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Thinker of the Day | K. S. Verma
Work – Indian Administration & Civil Services
Views
- Verma’s work highlights the importance of a competent, professional and politically responsive civil service for effective governance.
Indian civil services inherited several features of the colonial administrative system, but democratic governance requires their transformation from control-oriented administration to development- and citizen-oriented administration.
Effective administration requires political direction + professional administrative advice, while maintaining constitutional accountability and institutional integrity.
Civil-service reform should focus on: Professional competence Training and capacity building Accountability Performance orientation Ethical conduct
for e.g. shift from the traditional mai-baap bureaucracy towards citizen-centric governance, reflected in initiatives such as Mission Karmayogi, illustrates the need to transform administrative capacity while preserving institutional continuity.
The challenge before Indian civil services is not merely preserving administrative continuity, but converting inherited bureaucratic capacity into professional ethical and citizen-centred governance.
