Inclusivity with innovation

India's civil services and the selection process should balance conventional inclusivity with the agility and leadership required to address modern governance challenges effectively

- ALOK RANJAN

The rapid pace of technological disruption demands a very proactive and dynamic civil service, particularly within the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). The bureaucracy can no longer afford to remain flat-footed; a high degree of agility is essential, and red tape must be consigned to the archives.

Most thought leaders are unanimous on the point that if India is to become a developed nation by 2047, then the key to this would be effective public governance and public service delivery.

Different prescriptions are being articulated and there is also an involved debate on them.

According to some, the panacea for all that ails the governance is to bring in people from various sectors having domain specialization on the posts at the policy-making level which are normally held by the IAS or other all India/Central officers.

Lateral entry has its ardent proponents as well as vociferous detractors.

Both have strong arguments in their favour.

Innovation in public governance has been suggested, by none other than the doyen of the Indian IT industry, Narayan Murthy.

Murthy is advocating a radical change in the process of recruitment to the civil services, and in particular to the IAS.

He has advised that IAS officers must be chosen from management graduates from reputed management institutes.

The thrust of Murthy's suggestion is that the modern-day administrator cannot be one who believes in maintenance of status quo.

The need of the hour today is to have managers who can understand concepts like strategy, goal setting, utilizing resources and delivering results.

They need to understand the fast-changing external economic and technological environment and factor it in policymaking and implementation.

This is a time of rapid change and IAS officers must have the ability to lead and manage change.