https://indianmasterminds.com

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

It’s Time India Identified the Problems in Its Steel Frame

Former LBSNAA Director Sanjeev Chopra writes that India is at a socio-economic juncture where it needs to ask important questions vis-à-vis its governance and administrative systems. It is high time that in the 75th year of Independence, we ask ourselves some searching questions on how the architecture of our governance can match the best in the world. He also dwells on how the present set of civil servants has a far more complex task at hand than the ICS ever had.
Indian Masterminds Stories

Making of a Nation – that’s the name given to a section in the Gandhi Smriti Library at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. Here, an attempt has been made to house all books written by civil servants – starting with Surendranath Banerjee’s A Nation in Making. We now have over 3,000 books on the shelves, and the number is growing faster than we imagined. Within the last few weeks, we have added the works of S.Y. Quraishi, Ashok Lavasa, G.S. Sidhu, Jitesh Mohanty, Narender Luther, Deepak Gupta, Parameswaran Iyer and Nirupama Rao, and this is just an anecdotal recall.

SURENDRANATH BANERJEE PAVED THE WAY

Surendranath Banerjee’s autobiographical work was first published nearly a century ago in 1925. It went through several reprints, and yet another edition was brought out in 2016 – a testimony to its value. It was not just a mirror to those times, but also important for the range of issues taken up for discussion, as well as the lucidity of its language. He was the second Indian to have passed the Indian Civil Service (ICS) exam (the first being Rabindranath Tagore’s elder brother Satyendranath Tagore) but was dismissed from service due to mere technicality. During his training period and assistantship, he stood for justice rather than preserving the status quo – a quality that endeared him not just to his countrymen but also to his adversaries.

Although he was a clear victim of racial prejudice, he bore no personal grudges and carried out his campaign for issues that were dear to him -greater participation of Indians in governance and Home Rule, simultaneous examination of the ICS in India and England, and education for all, including women. Even though he had founded the Indian Association well before the Congress in 1876, and was overlooked for the Presidency of the Congress for over a decade, he bade his time, became a professor, editor, public speaker, and toured the country as the first pan-India spokesperson for the nationalist cause.

Surendranath Banerjee. P.C.: Wikipedia

He was in every way a reformer – one who believed that the opposite of governance was anarchy. He had been a mentor to Gokhale, Tilak, and Mahatma Gandhi, but his methods were moderate, and he could not see eye to eye either with Tilak or the Mahatma.

India is at a socio-economic juncture where it needs to ask important questions vis-à-vis its governance and administrative systems that play a vital role in giving shape to the country’s ambitions. That’s one way to touch the spirit of administrative reforms that Banerjee envisioned for India.

START IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEMS WITHIN

Questions should be raised, and the range of options offered will adhere to the dictum that all issues need to be discussed threadbare, their long-term implications examined at length, and in a non-adversarial manner. The counterfactual needs to be stated upfront, for it is all very easy to say that the civil services – as they are constituted today – are not capable of addressing issues that Asia’s third-largest economy faces. The system was designed to ensure law and order besides collecting revenue to run the empire.

India would need to identify the problems in its steel frame. The question is – where does the problem lie? The selection criterion? The training inputs? Or the new ecosystem of governance in which the political class is expected to extend patronage as a quid pro quo? One can’t say.

Former LBSNAA Director Sanjeev Chopra

TASKS CUT OUT FOR IAS TOUGHER THAN ICS

Be that as it may, we look into issues connected with governance (nation-building), both at the level of policy as well as its implementation on the ground. It will talk about how the present set of civil servants has a far more complex task at hand than the ICS ever had. For all the curiosity around an ICS officer, their job was well defined, reviewed only by their own peers, built on patronage, and independent of public opinion. The twin objectives of maintaining law and order and revenue collection were clearly defined, and till 1935, there was no accountability to an elected legislature or the officials.

Furthermore, there was no pressure of specialisation as the members of the civil services face today. Nor was lateral entry a challenge, and the ICS officers rose to become high court judges, members of the Legislative Councils, and Lieutenant Governors.

The examination for the civil services is far tougher than ever before, and I can vouchsafe the intellectual and emotional quotient of those who crack the examination today, even if it is with help from coaching institutes. Despite the fact that they are expected to be karma yogi, they will have to operate in an ecosystem where the equation of formal responsibility has to be balanced with the ground reality. Here, the elected representatives feel that they have to nurture their constituency. Can the institution of the District Magistrate (DM) or collector, the eleven-layered hierarchy of the police, and an overstretched revenue, civil and criminal justice system deliver ease of doing business and ease of living?

The current political leadership is invested in change management, making it effective for restructuring, if not an overhauling of the administrative apparatus. It is high time that in the 75th year of Independence, we ask ourselves some searching questions on how the architecture of our governance can match the best in the world.

(This article has been written by Sanjeev Chopra. He is a historian and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Till recently, he was the Director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration.)


Indian Masterminds Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Related Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
NEWS
Rajasthan government
Rajasthan Announces Major Reforms for Govt Employees: Foreign Training for Officers, Compassionate Jobs for Daughters-in-Law
IRCTC
IRCTC Q3 FY26 Results: Net Profit Surges 22% to ₹325 Cr; Declares Second Interim Dividend of ₹3.50/Share
CMPDI
PESB Selects ECL GM Anand Mohan as Director (Technical) of Central Mine Planning & Design Institute (CMPDI)
PMS 2
CM Mohan Yadav Launches PMS 2.0 Portal, Signs MoUs to Boost MP Infrastructure and Green Building Development
MIDHANI
MIDHANI Q3 FY26 Results: Turnover Up 15.84% to ₹275.66 Cr; PAT Rises 8.67%, Order Book at ₹2,440 Cr
Engineers India Limited EIL Engineers India Ltd (EIL)
EIL Q3 FY26 Net Profit Jumps 242% to ₹301.74 Crore on ₹213 Crore Turnkey Project Settlement
Bihar Agriculture Department
Bihar Government Offers Attractive Subsidies to Promote Organic Farming and Boost Farmers’ Income
Bihar-Police
Bihar Home Department Assigns Jurisdiction and Powers to 11 Rural SPs for Effective Village Policing
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Videos
Akash Verma IAS
The Courage to Begin Again: Akash Verma’s Journey to UPSC AIR 20
WhatsApp Image 2026-02-05 at 6.39
The IAS Officer Who Refused to Let Bastar’s Children Fail Alone | Vinit Nandanwar’s Interview
Vinit Nandanwar
Vinit Nandanwar And The Making Of Bastar's First IAS
ADVERTISEMENT
UPSC Stories
IPS Aryendra Kumar UPSC
‘I Felt Trapped in My Own Mind’: IPS Officer Aryendra Kumar on Anxiety During UPSC Preparation
A candid account of IPS officer Aryendra Kumar’s mental health struggles during UPSC preparation and...
Siddharth Babu UPSC IFS
Calm, Clarity and Rank 15: How Siddharth Babu Cracked UPSC and Joined the IFS
Who is Siddharth Babu? The 2017-batch IFS officer who interpreted for PM Modi on Republic Day and cracked...
IAS Avdhija Gupta UPSC
She Cried, She Learned, She Returned: The Unbreakable UPSC Journey of IAS Avdhija Gupta
From three consecutive Prelims failures to securing AIR 43, IAS Avdhija Gupta’s UPSC CSE-2024 journey...
Social Media
One-Horned Rhino Calf
Watch: First One-Horned Rhino Calf of 2026 Takes Birth at Jaldapara National Park, IFS Officer Shares Rare Footage
A newborn one-horned rhinoceros calf was spotted at Jaldapara National Park on January 1, 2026. IFS officer...
venomous banded krait
Rare Night Encounter: IFS Officer Spots Highly Venomous Banded Krait During Forest Patrol, Internet Amazed
An IFS officer’s night patrol video of a highly venomous banded krait has gone viral, highlighting India’s...
elephant rescue Karnataka
Heroic Karnataka Elephant Rescue: How a 28-Hour “Impossible Mission” Became a Triumph of Wildlife Care, IFS Parveen Kaswan Shares Video
A trapped elephant was rescued after 28 hours in Karnataka through a massive, expertly coordinated Forest...
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Latest
Rajasthan government
Rajasthan Announces Major Reforms for Govt Employees: Foreign Training for Officers, Compassionate Jobs for Daughters-in-Law
IRCTC
IRCTC Q3 FY26 Results: Net Profit Surges 22% to ₹325 Cr; Declares Second Interim Dividend of ₹3.50/Share
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Videos
Akash Verma IAS
WhatsApp Image 2026-02-05 at 6.39
Vinit Nandanwar
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT