Presentation on permanent bureaucracy in India also known as permanent executives with their functioning.

1. 1
Neerja Modi
School Jaipur

2. Introduction
Meaning & Concept
Features
Categories
Power, purpose, and responsibilities
History
Governance
Values and codes
Recruitment & Related Matter
Corruption & Other Negative Aspects
Conclusion
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3. Bureaucracy is the executive
arm of the government. In text
books on organs of
government, one studies the
legislature, the executive and
the judiciary with bureaucracy
being subsumed under the
executive (which comprises the
political establishment and the
bureaucracy). Now, one finds
that bureaucracy is being
treated separately and this is
indicative of its growing 3

4. Most of you must be familiar with the word ‘bureau’
which means office. Bureaucracy takes off from this only.
In essence, bureaucracy is an organized body of persons
who deal with office procedures, rules and regulations.
Bureaucracy popularly refers to government officials.
Generally, it should be mentioned here that when one
talks of the bureaucracy, one refers to the civilian
bureaucracy also known as the civil services. This point
is being mentioned because the military also has a
bureaucracy and the corporate world too has one.
Indeed, bureaucracy exists in every organization.
Therefore, it is important to remain focused on the fact
that in this presentation, when we mention bureaucracy,
we have the civilian bureaucracy (civil services) in our
mind. 4

5. Bureaucracy anywhere has certain, well-
established features. Alternatively, an
organization is bureaucratic if it has these
features. Some of the better known
features are : (i) Hierarchy (ii) Chain of
command (iii) Adherence to rules and
regulations (iv) Impersonal/faceless and
apolitical (v) Recruitment through
statutory bodies specifically created for
the purpose, etc. These features are
briefly described in this presentation. We
should mention here that these features 5

6. I. Hierarchy
Essentially, bureaucracy is hierarchical. It is based on rank. Each rank
or position is subordinate to some and superior to some other. The
bottom to the top, generally, makes for a pyramidal structure with
the lower ranks concentrated at the bottom and the higher ranks at
the top.
II. Chain of Command
This feature is intimately linked with the one above. In any
hierarchical body, there is a chain of command flowing from
the top to the bottom. Normally, the command chain is not
broken. To give an example from the Indian context, in a
Department of the Central Government in Delhi, the chain of
command is as follows:
Secretary → Additional Secretary → Joint Secretary →
Deputy Secretary → Under Secretary → Section Officer
→ other lower ranks.
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7. III. Adherence to Rules and Regulations
A classic feature of bureaucracies all along has been their rigid
adherence to rules and regulations. This has, in fact, led to the
adjective “bureaucratic” being coined for any person/organization
insisting too much on rules, regulations and procedures.
IV. Impersonal/Faceless and Apolitical
A bureaucracy is supposed to be impersonal. This basically
means that a bureaucrat is expected to be guided by
objective (as against subjective) considerations while
following rules and regulations in the course of
implementing various policy measures and directives.
As regards the ‘faceless’ aspect, you perhaps are aware of the
fact that any civilian bureaucracy is subordinate to the
political executive. The political leadership is the face of the
administration, while the bureaucracy works behind the
scenes. It of course does not always happen but that is how it
has been envisaged.
Bureaucracy, strictly, is also supposed to be apolitical. This
basically implies that a bureaucrat is not to have a political
agenda of his own but rather, faithfully implement the
policies of the government of the day.
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8. There are three categories of bureaucrats
in India:
1.All India Civil
Services
2.Central Civil
Services
3.State Civil
Services 8

9. 1. All India Civil Services
The All India Civil Services comprises the following
services:
I. Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
II. Indian Forest Service (IFS)
III. Indian Police Service (IPS)
The officers in these offices are recruited by the Centre,
but placed under various State cadres after being trained
by the Centre. They have a liability to serve both the
Centre and the State.
Since 2012, the first tier of both the Civil Services
Examination and the Indian Forest Service Examination are
combined.
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10. The Central Civil Services (CCS) is directly
concerned with the administration and
permanent bureaucracy of the Government of
India. The specialized civil services fields in
India mostly belong to the central services. The
CCS are classified into Group A gazette officers,
who are appointed by the President of India
himself, and Group B gazette officers, who are
appointed by President-ordered authorities.
Recruitment process:
The recruitment of the CCS is made through the Civil Services Examination, the
Engineering Services Examination of UPSC and the Combined Graduate Level
Examination of Staff Selection Commission (SSC).
2. Central Civil Services
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11. Recruitment process:
The State Public Service Commissions conduct the
recruitments for these offices.
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12. Power, Purpose, and
Responsibilities
The responsibility of the civil services is to run the
administration of India. The country is managed
through a number of central government agencies in
accordance with policy directions from the ministries.
Among the members of the civil services are
administrators in the central government and state
government; emissaries in the foreign
missions/embassies; tax collectors and revenue
commissioners; civil service commissioned police
officers; permanent representative(s) and employees
in the United Nations and its agencies; and chairmen,
managing directors, and full-time functional directors
and members of the board of various public-sector
undertakings, enterprises, corporations, banks, and 12

13. All appointments in the rank of Joint
Secretary to Government of India and
above, other major appointments,
empanelment, and extension of tenure
are done by the Appointments Committee
of the Cabinet.
Lower appointments are handled by the
Civil Services Board. Civil servants are the
actual makers of Indian law and policy.
They work on behalf of the elected
government and cannot publicly show
their disinterest or disapproval for it. It is 13

14. The present civil services of India are mainly
based on the pattern of the former Indian Civil
Service of British India. Warren Hastings laid the
foundation of civil service and Charles
Cornwallis reformed, modernized, and
rationalized it. Hence, Charles Cornwallis is
known as 'the father of civil service in India'.
Cornwallis introduced two divisions of the Indian
Civil service—covenanted and uncovenanted. The
covenanted civil service consisted of only
Europeans (i.e., British personnel) occupying the
higher posts in the government. The
uncovenanted civil service was solely introduced
to facilitate the entry of Indians at the lower rung
HISTORY
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15. Head of the Civil Services
The highest ranking civil servant is the
Cabinet Secretary. He is ex-
officio Chairman of the Civil Services
Board; the chief of the Indian
Administrative Service and head of all civil
services under the rules of business of the
Government of India. He also holds the
11th position in the Order of Precedence
of India.
The position holder is accountable for
ensuring that the Civil Service is equipped 15

16. Values
A member of the civil service in discharge of his/her
functions is to be guided by maintaining absolute
integrity, allegiance to the constitution and the law
nation, patriotism, national pride, devotion to duty,
honesty, impartiality and transparency.
Codes
The Government of India promotes values and a
standard of ethics of requiring and facilitating every
servant:
To discharge official duty with responsibility,
accountability and without discrimination.
To ensure effective management, leadership
development and personal growth.
To avoid misuse of official position or information.
To serve as instruments of good governance and 16

17. I. Statutory body for Recruitment - The Union Public Service
Commission (UPSC)
The Union Public Service Commission or the UPSC to use its popular
abbreviated form is an autonomous body created by the Constitution
to recruit – personnel (officer and other ranks) for the various Central
Government services. Thus, it conducts not only the annual civil
services examination (for the IAS, IFS, IPS Allied Services Group A and
B) but also other Central Government services such as the Indian
Forest Service, the Indian Economic Service and the Indian
Engineering Service. In fact, the UPSC conducts the recruitment of
not only the civilian bureaucracy, but also of the defense services of
the country. Thus, it conducts the examinations for the National
Defense Academy (NDA) and the Indian Military Academy (IMA). The
UPSC has been conducting the various examinations since 1947. It is,
in fact, not only responsible for recruitment, but also acts as an
advisory body regarding all career matters of the recruited 17

18. II. Special Provisions for Deprived
Sections
It is important to note that as regards
recruitment to bureaucratic positions in India,
there is a provision for reservation of a certain
percentage of posts for deprived sections of
society. Thus, from the onset of independence,
22.5% of post have been reserved for Scheduled
Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). In
addition, since the implementation of the Mandal
Commission recommendations, an additional 27%
of posts have been reserved for the Other
Backward Castes (OBCs).
Also, the various state governments have their
own state-wise quotas for government jobs. Some18

19. Our point regarding the recruitment of the Indian
Bureaucracy will not be complete without a
reference to the State Public Service Commissions. As
the very nomenclature indicates, a state public
service commission is responsible for recruitment to
government service at the state level. In terms of
organization and functioning, State Public Service
Commissions correspond to the UPSC at the central
level. However, in terms of credibility, a wide gulf
exists between the State Public Service Commissions
and the UPSC. In recent times, a lot of State Public
Service Commissions have come under a cloud for
their partisan, biased and politicized functioning. It,
certainly, is a fact that the members of State Public
Service Commissions are, generally, political
III. State Public Service Commissions
(SPSCs)
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20. The Indian Bureaucracy has had some continuing
problems/controversies associated with it from the
very beginning. It may be mentioned that these
problems are to be found in bureaucracies
worldwide.
I. Corruption
A study by the Hong Kong-based Political and
Economic Risk Consultancy, released in 2012,
ranked and rated Indian bureaucracy as the worst
in Asia with a 9.21 rating out of 10. According to the
study, India's inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy
was responsible for most of the complaints that
business executive have about the country. A paper
prepared in 2012 by the Ministry of Personnel,
Public Grievances and Pensions states that
Corruption & Other Negative Aspects
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21. II. Minister Versus Civil Servants
The inter-relationship between the political (ministers) and the
permanent (government officials) executive in India (as elsewhere) has
been complex, to say the least. To a great extent, this is because of the
inherent nature of the relationship between the ministers and the civil
servants. In any form of government and more so in a democracy, such
as India’s, the civil servants are subordinate to the ministers. However,
this is not always the case. Where the minister is ignorant and
incompetent, the officers under him have a field day doing exactly as
they please with the minister unable to do a thing. On the other hand,
when the minister is powerful the officers are generally too willing to
do the minister’s bidding; often in contravention of all rules and
regulations.
III. Under-representation of the Minorities
The minorities, especially, the Muslims-India’s largest minority – have
often complained of their poor representation in the country’s premier
civil services such as the IAS and the IPS. However, there is no hard
core evidence to support that this has been deliberately the case. Poor
levels of education and motivation have been a major cause. Solutions
such as a separate quota for the minorities have been suggested, but it
requires a consensus amongst the political class.
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22. Some form of bureaucracy has existed from times immemorial. Modern
bureaucracy is attributed to people’s Republic of China which was the
first country in the world to conduct on open, competitive examination
for recruitment to the civil services. Bureaucracy basically means a body
of government officials.
In India, bureaucracy as we know it today is traceable to Lord Cornwallis.
Colonial bureaucracy which had the Indian Civil Service (ICS) at its top
basically served the ends of India’s colonial masters. After independence,
in the early years there was a lot of enthusiasm amongst both the
political leadership and the bureaucracy regarding nation building.
However, over a period of time things went down. The politician-
bureaucrat-businessman combine, the idea of a committed bureaucracy,
all these spelled the doom of the civil services. Today, the bureaucracy is
in the era of globalization and trying to come to grips with a loss of power
in a regime of slackening governmental control over the economy.
CONCLUSION
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23. Thankyou
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