TV
Civil Services
UPSC has recently announced the selected list of civil services examination 2015-16. There were many inspiring personalities from the list and aspirants are at high spirits now, as prelims examination for 2016-17 is nearing, which shall be held on August 7, 2016. At this juncture, Mohan Kanda, retd. IAS officer throws light on civil services in India and guides new aspirants..
Civil Services and the Nation
It is in enabling that change and in converting it into an all out assault on the evils of deprivation, exclusion and the denial of the quality of life that every citizen has a right to expect - that the civil service will have a major and meaningful responsibility to shoulder.
We have, naturally, moved away from the days when the Civil Service was envisaged as the "steel - frame" of country's polity. Several changes, many highly desirable, have altered the scope of, as well as the expectations from, the bureaucracy. Growth and development are seen today more as a result of an effort of a team comprising many players including the elected representatives, the corporate sector, academicians, scientists, the civil society organizations and the Civil Services among many others. For this team to perform effectively, however, many catalytic factors need to be put in places such as a sharp vision, a clear road map and an enabling policy environment. The design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the plan of action all need to the conceived with a participatory approach and carried out in an inclusive manner.
Challenges and Opportunities
What more can a young citizen of India ask for today than to "be the change that you wish to see in the world" - as Gandhiji said? And which career can offer the heady excitement, sense of fulfilment, public recognition, the constitutional guarantee of security and reasonable emoluments than one in the Civil Service?
I can think of no country whose Constitution mentions the Civil Service explicitly in an exclusive provision and offers protection to its members in an emphatic manner, in the manner in which the Indian Constitution does.
In order to remain contemporarily relevant, the Civil Servant will need to be able to identify the weakness such as indifference, corruption and incompetence that continue to render our system impotent; and be able to play a positive and aggressive role in the process of mitigating their impact.
The significance of the challenges and opportunities that come with the task entrusted to the Civil Services in this gigantic national effort can hardly be overstated.
Attributes of a Civil Servant
What can cause greater clarity in one's mind than to remember that it is the common man who pays your salary- and is thus one's real master? Assiduity, sincerity, integrity and a clear sense of priorities are some of the important attributes that a good Civil Servant needs to possess.
The Civil Services offer a vast canvas of activities and varied sets of functions. It would therefore be of great advantage for a Civil Servant to identify, over time, a role that most suits his or her attitude. Effort and inclination will then be in sync-synergetic and mutually reinforcing.
For the benefit of aspirants of the Civil Service, as well as recent entrants I have collected some case studies from my own experience together with a few hypothetical problems created by the UPSC, in the book "Ethics in Governance - Resolution of Dilemmas with Case Studies".
Candidates from rural areas
To address a concern that is frequently expressed I would like to assure the candidates from rural areas appearing for Civil Services Examination- that the system has tried to correct any inbuilt bias in favour of those from the urban areas. For instance, candidates can take the examinations in their mother tongue and can also opt for interviews to be conducted in that language. And the constitution of Boards of members that conduct the interviews is done in such a manner that it ensures a fair degree of empathy with people coming from varied backgrounds.
Balanced Approach
One last word of advice from me concerns the imperative to striking a "balance". This is an attribute that should inform one's attitude not merely in the interview but in the discharge of duties that one will be expected to perform in the event of one's selection. Extreme stances and artificial views are often neither desirable nor easy to justify. It is important to remain objective and impartial in forming one's opinions and in defending them.
Those in service will do well to remember the advice tendered by Sri C.B. Rao, IAS (Retd.) (which he was kind enough to share with me), to fresh recruits - to remember that they are "the luckiest and not the brightest" that they are "selected and not chosen," that "integrity is more important than intelligence" and that they should strive to be "law-abiding and not rule - abiding Civil Servants".
