Is the Indian Bureaucracy the Greatest Impediment to Progress in 2021?

The Civil Services are one of the most important cog in the machinery of the Indian ‘system’. In a country full of extreme diversity and social-cultural variations, the civil services, right from old times, have managed to maintain order within chaos. As the nature of politics and organisation of society and government changed over several years, it became imminent for the bureaucracy to reinvent itself as well. This reinvention was, in India’s case, in the hands of the democratic government – the same that granted the bureaucracy protection through Constitutional provisions when India became an independent nation. This study is particularly based upon the Second Administrative Reforms Commission Reports and looks into recommendations in the area of autonomy, accountability, tenures and training for the civil services. This study will provide avenues for delving further into the politics of the reformation process, and what are the possible influencing factors.