[sremani]

If I have to blame one thing and only one thing, I will spare the Indian politician and blame the "babu-giri", Indian Civil Services, which is still modeled around its colonial predecessor. These are people recruited in their 20s and have a lifetime appointment in the system. Some are wise enough to get foreign education when possible, but most live in this bureaucratic bubble, and methodically eke their fiefdoms. These guys are the policy wonks, district level executives and every thing in between, and they do not have one frigging Idea, how the private sector works. They are worshipers of process and people are not in the picture. This culture permeates to every level, a culture of gatekeepers and fiefdoms, from the Secretary to PM to the peon in the municipal office.

India was called hope of Asia in 50s. The hope and promise was nothing new, and the delivery was never there.

[puranjay]

I've always maintained that India can't change without a complete overhaul of the bureaucratic system. I've seen this up close. The thing is so damn inefficient that I can't even joke about it.

[signal11]

I read a column about that recently: "End the IAS" (the IAS is the successor to the Colonial-era ICS iirc) http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/mihir-s-sha...

[test001only]

That article is highly one sided and too radical. What would you do after abolishing the IAS? What would it be replaced with? Is that going to end all the evil in India? The diversity and complexity in India is so huge that every policy decision needs to be considered from multiple points of view before implementing. India is now in a position were it has to manage the aspiration of both the new middle and upper middle class who aspire for things which developed countries have and also at the same time cater to the needs of more than half its population who are below poverty lines. People who complain usually would not have a good solution or are probably too far away from the ground reality.

[kalyanganjam]

>>That article is highly one sided and too radical.

Not at all. If anything, It is In fact too soft for the problems IAS system continues to cause.

>>What would you do after abolishing the IAS? What would it be replaced with?

That's a good question. This has been studied at length by many many brilliant minds. One of the bright minds (an EX-IAS officer) that I know who studied this at length is Sanjeev Sabhlok (https://twitter.com/sabhlok). Sanjeev has a rigourously refined solution. Highly detailed implementation plan that is so detailed that even a junior IAS officer can understand. Please visit http://www.sabhlokcity.com/tag/ias/ for general reading and his book "Breaking Free of Nehru"

>>People who complain usually would not have a good solution or are probably too far away from the ground reality.

One does not need always need to know the solution to recognize a problem. Recognizing and acknowledging the problem is first of the many steps towards solving it.

>>Is that going to end all the evil in India?

This is a necessary but not sufficient condition. No one thing will end all evil in India. There are ways to end, but not one silver bullet.