INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE: The Case for Reform

Experience has shown that the Indian Administrative Service could neither work like the Indian Civil Service nor define on ethos for itself even when in the same administrative pattern. After the enactment of the Constitution, the contradictions between the inherited colonial administrative pattern and the parliamentary system of government would become more sharply defined with the passage of time. Indian Administrative Services, The Case of Reform, analyses the inadequacies under which the Indian Administrative Service is expected to deliver today and contains suggestions for reforms needed to make it a more a positive instrument of executive administration.

About Author
B.K. Misra
B.K. Misra is an alumnus of Canning College, Lucknow University, where he read English Literature and Hinstory. He was appointed to the newly created Indian Administrative Service in March 1947, as a War Service entrant. Having held posts at the Centre and the state level, he demitted office as Chairman, Board of Revenue on superannuation on 30 June 1982. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy on his dissertation, ‘The Indian Administrative Service: A Study in Erosion of the British Pottern of Administration in India’.

Buy INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE: The Case for Reform

THE POLITICS OF CHANGE : A Ringside View

A Book by N K Singh

Author – N K Singh
Publisher – Penguin Books India

‘The economic policy changes of the past decade and a half have unleashed a side of India that has taken the world by storm. But the current growth trends are not sustainable without further reforms.’

As additional secretary (economic affairs), expenditure secretary, revenue secretary, secretary to the prime minister and later as member, Planning Commission, N.K. Singh has navigated the system to help steer India’s economic liberalization from 1991 to 2004. In his weekly column ‘From the Ringside’, written for the Indian Express, Singh has dissected, explicated and critiqued the infrastructure, centre–state relations, the opening up of the insurance sector, petroleum prices and their deregulation and changing global perspectives on India.

The Politics of Change draws on N.K. Singh’s experience to give the reader a window into Indian politics and economy, providing incisive insights into the realities of coalition politics and international fault lines. The analyses help understand why some initiatives have succeeded in transforming the economic landscape while other bills, schemes and initiatives which were launched with good intentions have either floundered or eventually emerged with scars after years of tussle. The book also highlights the challenges that India must face as its institutions evolve to keep pace with the task of governing and supporting the rapidly changing economic and social landscape.