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Indian Administrative Service
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is an Administrative Service on all India Basis. IAS is the key administrative service at government level. Due to cadre allotment and division to the statewise, this service has lost its All India Outlook. During the British period these bureaucratic structure was known as 'Steel frame' of India for its role in influencing and implementing government policies and decisions. But now due to the growth in public representative institutions and democratic decentralisation both in policy making and planning, their role is now restricted to policy execution and office bearing.
The precursor of the Indian Administrative Service was the Indian Civil Service of the British Raj. ICS officers, known as 'Collectors', were generally held in high regard because of their reputation for being incorruptible and good administrators.
Upon independence, the new Republic of India accepted the then serving Indian Civil Service officers who chose to stay on rather than leave for the United Kingdom and renamed the service the Indian Administrative Service.
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The officials of the IAS are involved in civil administration and policy making. They are selected by the Union Public Service Commission through a three-stage combined selection process called the Civil Services Examination, known for being extremely challenging, that recruits officers for 20 other Group A services and five Group B services. The first stage, the Civil Services Prelims is composed of two objective exams: one of General studies and one of a subject of one's choice amongst a given list of subjects. The candidates can choose to be examined in about forty fields, from Civil Engineering and Medicine to Chinese Literature and Accountancy. This is purely a eliminatory stage and plays no part in the final rankings. About 5000-6000 of the applicants are selected for the next stage called the Civil Services Mains. The second stage is more exhaustive. It has nine papers of which two are qualificatory in nature. One has to choose two optional sujects of once's choice as compared to one in the Preliminary stage. There are two papers of General Studies, Optional 1 and Optional 2 each of 300 marks and one Essay paper of 200 marks. The exam is for a total of 2000 marks. Around 1200-1400 aspirants clear Mains and sit for the third stage i.e the Civil Services Interview which is for 300 marks. Every candidate is asked to choose their preference of services before the interview. Almost all of them choose IAS as their first choice but a few opt for Indian Police Service or the Indian Foreign Service. The entire selection process lasts fifteen to twenty months. Repeated attempts are allowed (maximum of 4 times). About 80-100 are finally selected each year out of the nearly 300,000 appearing. IAS officers are highly respected in Indian society.
The Constituent Assembly of India intended that the bureaucracy should be able to speak out freely, without fear of persecution or financial insecurity as an essential element in unifying the nation. The IAS officers are recruited by the Union government on the recommendation of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and posted under various State governments. While the respective State Governments have control over them they can not censure or take disciplinary action against IAS and other All India Services officers without consulting the Union Government and the UPSC.
The officers of the IAS normally start as Assistant Divisional Magistrates / Sub-Collectors and look after an area that is typically 1,000 - 5,000 km² in extent and may have a population of 200,000 to 1,000,000. After four years of service, they are promoted to the rank of Under-Secretary to Government of India (equivalent to a Deputy Secretary to a State Government). At sometime in their careers, normally within the first ten years, they are posted as the Collectors/ Deputy Commissioners/ District Magistrates of a district. They will be subsequently promoted as Deputy, Joint, Additional and Principal Secretaries to the Government of India, or to equivalent positions in the Central Government. The head of a State's civil service is called the Chief Secretary and the head of the country's civil service is called the Cabinet Secretary. These positions require at least thirty to thirty five years of service as IAS officers. In addition, the IAS officers are sent to work in all the Attached and Subordinate Offices of the Government of India. The following table has an error: Additional District Magistrate is not an entry level post but given in the fourth year of service.
