The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is facing a staff shortage of almost 30% across India, with the largest gaps in under-developed states.
The shortage, which has significantly affected the quality of service delivery, has happened because the government has not recruited IAS officers in adequate numbers in the last decade.
Data from the department of personnel and training show that against a total strength of 6,154 IAS officers as on January 1, 2012, only 4,377 are in position.
This includes those recruited through the annual civil services examinations and those promoted from respective state civil services.
Since IAS officers, especially at the state level, are often chief executives of public sector units or departments, the shortage means an almost equal number of organisations without a full-time chief. The shortage may not disappear soon as recruitment through both channels is calibrated on a long-term basis and cannot be expanded in, say, two years.
The shortage is curious, since India has the world’s second largest pool of scientific and engineering graduates. The scarcity is more acute in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Rajasthan. The shortage rises to one-third for these states, most of which are also in the middle of Naxalite menac, which imposes larger pressure on the administrative skills of the officers in saddle.
With the worsening shortage, several states are refusing permission to their officers to leave on central deputation. This has created a corresponding vacuum in the numbers available for posting in the ministries and agencies under the central government. At times, states have also accused their officers of escaping their respective cadres, opting instead for the relative comfort of central government posting. But as figures show, the shortage is more generic and not amenable to short-term cures like seeking repatriation of all IAS officers of a cadre back to the provinces.