The Steel Frame: A History of the IAS

The Steel Frame: A History of the IAS PDF

Author: Deepak Gupta

Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited

Published: 2019-03-19

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 8193984641

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Deepak Gupta did his BA from Allahabad, MA from St Stephen’s college and MPhil in International relations from JNU. From the IAS batch of 1974, he has spent many years in the field in the erstwhile state of Bihar, including two districts (Saharsa 1979–80; Rohtas 1986–88) as Collector. He served in many departments in state and center and was also posted in India Trade Centre, Brussels and spent a year as WHO Advisor on TB in Delhi. He retired in 2011 as Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. After retirement he consulted with the World Bank and UNIDO and writes on issues of energy and sustainable development. He was Chairman of UPSC from November 2014 to September 2016. His published works include Documentation of Participatory Irrigation Management, Covering a Billion with DOTS, Achieving Universal Energy Access in India: Challenges and Way Forward, and Caught by the Police.

What Ails the IAS and Why It Fails to Deliver

What Ails the IAS and Why It Fails to Deliver PDF

Author: Naresh Chandra Saxena

Publisher: SAGE Publications Pvt. Limited

Published: 2019-11-14

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789353286484

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An unorthodox and maverick administrator, the author worked in top policy positions, but the system rejected the reforms that he advocated. In his career he followed the economic philosophy of ‘socialism for the poor and free market for the rich’. However, the political and administrative system in India seemed to believe in ‘indifference to the poor and control over the rich to facilitate rent seeking’. The book is full of anecdotes ranging from how the author resisted political corruption that led to the Prime Minister’s annoyance to a situation when the author himself ‘bribed’ the Chief Minister to scrap oppressive laws against tribal women. As Joint Secretary, Minorities Commission, the author exposed the communal bias of the district administration in handling riots in Meerut; he was punished for bringing to light the killing of innocent Muslim women and children by the police. When Bihar became a ‘failed state’ during the Lalu Prasad Yadav era of 1990–2005, the author did not hesitate in rebuking the Chief Secretary who was his senior in service, and accused IAS officials in Bihar of behaving like English-speaking politicians. Despite their high integrity, hard work and competence, IAS officials do not exercise sufficient control over the field staff who collude with the junior staff in reporting false figures on hunger deaths, malnutrition and usage of toilets, leading to erosion of accountability. Not only do many welfare programmes such as NREGA, ICDS and PDS have design flaws, governance in India at the state and district levels is also quite weak, manifesting itself in poor service delivery, uncaring administration, corruption, and uncoordinated and wasteful public expenditure. Analysing the present Indian situation, the book suggests policy changes in all cross-cutting systemic issues such as the role of politicians, tenure, size and nature of Indian bureaucracy, accountability, monitoring of programmes and civil service reforms, which will transform individual competencies of IAS officers into better collective outcomes.

The Service of the State

The Service of the State PDF

Author: Bhaskar Ghose

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2011-01-01

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 8184755759

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Is the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) still the most appropriate institution to govern twenty-first-century India? Should a cadre of generalists head organizations as complex and diverse as industrial units; museums and rural development boards? If it had to be replaced; what is the best alternative? Drawing on his experience of thirty-six years in the IAS; Bhaskar Ghose addresses these and other major questions regarding the role; relevance and effectiveness of India’s long-established but often controversial system of state administration in The Service of the State. Ghose argues forcefully that the IAS is still the best option and one moreover that substantially fulfils its functions—and fulfils them well. Though its once sterling reputation has been tarnished by allegations of corruption; political subservience and declining standards of efficiency; there are still sufficient numbers of dedicated public servants. These administrators; spanning diverse social backgrounds; seniorities and regional profiles; draw on established traditions of duty and of cooperation within the service to deliver—to the best of their ability and often in the face of considerable odds—the goods of development. This reflective and luminous memoir is not only a portrait of a lifetime’s service to the state; it is also a timely and persuasive argument for a system of governance that has had a critical impact on India since Independence.

Making a Difference

Making a Difference PDF

Author: Alok Ranjan

Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited

Published: 2021-10-18

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9354922732

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Making a Difference comes as a handy guidebook for IAS aspirants in the country. The preface is by Yogendra Narayan, a retired IAS officer and also the ex-chief secretary of U.P. The introduction is about the challenges and opportunities of IAS as a career. It also includes everything from the motives to join the IAS to the written exam to the personality test to the training required. The book also talks about the myths and realities about the IAS - interesting sections include questions about integrity, how citizens perceive the IAS, and what is the IAS' relationship with the political executive of the government.

Why i Am Not a Civil Servant

Why i Am Not a Civil Servant PDF

Author: Ajay Singh Yadav

Publisher: Srishti Publishers

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13:

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Autobiographical reminiscences of a former civil servant of India discussing the sorry state of Indian civil services.

Poor But Spritied In Karimnagar

Poor But Spritied In Karimnagar PDF

Author: Sumita Dawra

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2013-12-01

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9350295687

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The difficulty of finding solutions After six decades of policy-making and planning that appear perfect on paper, vast pockets of poverty persist across the country, accompanied by low human development indices. In Poor but Spirited in Karimnagar, Sumita Dawra recounts her experiences as collector in the district of Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh, and grapples with the question of why even with crores of rupees of government funding, well-meaning implementing agencies and constructive action, this wide gap between intention and results continues. The stories cover diverse populations, from child labour to cotton farmers, from coal miners to malnourished power loom weavers. They traverse the thick Naxal-infested forests, course along the Godavari, and meander through the 'multiple urban worlds' of Ramagundem and the dry upland areas of Sircilla, examining the key issues that need to be addressed. Each chapter, divided into three sections - identifying the problem, providing the context, and offering the solution, along with a useful statistical guide that provides a quick overview - looks at the key points of lacunae in service delivery in the concerned areas and provides a starting point for a more effective engagement in the tackling of the problems. Based on successful models of governance within the country and elsewhere, this book from a seasoned bureaucrat offers a fresh, contemporary perspective on administration and governance.

A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History

A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History PDF

Author: Manuel De Landa

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0942299922

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Following in the wake of his groundbreaking work War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, Manuel De Landa presents a brilliant, radical synthesis of historical development of the last thousand years. A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History sketches the outlines of a renewed materialist philosophy of history in the tradition of Fernand Braudel, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari, while engaging — in an entirely unprecedented manner — the critical new understanding of material processes derived from the sciences of dynamics. Working against prevailing attitudes that see history merely as the arena of texts, discourses, ideologies, and metaphors, De Landa traces the concrete movements and interplays of matter and energy through human populations in the last millennium. The result is an entirely novel approach to the study of human societies and their always mobile, semi-stable forms, cities, economies, technologies, and languages. De Landa attacks three domains that have given shape to human societies: economics, biology, and linguistics. In each case, De Landa discloses the self-directed processes of matter and energy interacting with the whim and will of human history itself to form a panoramic vision of the West free of rigid teleology and naive notions of progress and, even more important, free of any deterministic source for its urban, institutional, and technological forms. The source of all concrete forms in the West’s history, rather, is shown to derive from internal morphogenetic capabilities that lie within the flow of matter—energy itself. A Swerve Edition.

Modern South Asia

Modern South Asia PDF

Author: Sugata Bose

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780415307871

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A wide-ranging survey of the Indian sub-continent, Modern South Asia gives an enthralling account of South Asian history. After sketching the pre-modern history of the subcontinent, the book concentrates on the last three centuries from c.1700 to the present. Jointly written by two leading Indian and Pakistani historians, Modern South Asia offers a rare depth of understanding of the social, economic and political realities of this region. This comprehensive study includes detailed discussions of: the structure and ideology of the British raj; the meaning of subaltern resistance; the refashioning of social relations along lines of caste class, community and gender; and the state and economy, society and politics of post-colonial South Asia The new edition includes a rewritten, accessible introduction and a chapter by chapter revision to take into account recent research. The second edition will also bring the book completely up to date with a chapter on the period from 1991 to 2002 and adiscussion of the last millennium in sub-continental history.

The Insider's View

The Insider's View PDF

Author: Javid Chowdhury

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2012-09-15

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 8184757220

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In this illuminating memoir Javid Chowdhury shares his varied experiences over four decades in the IAS: the years in training when he imbibed the service’s ethos and values; his initiation into the rural universe as the District Development Officer and the District Magistrate; and further on, to his handling of the infamous Bank Securities and Jain Hawala scams as Director of Enforcement and Union Revenue Secretary. With a light pen, Chowdhury describes the changing social profile and attitudes of entrants to the higher civil services; the nepotism, in many garbs, that he encountered as Establishment Officer; and the stranger-than-fiction tortuous investigations of crimes. He also offers his nuanced reflections on the dubious legacy Gujarat acquired as a result of the communal carnage in 2002. Chowdhury further examines how policymaking within government came to be whittled away under the neo-liberal theology, with key scrutiny being left to external expert think tanks and ad hoc groups. As a consequence, he perceives that public accountability came to be inordinately diffused, resulting in the roller-coaster governance that we witness today. Sharp and insightful, replete with telling anecdotes and amusing sketches of icons, colleagues and ministers, The Insider’s View is a compelling portrait of the author, a self-confessed welfare socialist, besides being an X-ray of the innards of the bureaucracy.