Bharat today is at a crossroads. It has dethroned China as the most populous country. It has also overtaken Japan to become the world’s fourth-largest economy and is likely to become the third-largest by 2028, leaving Germany behind. The country also aspires to become a developed nation by 2047, when it celebrates one hundred years of independence.

The road ahead to actualise the dream of Viksit Bharat is arduous and full of humongous challenges. And to scale the summit, among many things required, the nation needs a robust, transparent, incorruptible, people-oriented and development-focused civil service to enable the country to cross innumerable hurdles on the way.

This brings me to the key question: Are the Indian Civil Services future-ready to do justice to the aspirations of making Bharat a developed nation? And if the answer is “no", what transformational changes are needed in the way civil servants are recruited and trained, and in their structure and functioning?

The Litmus Test

But to begin with, questions that beg answers are: what type of civil services does Bharat need? What litmus test must they pass? These questions were best addressed on 21 April 1947 by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, then Home Minister of the country and the “Father of Civil Services in Bharat", while addressing the first batch of probationers of the Indian Administrative Service.

Here is what the Bismarck of Bharat articulated: “I would advise you to maintain the utmost impartiality and incorruptibility of administration… no Service worth the name can claim to exist if it does not have in view the achievement of the highest standard of integrity. Unhappily, India today cannot boast of an incorruptible Service, but I hope that you, who are now starting, as it were, a new generation of civil servants, will not be misled by the black sheep in the fold, but would render your service without fear or favour and without any expectation of extraneous rewards."

Failing The Test

At the outset, I posit that civil services and civil servants today (exceptions apart) fail the litmus test so categorically articulated by Sardar Patel. Here is what appears to have happened:

The above are just a few of the many challenges confronting the civil services today. Band-aid solutions will no longer provide succour, and it is time for transformative changes.

Two-Part Deep Dive

This two-part explainer focuses on urgent transformational reforms in every aspect of the Civil Services in India to make civil servants fighting fit to be agents of transformation as the country strives to become Viksit Bharat by 2047.

Owing to the importance of the subject, while writing this piece, I held the widest possible consultations with civil servants of all genres as well as other experts and stakeholders. And what I have learnt numbs me.

After examining what ails the civil services,........

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