The Service Of The State: The Ias Reconsidered

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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.

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Bhaskar Ghose was educated in Mumbai and Delhi and joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1960, retiring from it after thirty-six years. He served in various capacities both in the government of West Bengal, the state to which he was assigned, and in the Government of India. He has held the posts of Director General, Doordarshan, Secretary, Department of Culture in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. He has been a visiting fellow of Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. For the last fourteen years he has been a writer and columnist, and has written regularly for a number of major Indian newspapers and journals, among them The Pioneer, Delhi, The Telegraph, Kolkata, and the Hindustan Times, Delhi. He presently writes a column for Frontline. He has been involved with theatre for the last fifty years and has acted in and directed over forty plays. His first book Doordarshan Days was published by Penguin/Viking in 2005.