Not just lateral appointments

India needs major administrative reforms for a more professionally trained civil service

- AJAY CHHIBBER

The recent kerfuffle over “lateral appointments” misses a bigger problem - the need for major administrative reforms to complement economic reforms. Dealing with India's bureaucracy, even with an increase in e-services, remains a major complaint of businesses and citizens. If India wants to become a China +1, it must recognise that China conducted a major administrative reform in 1995 - 15 years after it began economic liberalisation - and modernised its government. India recognised the need for it during United Progressive Alliance 1.0 and set up the Second Administration Reform Commission 15 years after we began our economic liberalisation. It produced a tome with over 1,600 recommendations. But, unlike in China, the much-needed comprehensive administration reform did not come.

With a Modi 3.0, the time for this much-delayed reform may have come. Will it happen, and what would it entail? The size of the civil service is quite small by international standards, and its composition needs considerable change there are too many clerical and administrative staff, and too few technocratic experts, teachers, and health workers. The share of general government employment in total employment was around 1 per cent in the 1990s, the lowest in Asia. Although there has been an increase since then, it has mostly been in security agencies. In most Asian countries, it is above 2 per cent, and in Malaysia and Sri Lanka over 3 per cent.