Abstract
In modern societies, with the increasing role of the state in social and economic fields, emphasis on the quality of its governance is of prime concern to all. Indian bureaucratic system of governance is founded on the principle of rule of law, as the state power is divided amongst three chief organs, each has the its own quality under a duty to conduct itself in a manner that sub- serves the common good of all and achieves the objectives of a welfare state. Governance works under the structure and process that guide political and socio-economic relationships of a country. It is a holistic approach comprising of three interconnected spheres of government: political, economic and administrative. In most cases, governance failure has been marked as the prime hindrance towards development. Good governance is an acceptable goal for public servants to strive for professional excellence, to be more transparent and fair in all of their transactions and respond with integrity to the demands of the citizens. It is, therefore, not an end in itself, but a means of achieving wider goal of public interest. All this requires experts and professionals in public bureaucracy to be achievement conscious as well as pro-people and value caring. Rationalisation with a commitment to bring about a change in work culture and style of governance is need of the hour. In order to ensure that the systems are accountable, transparent, fair, equitable and above all ethical, which brings ethics and moral values to the centre stage of governance today the administrative units have to be geared up to the tune of Viksit Bharat. Against this backdrop, this paper is an attempt to validate the facets of good governance-Goal of nation building and socio-economic development in the country accelerating the bureaucratic strength. Therefore, the paper “Creative Bureaucracy: tries to delve into the challenges which the present bureaucratic structures are facing and analysing and putting forward probable solutions to deal with these challenges. For this bureaucracy needs to be more competent, technical oriented, professionally knowledgeable, politically and ideologically neutral paving a way for creative bureaucracy.
Introduction
The concept of ‘governance’ is not new. It is as old as human civilization. It has over the years gained momentum and a wider meaning. Governance is "the process of decision-making”. The concept centres on the responsibility of governments and governing bodies to meet the needs of the masses as opposed to select groups in the society. Governance is not only emphasising on government infact involves how the government works with the collaboration with other social organisations, citizen to solve the complex problems. Thus governance is a process whereby societies or organisations make their important decisions, determine whom they involve in the process and how they are made accountable. As modern societies evolve with the predominant role of the state in the different fields such as social and economic fields, focusing on the quality of its governance is a major concern. Governance relates to the mechanism, structure and process that guide political and socio-economic relationship of a country. Many cases reflect inadequacy of governance that hinders the quality of serving to the society. Good governance is an acceptable goal for public servants to strive for professional excellence, to be more transparent and fair in all of their transactions and respond with integrity to the demands of the citizens. Therefore, it is structure to attain the public interest and engagement through specialists and professionals in public bureaucracy to achieve the goal of pro- people policies and value caring.
Bureaucracy: Historical Perspective
Indian bureaucracy is highly influenced by colonial period. Bureaucracy was introduced in India to manage the affairs of East India Company and control the Indian estate. Later, civil service transformed as an institution. Bureaucracy crossed the phase of red tape, corruption, no accountability. British system established district collector system that symbolises the British raj dominance which was submissive to administrative system however needed substantial reforms to revive the bureaucracy for reshaping public policy that would provide help to each sector to improve in their capacity. Bureaucracy was introduced by French philosopher Vincent de Gourmay in 1765. Bureaucracy works on the philosophy of routine, efficiency, accountability and effectiveness. Indian bureaucracy dates back to Mauryan & Gupta Empire through the Kautilya’s Arthashastra.
British government introduced three presidency colleges in Madras, Calcutta and Bombay, primarily set as territorial rights in order to extract revenue and establish prominent headquarters in these provinces. Cornwallis and Lord Hasting played most important role in establishing administrative structures at all different levels and introduced the integrating trade-offs with other state government. It created civil service to perform these functions in the modern era; Cornwallis improved emolument system, and service delivery mechanism. Hastings reorganised the revenue administration, recreated judicial system free from trade upscale. During British Period, civil service showed power and responsibility to perform and care for judicial responsibility; he made one mandatory rule that power will not be complete without responsibility; on the other hand, Cornwallis considered collection of revenue to be of lower importance than the administration of justice. Cornwallis also issued a series of regulations known as the ‘Cornwallis Code’; which he created for judicial and administrative procedures. Marques of Wellesley emerged with the idea to provide training to qualified civil servants. He set up college of training at Fort William in Calcutta and it was first comprehensive Training Centre for Civil Servants. After India gained independence, Sardar Patel led the creation of new civil services like IAS & IPS to establish unified administrative framework. With time, bureaucracy strategy changed from government can do these administrative tasks without the collaboration of bureaucracy to the government can do better with the coordination of common citizens. Common people need administrative reforms that are constantly provided by the government and bureaucracy with a spirit of public welfare.
Service Structure: British Era
Over the next few years the convenanted service became the civil service and All India Service. The members of civil service identified and grouped by each of the presidencies – Bengal, Madras and Calcutta. Collectively this service was known as ‘convenanted of Indian civil service’ as compared to other civil service introduced in India. During this time Civil Service Commission was introduced and it recommended the ‘ Imperial Civil Service of India’ which was known as Civil Service of India, ICS also came to known as ‘All Persuasive Service’; starting from executive to district officer; the judiciary the political department the princely states, the postal service and auditor generals, and accountant generals. These were the officers who hold the administrative and judicial responsibility. All these posts strategically provided to civil servants and reserved as ‘special group of political administrators’, which had profound influence on the structure of civil servants.
In 1904, Lord Curzon abolished the process of provincial service which added to new services as ICS and subordinate service. Allocated post of ‘tehsildar’ in executive branch or munsif as judicial officer; this system continued like this in provinces. The bureaucratisation of administrative procedure introduced as new policies, processes and systems being developed. Centralisation had steadily proceeded under the company but accounted rapidly after the transfer of India to the Crown. Service gradually developed in volume and complexity entailing more requirement of office work; carefully regulated supervision and power to lower officers. Cornwallis initiated the step to divide civil service into two – convenanted and unconvenanted.
Indian Bureaucracy Structure
The term bureaucracy marks as a complex organization that works on multi-layered systems and processes. If systems and processes of bureaucracy are not structured effectively the decision-making would be slow as it is designed to maintain uniformity and control within the organisation. Bureaucracy or administrative machinery comprises the government’s executive branch. The ministers enact policies to trained and skilled personnel employed by the government permanently. Also, this approach has political accountability and political neutrality is another facet for the bureaucracy. This makes the bureaucracy more adaptive towards on public policy matters.
The structure of bureaucracy involves Prime minister and council of ministers and whole organisational staff known as bureaucracy. Helping legislature in enacting and formulating policies is given to trained and skilled personnel bureaucracy also standardised for maintaining accountability and responsibility. Indian bureaucracy comprises All India Service, State Services, technical and management staff etc. The backbone of higher level administrative services in the states is formulated by Government of India to strengthen the bureaucratic structure. Bureaucratic system introduced several characteristics such as hierarchy – basic structure of bureaucracy based on hierarchy, each divided into superior & subordinate officials. Bureaucracy follows strong structure of law & order, and emphasise on rules, regulations and processes.
According to weber, ‘Power’ is a concept frequently used by political power that is used not only in the political science & sociology literature, but also in the analysis of government & bureaucracy in public choice. To reshape the administrative system, Government of India introduced an independent constitutional body, Union Public Service Commission for recruitment of Central Government officials; this agency conducts examination for IAS, IFS, IPS, Group A and Group B as well as other central government services such as Indian Economic service, Indian Forest service and Indian Engineering services. UPSC not only works as a recruitment agency but also works as an advisory body .After the independence, leadership was more inclined towards nation building rather than following the footsteps of colonial heritage. Government of India introduced several nation-building programmes to strengthen the capacity of building from the core. Five year plans were also introduced to strengthen the capacity building. Centre & State relationships are extremely significant for the upliftment of the administrative systems. Thus, administrative reforms need to prioritise the reform structure and introduce the various committees to build the centre & state relationship. Second ARC suggested model for citizen centric governance for public administration.
Bureaucracy is not the same as governance or administration. Some administrative structures are not bureaucratic, and many bureaucracies are not part of administrative structures. So what's the difference? The distinction lies in the objectives of each system. Bureaucracies ensure procedural correctness irrespective of the circumstances or goals. The implementation of processes, procedures and systems of governance make the decision making more reflective by:
• Making rational decisions
• Assigning specialists who can take decisions
• Futuristic vision and goals
• Gather facts and report performance results1
An administration, on the other hand, directs organisational resources toward an objective goal such as generating profits or administering a service.
Strengthening the Bureaucracy
1. As a reform, it is observed that by enhancing the capacity of professionalism and management orientation strength of bureaucracy can increase.
2. Goal of nation-building and socio- economic development in the country, accelerates the bureaucratic strength.
3. Bureaucracy needs to be more competent, technical oriented, professionally knowledgeable, politically and ideologically neutral.
4. Provide extensive training to the civil servants.
5. Training increases the knowledge and awareness of the civil servants.
6. Training programmes speed up the learning progress as prescribed by the United Nations which includes learning modules and procedure for learning.
7. Bureaucracy should not be ritualistic, limited to change resisted coordination & cooperation and require training oriented learning programmes.
8. Bureaucracy must be transparent, accountable, responsible and follow rule of law.
9. Bureaucrats must be neutral in their approach; not only while making decisions.
10. Negotiation and impartial approach qualify to create the relationship between political representative and bureaucrats.
11. Require time management skill to repair the structure of bureaucracy, bureaucrat must follow timely pattern for any task to complete in right time frame.
12. A skillful bureaucrat is the essential qualification for any bureaucrat to fulfill the necessary requirement for the functioning of bureaucracy.
Functions of Bureaucracy
1. Civil servants primary goal is to advise the political representation on policy formulation, on the basis of requirement of particular sector.
2. To ensure the smooth running of administration, bureaucracy plays active role in functioning of administration at all levels.
3. Policy implementation is another essential component for bureaucrats to fulfil their job tasks.
4. Maintaining law & order institutionalised as prominent service of bureaucracy. Bureaucrat’s foremost task is to formalise law & order in right manner. The standardized system of law & order is significant to design the structure for judicial orders for the particular region.
5. Bureaucrats are most important entity in formulating the policy, structuring the policy of any specific service domain.
6. Civil servants maintain strong communication with political representative; making & building strong connection between the state and district. It is an essential task for bureaucrats.
7. Civil servants work as an advisory body for legislature as they have a strong hold on knowledge of specific task of a particular region. On the basis of advices, policy making for a particular region and specific domain such as education, health, science & technology and defence etc is done.
8. Bureaucracy represents strong leadership through decision making.
9. Ease of administration is the most rational activity of bureaucracy to make organisational goals successful, adopting new rules & following those rules are significant aspect of bureaucracy.
Challenges of Bureaucracy
• Lack of Accountability
Having less accountability is one of the major challenges of bureaucracy. Administrative structure’s foremost requirement is to have full autonomy on work.
• Need of Skillful Professionals
Administrative systems need specialists for innovative ideas, standardized procedure, fully equipped with strategies to reshape the administrative systems. There is a dire need for a change in bureaucratic procedures at the recruitment front. Administrative systems require more skilful professionals for effective delivery of services.
• Slow Bureaucratic Structures
Slow bureaucratic system sheds off the administration system. Political neutrality is extremely significant for relevant changes to revive the administrative structure. Therefore, system will emerged with better results and productivity.
• Political Interference
Excessive control of legislature decreases the efficiency in administration. Political representatives are helpful in supporting the Policy making and at some time for policy implementation also but excessive interference leads to ineffective decisions.
Committees during the Evolution Process of Administrative service
There are numerous committees which are important part of bureaucratic evolution process.
Kothari Committee
In 1976, Kothari Committee suggested, single examination for All India Service which proposed the training process for civil services. This committee suggested and favoured a reduction in age and suggested limiting the number of attempts to only two. It also suggested two stages of examination process - preliminary examination and main examination.
Satish Chandra Committee
In 1989, Satish Chandra Committee was appointed to suggest reforms and accordingly, introduced ‘essay paper’ and emphasised on interview. This committee stressed on interview selection process.
Y.K Alagh Committee
Y.K Alagh Committee, suggested significant changes and further instructed for Civil service aptitude test at preliminary level from the year 2011.
Baswan Committee
This Committee recommended the number of IAS officers recruited every year should be to the tune of 180.This would ease out the backlog of vacancies.
Nigavekar Committee
This committee introduced a UPSC structure to rectify the communication skill of the candidates in any selected language.
SK Khanna Committee
SK Khanna Committee suggested removing ambiguity regarding the previous recommendations which was suggested by the other committees. The committee suggested structure for UPSC and draft sent to government for approval.
It is observed that existing system is already reformed, made competitive, free of political temperament. It is major significance that bureaucratic system sheds off the colonial burden. Bureaucracy contributes in transforming and improving the capacity building reforms; improving the structure at grassroot level bureaucracy for the welfare of common citizens. This requires capacity building programmes, effective coordination between union and state government which will help to evolve the administrative system. Strategic coordination, innovative development, professional expertise increase the capacity building strength, engagement with common citizens for better policy outcomes which are relevant or necessary for improvement.
Working on policy formulation and maintaining strong communication with citizens, collaborative interaction between stakeholders, partnership development and executive strategy, building the strong recognition and understanding of district government is of prime importance. This requires shift from the permanence of governance with focus on decentralisation and citizen – centric governance. For Bureaucracy focus on citizen centric governance there is a need for active engagement of stakeholders and common people for effective and efficient service delivery. Digital advancement and knowledge is another prerequisite for administrative reforms, this technological reforms increase the transparency, reduces corruption and improves the efficiency. Administrative reforms also need transparent institutionalised procedure for lateral entry .Administrative Reforms coupled with all these dynamics to deliver the service to the citizens will help in enhancing the effectiveness of the administrative system.
Establishment of code of ethics, engaging the civil servants with training modules operational on district to district level governance is a prerequisite for healthy administrative set ups. Civil servants training should start in a manner which engages them with all stakeholders together to improve the conditions of grassroot level democracy. Evaluation process for civil servants reduces the corruption activities and other malfunctioning of administration. It is another inherent benchmark for development and assessment of civil servants which is helpful to structure the promotional strategies for civil servants.
E-Governance transforms the skill development capacity of civil servants. Digital inclusivity is viewed as a strong mechanism for accessibility to improvising the conditioning and capacity of civil servants. These new and innovative reforms will change and help the bureaucrats to take pro -active decision for policymaking. Revamping education system is another aspect to improve the administrative machinery through the district level administration, education of sectoral knowledge, considering the prominent action plan for administrative reforms and bureaucracy.
Way forward
According to Albrow (1970), “Making fast changes in a bureaucracy are difficult because bureaucracy works several steps that must be followed in decision making.” Opposing parties can demand that the bureaucrat support their idea or suggestions. This slows down decision making thereby, leading to inefficiency. In a government setting, inefficiency is much experienced.2
As an instrument to cultivate new ideas, reforms, pattern, procedure and processes the following can work out as good tools to improve the pace of effective service delivery processes:
• Change in Mindsets
Administrative systems if have to deliver and take effective decisions keeping in mind the welfare of the people as public service is the main focus of citizen centric governance, change in mindsets is required coupled with required skillsets. Here change in mindsets focuses on a mindset which is problem solver, providing solutions to problems and there is a dire need to have solution mindset.
• Power of Ownership
Until and unless administrative system develop a sense of ownership in whatever position they have been designated with the delivery process will always find biases. Once we develop this sense of ownership in roles and duties assigned the aspects of accountability and transparency will automatically follow.
• Creative Bureaucracy
Unlike the standard operating procedures which are required to be taken care of while the policy making and implementation process is carried out, the new age bureaucracy has to transform as creative bureaucracy which is adaptive to the changing environments, changing regimes and changing set ups. It has to be responsive to the needs of the people, proactive in approach and creative and innovative enough to deliver effective decisions and implementing policies.
• Incentivise for better performing civil servants
Another important aspect for better performing civil servants is providing them with incentives which are necessary to motivate them and improve the service delivery mechanism of bureaucracy. For better service outlet it is quite necessary it involve the system of incentives which align with the goal of need and substantiality for bureaucrats.
• Lateral Entry
Skill development for bureaucrats is extremely significant to increase the chances of promotion and enhance professionalism in the system. Specialist entry polishes policy formulation and implementation process. Specialists strengthen the processes of policy making, helps to robust the policy reforms.
• Digital technologies, public policy & management
Bureaucrats are required to have knowledge of public policy and need to be well equipped with digital technologies & management skills in order to execute administrative system of a particular region. Understanding of Public policy & management are another prerequisite for bureaucrats. It will be helpful to strengthen the overall administration.
• Stabilizing the duration of government staff is important to strengthen the bureaucracy.
• Specific tenure period is important at different level of the government for effective policymaking process.
• Service delivery and Policy guidelines are essential to decrease the high level of frontline workers and supervisors transfers.
• Investment in Data Driven Governance
In order to enhance the strength of bureaucracy at all levels, data driven governance is must as it supports collection, analyzing and maximize the impact of bureaucracy.
• Enhancing the capacity of monitoring & evaluation process
It is a valuable & significant tool to improve the quality of bureaucracy. It provides transformative growth. Evaluation method support effective impact on success of policy.
• Elimination of frequent transfers
This will positively increase the efficiency of the state and provide smooth functioning of the system.
• Autonomy of Processes
This is essential for increasing the productivity of bureaucrats; autonomy and accountability go hand in hand. If system provides autonomy at district level, it can improve the service delivery of the communities.3
Conclusion
Bureaucracy is meant to be non -partisan. This clearly indicates that bureaucracy should not have political agenda but instead should dutifully and creatively carry out the current administration policies. Rather pleasing any political party they must focus on how to serve the nation with full accountability. Bureaucracy is a sub- field of public choice, a set of regulations drawn by government to control activity, in large organisations and government. A personnel system with constant structure of recruitment, a hierarchy among offices, so that the authority and status be differentiatally distributed among personnel. Bureaucrats enjoy the full autonomy to some extent. Bureaucratic structures are considered as backward-looking analysing and finding old methods that worked well in the past. This backward perspective creates a conflict with entrepreneurs and innovators who prefer forward-looking concepts and attain to identify different ways of processes that could be improved. Over the time, a rigid bureaucracy reduces operational efficiency, particularly compared to rival organizations without large bureaucracies. Losses in efficiency are most pronounced in circumstances where bureaucracy is also used to insulate established power structures from the competition.
To increase the effectiveness of bureaucracy, prioritizing investment in state capacity structure is a roadmap as cost effective strategy, evidence driven perception bring efficient results. The link between increasing private interest of politicians and weaken the public interest. Making the stronger public system, formulate strong investment strategy in the bureaucracy and benefit the politicians and citizens. To establish a more resilient and inclusive society where Janbhagidari is the basis of the nation’s success stories there is dire need to provide the structure and build the policies for better lifestyle and ease of doing business. Reshaping the economy by breaking the monopolistic ties, enhancing the capacity for open market business, the capacity of trade with other nations and increasing the foreign investment, focus on open market based economy and helping MSMEs to grow there is only one mantra that is change in mind-sets and for that bureaucracy which creative, bureaucracy which is innovative, which is understanding and above all bureaucracy which works with a solution mind-set is the need of the hour.
Endnotes
1. Canadian Audit & Accountability Foundation. "What Is Governance?
2. Albrow, M. (1970). Bureaucracy. London: Pall Mall Press
3. Harvard Business Review. "How Much Bureaucracy is a Good Thing in Government and Business?"
References
1. What is a Bureaucracy and How It Works, With Examples, CAROLINE BANTON, Updated June 20, 2024,www.investopedia.com
2. Gupta Deepak. (2019). The Steel Frame: A History of the IAS. Roli books. India
3. Raghunandan, TR. (2019). Everything you ever wanted to know about bureaucracy but we’re afraid to ask. Penguin – chapter 2, 3
4. Bhattacharya, Mohit. (2018). New Horizons of Public Administration, Jawahar publishers & Distributors; Seventh edition p.g 55-58
5. Maheshwari. SR. (2001). Indian administration. Orient longman & Pvt Ltd., Pg 305
6. Krishna, Srivastava. (2021). Why India’s bureaucracy needs urgent reform. The Indian express.
7. Robert P & Beschel Jr’s Report – Civil Service Reform in India Perspective from the world Bank’s work in three states.
8. Mathur, Kuldeep. (2015). Public policy & Politics in India. Oxford India University Press, New Delhi.
9. Laxmikanth, M. (2022). Indian Polity. McGraw Hill Education (India), Pvt Ltd. Pg 43.
In modern societies, with the increasing role of the state in social and economic fields, emphasis on the quality of its governance is of prime concern to all. Indian bureaucratic system of governance is founded on the principle of rule of law, as the state power is divided amongst three chief organs, each has the its own quality under a duty to conduct itself in a manner that sub- serves the common good of all and achieves the objectives of a welfare state. Governance works under the structure and process that guide political and socio-economic relationships of a country. It is a holistic approach comprising of three interconnected spheres of government: political, economic and administrative. In most cases, governance failure has been marked as the prime hindrance towards development. Good governance is an acceptable goal for public servants to strive for professional excellence, to be more transparent and fair in all of their transactions and respond with integrity to the demands of the citizens. It is, therefore, not an end in itself, but a means of achieving wider goal of public interest. All this requires experts and professionals in public bureaucracy to be achievement conscious as well as pro-people and value caring. Rationalisation with a commitment to bring about a change in work culture and style of governance is need of the hour. In order to ensure that the systems are accountable, transparent, fair, equitable and above all ethical, which brings ethics and moral values to the centre stage of governance today the administrative units have to be geared up to the tune of Viksit Bharat. Against this backdrop, this paper is an attempt to validate the facets of good governance-Goal of nation building and socio-economic development in the country accelerating the bureaucratic strength. Therefore, the paper “Creative Bureaucracy: tries to delve into the challenges which the present bureaucratic structures are facing and analysing and putting forward probable solutions to deal with these challenges. For this bureaucracy needs to be more competent, technical oriented, professionally knowledgeable, politically and ideologically neutral paving a way for creative bureaucracy.
Introduction
The concept of ‘governance’ is not new. It is as old as human civilization. It has over the years gained momentum and a wider meaning. Governance is "the process of decision-making”. The concept centres on the responsibility of governments and governing bodies to meet the needs of the masses as opposed to select groups in the society. Governance is not only emphasising on government infact involves how the government works with the collaboration with other social organisations, citizen to solve the complex problems. Thus governance is a process whereby societies or organisations make their important decisions, determine whom they involve in the process and how they are made accountable. As modern societies evolve with the predominant role of the state in the different fields such as social and economic fields, focusing on the quality of its governance is a major concern. Governance relates to the mechanism, structure and process that guide political and socio-economic relationship of a country. Many cases reflect inadequacy of governance that hinders the quality of serving to the society. Good governance is an acceptable goal for public servants to strive for professional excellence, to be more transparent and fair in all of their transactions and respond with integrity to the demands of the citizens. Therefore, it is structure to attain the public interest and engagement through specialists and professionals in public bureaucracy to achieve the goal of pro- people policies and value caring.
Bureaucracy: Historical Perspective
Indian bureaucracy is highly influenced by colonial period. Bureaucracy was introduced in India to manage the affairs of East India Company and control the Indian estate. Later, civil service transformed as an institution. Bureaucracy crossed the phase of red tape, corruption, no accountability. British system established district collector system that symbolises the British raj dominance which was submissive to administrative system however needed substantial reforms to revive the bureaucracy for reshaping public policy that would provide help to each sector to improve in their capacity. Bureaucracy was introduced by French philosopher Vincent de Gourmay in 1765. Bureaucracy works on the philosophy of routine, efficiency, accountability and effectiveness. Indian bureaucracy dates back to Mauryan & Gupta Empire through the Kautilya’s Arthashastra.
British government introduced three presidency colleges in Madras, Calcutta and Bombay, primarily set as territorial rights in order to extract revenue and establish prominent headquarters in these provinces. Cornwallis and Lord Hasting played most important role in establishing administrative structures at all different levels and introduced the integrating trade-offs with other state government. It created civil service to perform these functions in the modern era; Cornwallis improved emolument system, and service delivery mechanism. Hastings reorganised the revenue administration, recreated judicial system free from trade upscale. During British Period, civil service showed power and responsibility to perform and care for judicial responsibility; he made one mandatory rule that power will not be complete without responsibility; on the other hand, Cornwallis considered collection of revenue to be of lower importance than the administration of justice. Cornwallis also issued a series of regulations known as the ‘Cornwallis Code’; which he created for judicial and administrative procedures. Marques of Wellesley emerged with the idea to provide training to qualified civil servants. He set up college of training at Fort William in Calcutta and it was first comprehensive Training Centre for Civil Servants. After India gained independence, Sardar Patel led the creation of new civil services like IAS & IPS to establish unified administrative framework. With time, bureaucracy strategy changed from government can do these administrative tasks without the collaboration of bureaucracy to the government can do better with the coordination of common citizens. Common people need administrative reforms that are constantly provided by the government and bureaucracy with a spirit of public welfare.
Service Structure: British Era
Over the next few years the convenanted service became the civil service and All India Service. The members of civil service identified and grouped by each of the presidencies – Bengal, Madras and Calcutta. Collectively this service was known as ‘convenanted of Indian civil service’ as compared to other civil service introduced in India. During this time Civil Service Commission was introduced and it recommended the ‘ Imperial Civil Service of India’ which was known as Civil Service of India, ICS also came to known as ‘All Persuasive Service’; starting from executive to district officer; the judiciary the political department the princely states, the postal service and auditor generals, and accountant generals. These were the officers who hold the administrative and judicial responsibility. All these posts strategically provided to civil servants and reserved as ‘special group of political administrators’, which had profound influence on the structure of civil servants.
In 1904, Lord Curzon abolished the process of provincial service which added to new services as ICS and subordinate service. Allocated post of ‘tehsildar’ in executive branch or munsif as judicial officer; this system continued like this in provinces. The bureaucratisation of administrative procedure introduced as new policies, processes and systems being developed. Centralisation had steadily proceeded under the company but accounted rapidly after the transfer of India to the Crown. Service gradually developed in volume and complexity entailing more requirement of office work; carefully regulated supervision and power to lower officers. Cornwallis initiated the step to divide civil service into two – convenanted and unconvenanted.
Indian Bureaucracy Structure
The term bureaucracy marks as a complex organization that works on multi-layered systems and processes. If systems and processes of bureaucracy are not structured effectively the decision-making would be slow as it is designed to maintain uniformity and control within the organisation. Bureaucracy or administrative machinery comprises the government’s executive branch. The ministers enact policies to trained and skilled personnel employed by the government permanently. Also, this approach has political accountability and political neutrality is another facet for the bureaucracy. This makes the bureaucracy more adaptive towards on public policy matters.
The structure of bureaucracy involves Prime minister and council of ministers and whole organisational staff known as bureaucracy. Helping legislature in enacting and formulating policies is given to trained and skilled personnel bureaucracy also standardised for maintaining accountability and responsibility. Indian bureaucracy comprises All India Service, State Services, technical and management staff etc. The backbone of higher level administrative services in the states is formulated by Government of India to strengthen the bureaucratic structure. Bureaucratic system introduced several characteristics such as hierarchy – basic structure of bureaucracy based on hierarchy, each divided into superior & subordinate officials. Bureaucracy follows strong structure of law & order, and emphasise on rules, regulations and processes.
According to weber, ‘Power’ is a concept frequently used by political power that is used not only in the political science & sociology literature, but also in the analysis of government & bureaucracy in public choice. To reshape the administrative system, Government of India introduced an independent constitutional body, Union Public Service Commission for recruitment of Central Government officials; this agency conducts examination for IAS, IFS, IPS, Group A and Group B as well as other central government services such as Indian Economic service, Indian Forest service and Indian Engineering services. UPSC not only works as a recruitment agency but also works as an advisory body .After the independence, leadership was more inclined towards nation building rather than following the footsteps of colonial heritage. Government of India introduced several nation-building programmes to strengthen the capacity of building from the core. Five year plans were also introduced to strengthen the capacity building. Centre & State relationships are extremely significant for the upliftment of the administrative systems. Thus, administrative reforms need to prioritise the reform structure and introduce the various committees to build the centre & state relationship. Second ARC suggested model for citizen centric governance for public administration.
Bureaucracy is not the same as governance or administration. Some administrative structures are not bureaucratic, and many bureaucracies are not part of administrative structures. So what's the difference? The distinction lies in the objectives of each system. Bureaucracies ensure procedural correctness irrespective of the circumstances or goals. The implementation of processes, procedures and systems of governance make the decision making more reflective by:
• Making rational decisions
• Assigning specialists who can take decisions
• Futuristic vision and goals
• Gather facts and report performance results1
An administration, on the other hand, directs organisational resources toward an objective goal such as generating profits or administering a service.
Strengthening the Bureaucracy
1. As a reform, it is observed that by enhancing the capacity of professionalism and management orientation strength of bureaucracy can increase.
2. Goal of nation-building and socio- economic development in the country, accelerates the bureaucratic strength.
3. Bureaucracy needs to be more competent, technical oriented, professionally knowledgeable, politically and ideologically neutral.
4. Provide extensive training to the civil servants.
5. Training increases the knowledge and awareness of the civil servants.
6. Training programmes speed up the learning progress as prescribed by the United Nations which includes learning modules and procedure for learning.
7. Bureaucracy should not be ritualistic, limited to change resisted coordination & cooperation and require training oriented learning programmes.
8. Bureaucracy must be transparent, accountable, responsible and follow rule of law.
9. Bureaucrats must be neutral in their approach; not only while making decisions.
10. Negotiation and impartial approach qualify to create the relationship between political representative and bureaucrats.
11. Require time management skill to repair the structure of bureaucracy, bureaucrat must follow timely pattern for any task to complete in right time frame.
12. A skillful bureaucrat is the essential qualification for any bureaucrat to fulfill the necessary requirement for the functioning of bureaucracy.
Functions of Bureaucracy
1. Civil servants primary goal is to advise the political representation on policy formulation, on the basis of requirement of particular sector.
2. To ensure the smooth running of administration, bureaucracy plays active role in functioning of administration at all levels.
3. Policy implementation is another essential component for bureaucrats to fulfil their job tasks.
4. Maintaining law & order institutionalised as prominent service of bureaucracy. Bureaucrat’s foremost task is to formalise law & order in right manner. The standardized system of law & order is significant to design the structure for judicial orders for the particular region.
5. Bureaucrats are most important entity in formulating the policy, structuring the policy of any specific service domain.
6. Civil servants maintain strong communication with political representative; making & building strong connection between the state and district. It is an essential task for bureaucrats.
7. Civil servants work as an advisory body for legislature as they have a strong hold on knowledge of specific task of a particular region. On the basis of advices, policy making for a particular region and specific domain such as education, health, science & technology and defence etc is done.
8. Bureaucracy represents strong leadership through decision making.
9. Ease of administration is the most rational activity of bureaucracy to make organisational goals successful, adopting new rules & following those rules are significant aspect of bureaucracy.
Challenges of Bureaucracy
• Lack of Accountability
Having less accountability is one of the major challenges of bureaucracy. Administrative structure’s foremost requirement is to have full autonomy on work.
• Need of Skillful Professionals
Administrative systems need specialists for innovative ideas, standardized procedure, fully equipped with strategies to reshape the administrative systems. There is a dire need for a change in bureaucratic procedures at the recruitment front. Administrative systems require more skilful professionals for effective delivery of services.
• Slow Bureaucratic Structures
Slow bureaucratic system sheds off the administration system. Political neutrality is extremely significant for relevant changes to revive the administrative structure. Therefore, system will emerged with better results and productivity.
• Political Interference
Excessive control of legislature decreases the efficiency in administration. Political representatives are helpful in supporting the Policy making and at some time for policy implementation also but excessive interference leads to ineffective decisions.
Committees during the Evolution Process of Administrative service
There are numerous committees which are important part of bureaucratic evolution process.
Kothari Committee
In 1976, Kothari Committee suggested, single examination for All India Service which proposed the training process for civil services. This committee suggested and favoured a reduction in age and suggested limiting the number of attempts to only two. It also suggested two stages of examination process - preliminary examination and main examination.
Satish Chandra Committee
In 1989, Satish Chandra Committee was appointed to suggest reforms and accordingly, introduced ‘essay paper’ and emphasised on interview. This committee stressed on interview selection process.
Y.K Alagh Committee
Y.K Alagh Committee, suggested significant changes and further instructed for Civil service aptitude test at preliminary level from the year 2011.
Baswan Committee
This Committee recommended the number of IAS officers recruited every year should be to the tune of 180.This would ease out the backlog of vacancies.
Nigavekar Committee
This committee introduced a UPSC structure to rectify the communication skill of the candidates in any selected language.
SK Khanna Committee
SK Khanna Committee suggested removing ambiguity regarding the previous recommendations which was suggested by the other committees. The committee suggested structure for UPSC and draft sent to government for approval.
It is observed that existing system is already reformed, made competitive, free of political temperament. It is major significance that bureaucratic system sheds off the colonial burden. Bureaucracy contributes in transforming and improving the capacity building reforms; improving the structure at grassroot level bureaucracy for the welfare of common citizens. This requires capacity building programmes, effective coordination between union and state government which will help to evolve the administrative system. Strategic coordination, innovative development, professional expertise increase the capacity building strength, engagement with common citizens for better policy outcomes which are relevant or necessary for improvement.
Working on policy formulation and maintaining strong communication with citizens, collaborative interaction between stakeholders, partnership development and executive strategy, building the strong recognition and understanding of district government is of prime importance. This requires shift from the permanence of governance with focus on decentralisation and citizen – centric governance. For Bureaucracy focus on citizen centric governance there is a need for active engagement of stakeholders and common people for effective and efficient service delivery. Digital advancement and knowledge is another prerequisite for administrative reforms, this technological reforms increase the transparency, reduces corruption and improves the efficiency. Administrative reforms also need transparent institutionalised procedure for lateral entry .Administrative Reforms coupled with all these dynamics to deliver the service to the citizens will help in enhancing the effectiveness of the administrative system.
Establishment of code of ethics, engaging the civil servants with training modules operational on district to district level governance is a prerequisite for healthy administrative set ups. Civil servants training should start in a manner which engages them with all stakeholders together to improve the conditions of grassroot level democracy. Evaluation process for civil servants reduces the corruption activities and other malfunctioning of administration. It is another inherent benchmark for development and assessment of civil servants which is helpful to structure the promotional strategies for civil servants.
E-Governance transforms the skill development capacity of civil servants. Digital inclusivity is viewed as a strong mechanism for accessibility to improvising the conditioning and capacity of civil servants. These new and innovative reforms will change and help the bureaucrats to take pro -active decision for policymaking. Revamping education system is another aspect to improve the administrative machinery through the district level administration, education of sectoral knowledge, considering the prominent action plan for administrative reforms and bureaucracy.
Way forward
According to Albrow (1970), “Making fast changes in a bureaucracy are difficult because bureaucracy works several steps that must be followed in decision making.” Opposing parties can demand that the bureaucrat support their idea or suggestions. This slows down decision making thereby, leading to inefficiency. In a government setting, inefficiency is much experienced.2
As an instrument to cultivate new ideas, reforms, pattern, procedure and processes the following can work out as good tools to improve the pace of effective service delivery processes:
• Change in Mindsets
Administrative systems if have to deliver and take effective decisions keeping in mind the welfare of the people as public service is the main focus of citizen centric governance, change in mindsets is required coupled with required skillsets. Here change in mindsets focuses on a mindset which is problem solver, providing solutions to problems and there is a dire need to have solution mindset.
• Power of Ownership
Until and unless administrative system develop a sense of ownership in whatever position they have been designated with the delivery process will always find biases. Once we develop this sense of ownership in roles and duties assigned the aspects of accountability and transparency will automatically follow.
• Creative Bureaucracy
Unlike the standard operating procedures which are required to be taken care of while the policy making and implementation process is carried out, the new age bureaucracy has to transform as creative bureaucracy which is adaptive to the changing environments, changing regimes and changing set ups. It has to be responsive to the needs of the people, proactive in approach and creative and innovative enough to deliver effective decisions and implementing policies.
• Incentivise for better performing civil servants
Another important aspect for better performing civil servants is providing them with incentives which are necessary to motivate them and improve the service delivery mechanism of bureaucracy. For better service outlet it is quite necessary it involve the system of incentives which align with the goal of need and substantiality for bureaucrats.
• Lateral Entry
Skill development for bureaucrats is extremely significant to increase the chances of promotion and enhance professionalism in the system. Specialist entry polishes policy formulation and implementation process. Specialists strengthen the processes of policy making, helps to robust the policy reforms.
• Digital technologies, public policy & management
Bureaucrats are required to have knowledge of public policy and need to be well equipped with digital technologies & management skills in order to execute administrative system of a particular region. Understanding of Public policy & management are another prerequisite for bureaucrats. It will be helpful to strengthen the overall administration.
• Stabilizing the duration of government staff is important to strengthen the bureaucracy.
• Specific tenure period is important at different level of the government for effective policymaking process.
• Service delivery and Policy guidelines are essential to decrease the high level of frontline workers and supervisors transfers.
• Investment in Data Driven Governance
In order to enhance the strength of bureaucracy at all levels, data driven governance is must as it supports collection, analyzing and maximize the impact of bureaucracy.
• Enhancing the capacity of monitoring & evaluation process
It is a valuable & significant tool to improve the quality of bureaucracy. It provides transformative growth. Evaluation method support effective impact on success of policy.
• Elimination of frequent transfers
This will positively increase the efficiency of the state and provide smooth functioning of the system.
• Autonomy of Processes
This is essential for increasing the productivity of bureaucrats; autonomy and accountability go hand in hand. If system provides autonomy at district level, it can improve the service delivery of the communities.3
Conclusion
Bureaucracy is meant to be non -partisan. This clearly indicates that bureaucracy should not have political agenda but instead should dutifully and creatively carry out the current administration policies. Rather pleasing any political party they must focus on how to serve the nation with full accountability. Bureaucracy is a sub- field of public choice, a set of regulations drawn by government to control activity, in large organisations and government. A personnel system with constant structure of recruitment, a hierarchy among offices, so that the authority and status be differentiatally distributed among personnel. Bureaucrats enjoy the full autonomy to some extent. Bureaucratic structures are considered as backward-looking analysing and finding old methods that worked well in the past. This backward perspective creates a conflict with entrepreneurs and innovators who prefer forward-looking concepts and attain to identify different ways of processes that could be improved. Over the time, a rigid bureaucracy reduces operational efficiency, particularly compared to rival organizations without large bureaucracies. Losses in efficiency are most pronounced in circumstances where bureaucracy is also used to insulate established power structures from the competition.
To increase the effectiveness of bureaucracy, prioritizing investment in state capacity structure is a roadmap as cost effective strategy, evidence driven perception bring efficient results. The link between increasing private interest of politicians and weaken the public interest. Making the stronger public system, formulate strong investment strategy in the bureaucracy and benefit the politicians and citizens. To establish a more resilient and inclusive society where Janbhagidari is the basis of the nation’s success stories there is dire need to provide the structure and build the policies for better lifestyle and ease of doing business. Reshaping the economy by breaking the monopolistic ties, enhancing the capacity for open market business, the capacity of trade with other nations and increasing the foreign investment, focus on open market based economy and helping MSMEs to grow there is only one mantra that is change in mind-sets and for that bureaucracy which creative, bureaucracy which is innovative, which is understanding and above all bureaucracy which works with a solution mind-set is the need of the hour.
Endnotes
1. Canadian Audit & Accountability Foundation. "What Is Governance?
2. Albrow, M. (1970). Bureaucracy. London: Pall Mall Press
3. Harvard Business Review. "How Much Bureaucracy is a Good Thing in Government and Business?"
References
1. What is a Bureaucracy and How It Works, With Examples, CAROLINE BANTON, Updated June 20, 2024,www.investopedia.com
2. Gupta Deepak. (2019). The Steel Frame: A History of the IAS. Roli books. India
3. Raghunandan, TR. (2019). Everything you ever wanted to know about bureaucracy but we’re afraid to ask. Penguin – chapter 2, 3
4. Bhattacharya, Mohit. (2018). New Horizons of Public Administration, Jawahar publishers & Distributors; Seventh edition p.g 55-58
5. Maheshwari. SR. (2001). Indian administration. Orient longman & Pvt Ltd., Pg 305
6. Krishna, Srivastava. (2021). Why India’s bureaucracy needs urgent reform. The Indian express.
7. Robert P & Beschel Jr’s Report – Civil Service Reform in India Perspective from the world Bank’s work in three states.
8. Mathur, Kuldeep. (2015). Public policy & Politics in India. Oxford India University Press, New Delhi.
9. Laxmikanth, M. (2022). Indian Polity. McGraw Hill Education (India), Pvt Ltd. Pg 43.
