule-bound.
• There has been a resistance to change. It is said that the age-old system is keeping the Indian bureaucracy intact.
• But in turn its inefficiency, corruption and delays have become, in public perception, the hallmarks of public administration in India

What are the  measures to be taken?

Reforms should be brought about by the government to

1. reshape recruitment and promotion processes,
2. improve performance-based assessment of individual officers, and
3. adopt safeguards that promote accountability while protecting bureaucrats from political meddling. For example:

Reforms suggested by  Second Administrative Reforms Commission (SARC) are as follows:

• The commission had recommended significantly lowering the permissible age of entry into the civil services.
• It recommended establishment of national institutes of public administration that would cultivate a new pool of aspiring civil service applicants.
• The commission also suggested that all promotions be based on successful completion of mandatory training.
• The commission recommended a system of two intensive reviews at the 14 and 20 year marks to determine continuance in public service.
• And a new civil service reform bill to fix a minimum tenure for senior posts and establish safeguards against arbitrary dismissal.
• Moreover, changing the character of the personnel system would not by itself be enough, organizational charges in the area of government ministries departments are also needed.