New book seeks to decode India's bureaucracy

The author also suggests 15 sutras for good governance.Several former and serving bureaucrats have shared their ideas about the working of the bureaucracy and how they perceive it from within.Sailaja Ray Baruah, a 1987-batch IRS officer, remarked that the author, with his years of experience in observing babudom from close quarters, will certainly throw more light on whether this steel framework of Indias administration has been able to live up to the expectations of the countrys citizens.Such an analysis...

Union minister Jitendra Singh has expressed hope that ''Decoding Indian Babudom'' - a new book on the functioning of Indian bureaucracy - will be thought provoking, and agreed with the author that any system of large administration should assiduously work for the betterment of the people it serves.

''I cannot endorse or vouchsafe the contents of the book, but I am sure there will be something thought provoking to sit up and take note'' of what the author has to put across, Singh wrote in the foreword to the book.

The 168-page book written by journalist Ashwini Shrivastava touches on various aspects of Indian bureaucracy with major focus on what is ailing one of the largest civil administration systems in the world.

The book also touches on people's perception about bureaucracy, the prevalence of corruption, lack of innovation and the need for reforms in the system. The author also suggests ''15 sutras for good governance''.

Several former and serving bureaucrats have shared their ideas about the working of the bureaucracy and how they perceive it from within.

Sailaja Ray Baruah, a 1987-batch IRS officer, remarked that the author, with his years of experience in observing 'babudom' from close quarters, will certainly throw more light on ''whether this steel framework of India's administration has been able to live up to the expectations of the country's citizens''.

''Such an analysis... will be profoundly useful because it provides an honest and unbiased feedback to the policy makers as well as the policy implementers for further improvement and to chalk out a roadmap for the future,'' Baruah added.

1985-batch IAS officer from West Bengal cadre Sanjeev Chopra while commenting on the book's theme expressed discomfort with the term 'Babu'.

''I am not comfortable with the descriptor Babu for the bureaucracy - for our self image is quite different.

''We think we are governance professionals and we are committed to carrying out the constitutional mandate of creating an India that is inclusive, integrated and united. We look at everything not from a narrow sectorial (sic) perspective, but from a holistic viewpoint, which is so very important for field administrators as well as for inputs into policy making for a country which is as diverse as ours,'' Chopra, a former director of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration Mussoorie, wrote.

G Sundaram, a 1962-batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, said bureaucracy has lost its intellectual rigour in spite of high qualifications of the recruits due to political pressures ''which are natural in a party-based democracy''.

''Demands of the public are also complex. So there is no point in following old procedures. At the same time, bureaucracy is now answerable to the Parliament and the assemblies,'' Sundaram wrote.