So Many Civil Servants in Civil Services of India
Benefits are good and inefficient. India has 10 million civil servants
In
India, government civil servants are called the country's "steel structure".
They are in charge of the state's administrative system, but they are outside
the party disputes and even described by the media as "another
caste." In the past 20 years, although the Indian government rotates as
frequently as a marquee, the group of civil servants has remained "still
motionless", which has played an important role in maintaining the smooth
operation of society.
Indian says only 6,600 civil servants
Not
long ago, a reporter accompanied a delegation from another country to visit some government
departments in India to inspect the Indian civil service. The Indian official
who hosted us said, "India has only 6,600 civil servants." This
surprised us. After questioning, it turned out that in the concept of Indians,
"civil servants" specifically refers to those who pass the
"All-Indian Civil Service" exam and are finally formally recruited by
the central government (a few will be assigned to the state governments). The
total number of these people is only over 6,600, and only one or two hundred
new people are recruited each year. In India, they are the elite class of
society and hold important positions in various government ministries. Their
role is to help the ruling party govern the entire country and ensure the
normal operation of the social system.
If
the statistics are based on the general "government staff" standard,
the Indian civil service series can be divided into 12 categories, including
central and local government administrative agency personnel, police, other
government department personnel authorized by the court, audits With a total of
nearly 10 million people and assessment personnel, it is far ahead of other
countries in the world, with an "official-civilian ratio" of about 1:
100. If the standards were further relaxed and all personnel from cultural,
educational, medical and scientific research institutions that were fully
funded by the government's finances were counted, the total number of
"employees of government organizations" would be close to 20 million.
Just the wages, the Indian government's annual expenditure accounts for 5% of
GDP.
Civil servant acceptance rate is 1 ‰
India's
civil service goes back to the period of British colonial rule. In 1861, the
British colonial government passed the Indian Civil Service Act, which clearly
stipulated the system for the selection and promotion of government civil
servants, but it was not until 1922 that the first Indian civil servant
appeared in the colonial government. Before India's independence in 1947, there
were only a few hundred Indian civil servants. India maintained this civilian
system after independence.
In
India, once you can pass the "All-Indian Civil Service System" exam
and become a civil servant, it means a step into high society. As a result,
fresh graduates from Indian universities almost burst their heads every year
when they take the "India Civil Service" exam. The "Indian Civil
Service System" exam is very strict, and the admission rate is often only
1 ‰.
According to regulations, the examination is conducted by the Federal
Public Service Commission of India. It is divided into three different
contents:
"All India Administrative System", "All India
Diplomatic System" and "All India Police System".
For graduates
with a bachelor degree or above, the entire examination process is divided into
three parts:
Pre-examination, formal examination and interview, which lasts a
whole year. Those who pass the final exam are required to continue their
studies at the Indian Institute of Administration for two years before
completing their studies before entering the central and state government
departments.
When
these lucky ones joined the work, they were at the rank of deputy secretary
(equivalent to the section level), and gradually increased with the increase of
working hours. They went through the director (department level), joint
secretary (department level), assistant secretary (deputy minister level), and
Secretary (Ministry level), starting with the joint secretarial level and
changing to selective promotion based on competence and job requirements. As
the ministers in the central government of India are all senior officials of
the ruling party, they are not necessarily proficient in "business"
and may change at any time due to government changes. Therefore, the
secretaries of the ministries are the ones in charge of the ministry.
"Executive Deputy Minister" in charge of business. They are not
allowed to join any party, and their responsibility is to implement the ruling
party's policy program, and they are responsible for handling various affairs
in this field.
In
addition to more than 6,600 people who passed the "Indian Civil Service
System" exam, the central and state governments of India also held various
forms of examinations to recruit a large number of "government
clerks". Comparatively speaking, the content of the examination is much
easier than the "All-Indian Civil Service" examination, and the
degree of competition is relatively less intense. Most
of the people who pass the exam only need a few weeks of on the job training to
report it. Such personnel account for the vast majority of Indian
government personnel, and their main task is to stick to their posts and do
their job well. Unless they take the "Indian Civil Service System"
exam and pass it, they will never have the opportunity to enter the
"leadership" ranks, until retirement they can only be ordinary
clerks, unable to participate in decision-making.
When the reporter first
arrived in India, he went to the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and the Foreigner Administration of the Ministry of the
Interior to go through the formalities. The civil servants were polite and
courteous. In addition to a little Indian accent, his fluent English and
authentic words let reporters Humbled. However, after dealing with the clerks
at the bottom, the reporter found that English is still a "foreign
language" category for most of them, which is far from the impression that
"English is the universal language in India", and in addition to
their own work, Most of these clerks are ignorant of the state of the country.
Civil servant income makes white-collar envy
In
the eyes of the Indians, being a public servant is definitely a "great
thing". As a result, civil servants are proud to print “IAS” (short for
“All-Indian Administrative System”) or “IFS” (short for “All-Indian Diplomatic
System”) prominently on their business cards, and some also indicate which one
Passed the annual exam. Civil servants not only have high social status, but
also have considerable income and benefits. Their monthly basic salary is about
25,000 rupees (1 US dollar is about 70 rupees), and there are many items on the
payroll, such as transportation subsidies, child benefits, food subsidies,
communication fees, special hardship areas or grassroots subsidies, such as the
lowest level of transportation subsidy is Rs 400. In addition to the statutory
holidays each year, civil servants can enjoy one month's paid leave, 20 days
'medical leave, 20 days' half-paid leave, etc., and only work about 160 days a
year. There is a large
green area between the three unified small-story buildings. It is two worlds
compared with the cluttered ordinary residential areas. With rents in the
surrounding area as high as tens of thousands of rupees, these civil servants
only pay a few hundred rupees per month. It is no wonder that ordinary people
with an average monthly income of only 1800 rupees perceive civil servants as a
"diamond class". Even IT white-collar workers with an average monthly
income of 20,000 rupees are envious of civil servants.
Even
for government clerks with relatively low entry barriers, a basic salary of
around Rs 10,000 per month plus housing and other benefits has also attracted
many college students. Many college students said in an interview with
reporters that as long as they can enter the government, it is a very good
choice. According to statistics, the income of grass-roots clerks in Indian
states is roughly double that of private-sector workers at the same level. In
the taxation and transportation departments, "oil and water" is even
greater.
Inefficiency and corruption are two major ills
When
dealing with government workers in India, what impressed reporters the most was
that they were generally inefficient. In this regard, whether they are elite
civil servants or grass-roots clerks, the performance is similar. It is very
common for civil servants to be late for work. A simple temporary press card
replacement procedure was delayed for a week before it was completed. On one
occasion, they could not even find the photos previously provided by the
reporter, and the reporter had to re-apply. This is still the case for the
central government, not to mention local governments. Some foreign company
representatives talked to reporters that they applied for registration of a
company or project approval in India, often without echo for more than six
months.
The
main reason for the inefficiency of Indian civil servants is the serious
overstaffing of the organization, and the phenomenon of overstaffing is very
serious. According to a survey, there are more than 600,000 government workers
in Andhra Pradesh, and the official establishment is less than 400,000.
Corruption
is another serious problem in the Indian civil service. According to data from
the "India Corruption Survey 2005" published by the Times of India in
July this year, an average Indian person pays Rs 21,000 per year in
administrative approvals and public services.
Civil service reform is on the agenda
The
inefficiency and corruption of public servants has made the Indian people
complain. In some poverty-stricken areas, things can only be done by bribery,
and the public has very little confidence in civil servants and has even led to
violent conflicts. In July last year, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was
besieged by heavy rain during a road inspection in Andhra Pradesh. The local
government department was indifferent to this emergency. Singh was furious and
set out to reform the civil service. .
According
to the plan, reforms are centered on solving the two problems of corruption and
inefficiency. First of all, the government fought hard to carry out
"suppression of corruption". In Uttar Pradesh, the most populous and
poorest state in India, prosecutors searched the homes of some senior civil
servants and found that many people's homes were piled with jewellery and cash,
and the source of a large number of deposits was unknown. These "serious
rats" eventually fell into the French Open.
The
downsizing is another focus of India's civil service reform. Many Indian
scholars believe that India currently only needs 1/3 of the staff to complete
the existing government functions. Earlier this year, Singh wrote to the chief
ministers of the states, stating that "the policies formulated by the
central government are heavily dependent on the efficiency of the
implementation of public servants of the state governments", asking them
to accelerate the reform of the public administration system and reduce the
number of staff in the government. Accelerating development in all areas of the
country while saving fiscal expenditures.
Judging
from the current situation, the reform of the Indian civil service system has
played a certain role in improving the efficiency of government work. However,
because many problems are hard to come by, it will take a long time to really
renew the appearance of the entire civil service.
