As India approaches its 100th year of independence, ‘Vision India@2047’ or ‘Viksit Bharat’, a strategic initiative driven by the government and NITI Aayog, aims to make India a developed nation by 2047.
This vision encompasses a multi-faceted approach, transforming India to a knowledge-based and technology-driven economy, with its demographic dividend, expanding digital economy and sustainability focus acting as key pillars to achieve this vision. Effective governance and an efficient administration will lie at the heart of this vision, necessitating a reform of the Indian civil service to make it modern, innovative, efficient and fit for the digital age.
Recognising the need for reforms, the current Modi government has already implemented several initiatives over the past decade. The following section outlines these reforms and brings out some of the opportunities that still lie ahead and are within reach to revolutionise the Indian civil service.
Adoption of technology
The current workings of the Indian civil service are characterised by a blend of traditional and modern practices. The filing system, a cornerstone of bureaucratic operations, predominantly relies on extensive documentation and manual record-keeping, though there is a progressive and rapid shift towards e-office/e-filing.
Latest data from the Secretariat Reforms report published by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) suggests that 94% of total files created are e-Files and 94% of total receipts are e-receipts. Moreover, the decision-making process within the civil service is traditionally hierarchical, typically following a strict top-down approach. Senior officials often hold significant authority, and directives cascade through multiple levels of bureaucracy. This hierarchy leads to delays, as approvals and reviews are required at every stage. The recent ‘delayering’ initiative mandates all ministries to ensure that a file does not move through more than four officers.
However, with the advent of new technology and in line with global trends, India could further embrace corporatisation of its operations, adopting the private sector ways of working, completely eliminating use of e-files too. Emails could become the primary mode of communication in the government, facilitating swift and clear exchanges across departments and with internal/ external stakeholders.
Additionally, applications like Google Workspace, Microsoft Office 365 including Teams, and Zoom could be extensively used to support collaboration, remote working, and virtual meetings. These tools will enable civil servants to work flexibly and maintain productivity regardless of physical location. To further eliminate inefficiencies due to hierarchy, collaborative tools like Google Docs instead of e-files could be used when putting up advice to Ministers. These tools allow multiple team members across the chain of command to directly edit or provide comments on a document. This approach can substantially reduce the need for a ‘file’ to move and be tracked physically or digitally through the hierarchy, thereby speeding up the process.
Performance management
Civil servants in India are typically promoted to higher grades after completing a specified period of service, provided they meet certain criteria such as performance, seniority, and training requirements. This system was introduced to help ensure a fair and structured career path and to provide predictability in the professional growth of civil servants. The Modi government recently made a significant change here by introducing the Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR), replacing the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) to ensure transparent performance evaluations.
However, the practice of promoting officers based mainly on tenure can lead to less competent officers being promoted at the same time as high-performing ones, potentially demotivating more capable employees. Moreover, the system also leads to lack of dynamism and innovation within the civil service, as it does not strongly incentivise risk-taking or the drive to continuously improve/ adapt new ideas.
To incentivise high-performing officers, a more rigorous, merit-based approach to performance management and promotions could be followed. Performance management discussions could happen every quarter with line managers providing feedback to their reports and taking 360-degree feedback could be recommended. Moreover, promotions could be solely based on merit, taking into consideration individual’s leadership skills/ style, the ability to influence and negotiate and the ability to conduct complex project management as well as peers and staff feedback.
Training, capacity building and mentoring
A recent reform in this area is the ‘Mission Karmayogi’, a comprehensive capacity-building program for civil servants, aimed at creating a ‘future-ready civil service’ equipped with the right attitude, skills and knowledge. This is a great step forward, as a civil servant in India has a pivotal role where they oversee important policy initiatives and/or are in charge of an entire district’s affairs. This means that some key skills discussed previously, around leadership, project management and influencing, need to be taught through all stages of the civil service.
Moreover, establishing a coaching and mentoring programme can further empower Indian civil servants to make informed decisions, navigate conflicts effectively and continually enhance their professional capabilities. Leadership positions can often be isolating, especially when facing difficult situations and decisions. During such times, a mentoring relationship with someone who has previously navigated similar challenges is invaluable. Such a programme would create a supportive network, allowing civil servants to share issues with experienced senior colleagues, thereby enhancing leadership effectiveness and overall efficiency.
To enhance learning opportunities available to civil servants, opportunities to work in the private sector could also be made available, allowing officers to expand their skill set, gain valuable exposure to alternate ways of working and learn from industry best practices.
Data driven decision-making
In addition to addressing the efficiency of decision-making, as pointed out earlier, there is also a lot of room for improving the quality of decisions too. This necessitates leveraging the pool of experts in the civil service, for example, the economists (Indian Economic Service) and statisticians (Indian Statistical Service). There is growing emphasis globally on evidence-based approaches to policymaking, which prioritises data collection and analysis to ensure decisions are grounded in high-quality evidence.
Therefore, the Indian civil service would need to strengthen its technical capabilities. This could be done by establishing separate dedicated professions for data scientists, digital experts and social/behavioural researchers, akin to the Indian Economic Service and the Indian Statistical Service. The Indian Analysis function, thus formed, could play a crucial role in providing evidence-based insights and recommendations to support policy formulation, implementation and evaluation.
Moreover, the strength of technical professions could also be increased by bolstering recruitment. For context, the Government Economic Service (GES), which is the UK equivalent of the IES, is a growing community with over 500 economists recruited annually, totalling over 3,800 members in the economics profession.
In contrast, the IES sees a much lower recruitment rate, with only 10-20 economists joining each year (the latest notification for 2024 vacancies states there were 18 posts available), with a total cadre strength of mere 451 economists (as of 2023 Seniority list). This disparity is especially striking, given the vastly different scale and nature of the challenges confronting both countries.
To conclude, as India grapples with its unique set of issues and embarks on its journey to become a developed country, comprehensive reforms in the civil service are increasingly imperative. The ongoing reforms and the opportunities outlined above provide a blueprint for reforming the administrative framework and enhancing public service delivery.
Desh Deepak Verma is former secretary, Govt of India