The Centre has 30 lakh of them, the State another 70 lakh. There are 80,000 “Category One” types, and 5,800 elite. Together, they comprise the Great Indian bureaucracy. Lant Pritchett of the Kennedy school of government at Harvard University, called it “one of the world’s ten biggest problems—of the order of AIDS and climate change”.
As another 140 of them prepare to join the Indian Administrative Service this year, The Economist has a cover story on the urgent need to reform the Babu Raj if the Indian Tiger isn’t to be held back.
It quotes Sanjoy Bagchi, a former IAS officer and the author of a recent history of the civil service:
“Overwhelmed by the constant feed of adulatory ambrosia, the maturing entrant tends to lose his head and balance. The diffident youngster of early idealistic years, in course of time, is transformed into an arrogant senior fond of throwing his weight around; he becomes a conceited prig.”
Read the full story: Battling the babu raj
Also read: With IAS officers like these, who needs the ISI?
***
In picture: Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman (left) sits on the floor beside his former boss Russi Mody during the 100th Founder’s Day celebrations at Tata Steel works in Jamshedpur on Monday.
churumuri 
enu etta anta gottilde, yaaro bagchi heLda anta innyaaro harvard university heLda anta hind beelakkaagalla.
ai.ae.yassu kul geTTogide anta heLodraenu doDDa sangati? yaake enu yetta haeLi. proposition alla, proof mukhya.
sum sumne baay biDisa beDi. yoon yaaru haeLda anta ella hoon anokaguttye?
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India map published in the economist article is not correct. There is no Aksai chin in the map.
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Nicely written article as usual by Economist. But there are no new insights or set of recommendations or predictions.
This is just one more report of a well known problem. Another observation I would like to make is why the author refers only to Harvard study. Isn’t there a study by an Indian? If there are no such studies, that is telling some thing about the state of affairs in our country. What happened to Moily report? Did he even take a look at this important problem? Where is Indian Peter Drucker?
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I had a cursory glance at the article. Somewhere the report says Kochi is the capital of Kerala. I wonder how The Economist could make such a mistake.
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Didnt get how the photo is related to the article !!!!
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Left is always right. The Left’s working hypothesis is that good government would solve all of our problems. The hypothesis is non-falsifiable. The statement “If we had good government, then X” is always going to be true. (econlib)
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The IAS cadre are trained to miss the wood for the trees. Otherwise how can one explain the acts, though charitable, of an IAS officer (described in the main article)! Instead of doling out alms and making the people perpetual beggars, the officer should have been involved in developing the area for generation of employment.
My professor used to discourage people working in lab on holidays and Sundays. His theory was that if you are over worked it shows your inefficiency. This is an apt advice for the officer described in the main article and many like him.
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