Initially Civil Services in India were designed to achieve the goals of neutrality and effectiveness, which seems to be lacking in the present context. Do you agree with the view that drastic reforms are required in Civil Services? Comment. (Answer in 250 words)

India’s permanent civil services provide continuity, expertise and constitutional governance. Political responsiveness is necessary, but politicisation and weak performance can erode neutrality and effectiveness.

• Frequent transfers, informal political pressure and opaque postings can compromise impartial advice and rule-based administration.
• Generalist structures may lack specialised skills for technology, climate, health and complex regulation; risk aversion slows innovation.
• Vacancies, outdated procedures, weak performance management and fragmented accountability affect service delivery.
• At the same time, neutrality must not mean unaccountability: civil servants answer to elected governments, legislatures, courts and citizens.

Reforms should be systemic rather than merely drastic: implement fixed minimum tenures and independent Civil Services Boards; clarify ministerial and official responsibility; recruit specialists transparently and enable lateral entry with safeguards; modernise training, mission-mode digital capacity and evidence-based policy. Use 360-degree, outcome-linked appraisal with due process, protect ethical dissent and strengthen whistle-blower safeguards. Decentralise authority alongside audit, citizen charters, social accountability and performance contracts. Stable institutions, transparent appointments and political commitment can reconcile neutrality with democratic responsiveness.

Reform must avoid contractual precarity or excessive centralisation. A professional, politically neutral service requires merit-based recruitment, diversity, institutional memory and protection from arbitrary victimisation, alongside consequences for corruption, delay and abuse of authority.

Political neutrality; civil service reform; fixed tenure; accountability; lateral entry; capacity building; citizen-centric governance.