The lateral logic

The announcement that there will be lateral induction of over 400 officers at the level of Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary in the Government of India has met with two reactions: that the move will prick, if not burst, the IAS balloon, and, two, that it is an artful way of inducting preferred individuals with ideological affinity with the ruling dispensation. None of The IAS is an all-India service, and its members are allotted to state cadres and come on deputation to the Government of India for five-year stints subject to being on central offer and considered suitable. Overall there is a shortage of some 1,500 officers out of a sanctioned strength of 6,500 and state governments most of whom face an acute shortage of IAS officers are averse to letting them go on central deputation. Consequently, the service is hugely under-represented compared to the deputation reserve assigned to each state. Even Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, which once offered some of the most administratively competent IAS officers, are today utilising hardly 25 per cent of the state's deputation reserve. This gap in manning central staffing posts has been largely filled by other Group A services, of which there are over 45. These include the Civil Accounts and Postal Services, Customs, Excise and Income Tax, the Railways, Statistics and the Central Information Service. Members of these services are recruited through the UPSC's combined competitive examination. Their career progressionincluding training, promotion, discipline, benefits and retirementis managed by the respective cadre-controlling authorities. The difference between the IAS and other services lies in the training of the IAS officers, their understanding of India's federal structure, the political and administrative systems operating at three levels of government, urban and rural complexities and conversance with administrative structures that operate countrywide.