The Wrong Reasons?

I ended my last post with a few questions about what a bureaucrat really does, and whether one’s personality is really suited to be a bureaucrat. KK commented that my somewhat cynical references to the real reasons (the ‘lal batti’ syndrome) why candidates appear for this exam cannot be divorced from other, more genuine reasons. I agree with him on this point as my ‘cynical’ references were meant more as a provocation to thought as why one wants to write the exam. But more on that later. There are really no absolute right reasons for writing the exam. We must all choose our own right reasons for writing the exam. But I will insist that there may be some wrong reasons for writing the exam. Writing the exam for monetary gain, for example, would fall clearly in this category. Government service offers enough opportunities for illegal gratification but if money is really one’s true aim, there are enormous legitimate opportunities in the private sector for those with the will and creativity. Writing the exam so that one can actively serve the interests of particular groups or sections within the nation, to the detriment of others, whether they may be on the basis of caste, religion or region, I believe is another wrong reason.

This brings me to the controversial issue of the last post: How far should status and privilege motivate one to join the civil services? The Indian Civil Service has traditionally enjoyed huge status on account of the colonial legacy where Whitehall’s writ was executed by the ICS officer on the ground. The notion of the ‘administrator as ruler’ that underpinned this colonial position continues to have a powerful hold on the public imagination. To my mind at least, if the civil service must play a constructive role in pulling India into the 21st century, it must actively seek to break this mould, and this is the most difficult question that both aspirants and civil servants must ask themselves today. Would you still choose the services if it did not perpetuate a semi-feudal ruling elite, but was merely an ordinary part of the executive that was responsible for sensible policy making and effective policy implementation? Would it still be so attractive without its attendant perks, but was merely an agent of change that would empower citizens to depend less and less on the civil servant himself?


The Right Reasons

Undoubtedly, the ‘diminished’ civil servant may not be the ideal person to motivate one for this exam, but here then is the rub: Why then write this exam at all? In spite of all my ‘cynicism’ I do believe that may be some good reasons to give this exam. As I pointed out before, each one will have their own right reasons but here is a checklist of questions that one could ask of oneself before making a final decision. The logic is simple: find out what a civil servant (and here be more specific - IAS, IFS, IPS, etc) does and figure out whether this is the kind of job that you would want to do, and would have a reasonable chance of success in.

1. Is your understanding of a civil servants job based upon perception or
reality? If it is the latter, would discussing his or her day to day job
(even spending some time with an officer if possible) give you a clearer view?

2. What is your defining interest/motivation in life? Is it to make money, for
example and have a reasonably comfortable life, or is it to attain some degree of fame or to contribute to society in some meaningful way, or even to pursue knowledge for its own sake (not to suggest that any of these objectives are mutually exclusive)? Each of these have particular correlation in different fields, just as some of them may find expression within the services? Do you believe that you can utilize your interest while working for government while acknowledging that it may not give you the returns that it would have, had you pursued it exclusively?

3. What kind of aptitude do you have? Is it amenable to working in a fixed hierarchical system where merit may not always be a priority, although there may be other intangible rewards? Do you have an aptitude for ‘hands on’ public interface or do you prefer to work in a more rarified office atmosphere?

4. And finally, what is your death bed story? As morbid as it sounds, I personally rate it as the most important question when deciding whether or not to join the services. When you look back at your life from your deathbed, how would you have wanted to live it? Are you willing to take someone else’s dream and live it as your own, or are you willing to find your own?


The questions listed above are only indicative of what a decision making process could look like. Points 2 and 3, I wish to mark out since they not only help you decide whether to write the exam, but indicate how successful you may be in the service. The government works in a peculiar environment that everyone may not find comfortable. Your aptitude and your motivation, if appropriately suited, will determine your ability to persevere and succeed. Your aptitude will also help you choose the right service, an issue I hope to deal with in a later post.

A final personal note on the last point: I knew that, personally, when I looked back, I would have wanted to spend a considerable part of my life representing this extraordinary country, representing more than a billion people, and being in part responsible for its rise in the global comity of nations. If I can achieve even a small part of that story as a member of the civil service, I will be a happy man. 

Why we enter civil services?

The Indian Civil Services - Answering the Why - Part I

Whenever someone asks me for help on writing the civils, I am tempted to give the same response that the English writer G.K. Chesterton did when approached for advice on marriage: Don’t! Why on earth would you want to write an exam that drags on for so long, that is outrageously maddening in the knowledge/skills that it claims to test, and is completely random in the results it produces. One often jokes that the Indian Civil Service Exam is really a test of your karma, in the classical Indian tradition. Did you do any good in your previous life? Yes, well then great! You can join the great Indian Civil Services in this life, proceed to amass assets disproportionate to your known sources of income, and become a worm in your next.

Often, when candidates are quizzed about the reasons for appearing for the CSE at the famed UPSC interview, they are suddenly possessed with sudden realization. This is, no doubt, the moment that they have all been waiting for (of course, apart from the moment when they will be interviewed by Barkha Dutt after securing the first rank). The ‘correct’ answer will gain them entry into the job of their dreams. So what is the most favoured answer? More or less, almost all variations of the following themes:

I wish to serve the nation.
I wish to make constructive and compassionate interventions at the field and policy making levels so as to bring the fruits of development to those who have traditionally been excluded from the mainstream of growth so as to serve the larger interests of the country and make India into a superpower.
And oh yes, I wish to serve poor people.

Does anyone recall that lighted thing they put on top of white ambassador cars? Or sprawling bungalows in every district headquarter from Kollam to Kohima? Or fawning men and women for whom the three letters after your name connote the appearance of a living deity?

I exaggerate, but lets get the basics out first: Any good you purport to do in the Civil Services can easily be done many other walks of life, sometimes more efficiently, sometimes with far more impact. Sure, being an investment banker with Goldman Sachs may not be the most conducive way to serve the ‘people’ but one often wonders whether more than sixty years of a glorious and independent civil service has really done any service to the nation at all, especially when one compares it to the last two decades after the initiation of reforms; something that the bureaucracy opposed tooth and nail. Extraordinary work is being done today by ordinary men and women who continuously challenge traditional notions of social service and how it should be performed. The most visible example that comes to mind is that of Aruna Roy, who left the IAS to begin a grassroots movement that transformed how people access information. One of my friends who contemplated writing the civils asked her once why she left and whether she had any regrets. “Let me put it this way,” she replied, “I drafted a law that my batchmate, the Chief Information Commissioner, now implements.”

So why does one really write this exam? Do you believe that your personality type is suited to be a bureaucrat? What does a bureaucrat really do? Let me leave you with these final thoughts, some of which I hope to answer in my next post.

Grass is always Greener on the otherside!!

Grass is always Greener on the otherside!!

Offlate I realised that each one of us perceptively draw out all the miseries embedded in our pityful and self proclaimed miserable lives and, simultaneously on the other hand, crib over, all the bounties of God bestowed over every other person around us making him or her 1000 times happier then we are. Thats wat I call as "HUMAN NATURE" .

We tend to glorify ourselves by mentioning again and again to ourselves and people around, about the battle we are fighting, by living a life devoid of majority of worldly pleasures thus making us delve in the sea of sadness every now and then, whereas every other person seems to be enjoying the greener pastures of life with problems not even in his vicinity.

However the proverbs came into existence as the translation of the divine words and thus proved to be true in every sphere of life since time immemorial and so is the proverb dat "GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE".

We are in a habit of weighing happiness in proportion to the materialistic belongings one possess whether its the quick bucks the rich guy makes on monthly basis (the fat pay cheques!!) or the swanky BMW 7 series parked outside the posh Bungalow.The size of single Diamonds in the Necklace and its shine testifys for the happiness of the lady wearing it. The diamond studded Rolex watch makes us believe that its always this man's time who has caged the happier time in his diamond studded Rolex and would never let it go , so that he always remain happy.

His Armani suit will always reflect the bad omen away with its shine and will always prevent from the rough weather. However we tend to forget that all these material things are nothing but a product of the artificial face of the society and its sole purpose is to portray a greener grass for others to be attracted to.To keep them at bay and longing for it. To make them feel inferior and give our Ego's fodder to feed upon and get satisfied.To glorify our status and contribution to the society.

However by no means this illusionary happiness is lasting.It vanishes with time in a short while once we get use to it and also the society around us.Then we tend to take all this for granted and again try to dig out some problem from our self proclaimed disasterly life to crib and at same time praise others. We tend to forget wat we have and also wat others dont have wat we have.....and only remember wat we dont have in comparison to the other people.

Happiness is a dish with many ingredients...........It cannot be simply put in terms of money...The most important ingredient is the health of a person and his family..Without health no worldy pleasure would last....The problem is that we dont realize its value untill weactually fall ill....

Similarily, the harmonious presence of our loved once around us is the other most important ingredient o happiness.....Just imagine having billions of dollars and jewels on a lonely island with no one to show those dollars, jewels or car....Ultimately all are inanimate things which r of no use in isolation and require our people to enjoy it with.But we dont realise the happiness associated with it untill we loose our loved ones.y

Thus we should try to weigh the happiness of others in terms of above parameters to truely estimate the richness of the person....Money is important to fulfill our basic needs of luxury but beyond dat its our health and loved ones that counts.....
We need to cherish wat we already have in terms of above ingredients and should not waste our life cribbing for wat we dont have........Remember Life is too short...Enjoy it to the fullest!!....................and also dat Grass always luks greener on the other side but if u luk carefully towards ur side then you will find dat Grass on our side is green enough to survive on it and lead a happy life!!

As per Indian Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)that FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) is inevitable in multi brand retailing. India has been implementing 100% FDI in single brand(Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Nike, Mcdonald , KFC etc) retailing from past couple of years and trying to get the approval in cabinet for FDI in multi brand retailing (Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour, Metro) with 51% since we have accepted the economic reforms in G20 Canada summit. India is the fifth largest retail destination globally; it has been recognized as a lucrative market for foreign investors in the retail industry.

India is a great retail democratic country, we have plenty of neighborhood kirana stores, traditional, and unorganized retailers who are serving the nation from past several decades. The Indian retail market can be divided in to two categories i.e. Organized and Unorganized with market share of 5 % and 95% respectively, the total turnover is $395 billion and it is expected to grow up to $785 billion by 2015. India has been leaning towards organized retail system from past decade and it’s going to reach up to 20% by 2015. Large Indian companies are entering in to the retail business since there is lot of potential to grow i.e Birla More store, reliance fresh, Bharti Easy Day.

India is slowly emerging as a world class market with high value products; growing middle class incomes, urbanization and changes in consumer behavior which are ideal for super markets or hypermarkets. Our agriculture also need large investments to improve our infrastructure in terms of seed supply, agrichemicals, processing, machinery, storage facilities, rural transportation and value chain management. Experts and economists say that there is lot of prospective benefits to consumers and farmers by FDI in retail.

I believe that unrestricted FDI in multi brand retailing is going to affect badly on micro and small retailers. The multinational retailers are going to fill their aisles with international brands with competitive prices and the micro and small retailers are absolutely not in a position to compete with them. The biggest challenge is how to synchronize the harmony between organized and unorganized.

My recommendations on FDI- Retail

1. Indian retail sector contributes 15% to total GDP and providing 8% of total employment which is the biggest employer after agriculture, so the retail sector should be recognized as an Industry and need to be controlled by a separate ministry.

2. Any kind of corporate owned markets shouldn’t interfere in Public distribution system (PDS) because more than 50% of Indian households are depending on this welfare system and most of them are below poverty line.

3. Ministry of commerce and Industry should fix the limit on foreign Investing amount though they have 51% eligibility. If there is no cap on amount, it’s going be a huge threat to Indian retail companies.

4. The Ministry should initiate the kind of business model; i.e. FDI retailers should deal with all kind products like Fresh produces, dry foods and non food items uniformly in the startup itself. If they don’t consider fresh farm produces, I don’t thinks that they won’t set up the value chain for farm produces.

5. The FDI retail outlets should be allowed on socio economic and demographic factors. Geographical radius must be fixed to set up the stores to mitigate the competition among the local retailers and multinationals’.

6. Stringent policies are required for harmonious trade and to control the multinationals aggressive monopoly trade practices. The Government needs to promote the micro, small and medium local retailers and should take necessary steps to grow them.

7. The new jobs created by the multinational retail chains should be reserved for rural people and the FDI retailers should not destroy the existing unorganized retailers’ distribution setup.

Direct cash transfer for farmer’s family welfare

Direct cash transfer for farmer’s family welfare

We have been discussing various farmers’ issues from past few years i.e. remunerative price, simple interest loans and all kind of subsidies… no favorable progress in this direction. The conclusion what do farmers expect is a stable income to lead their quality life just the same as others in the society. Each and every profession has its own remuneration for their service and the same way all kind of products have their own market price, but farmers don’t have stable remuneration for their hard work or remunerative price for their produces. Government has been intervening in crop production and marketing issues but still no righteousness for farmers and still they are agitating for all kind of supports. Now the time is up… no more jokes (false promises), no more time killing committees, farmers need a constructive permanent policy with economical reforms which gives care to get out of the agriculture crisis.

I strongly feel that the direct cash payments to the farmers is the best alternative option to support them, government has been giving all kind of subsidies in the form of seeds, fertilizers and so on which are actually going to manufacturers not direct to the farmers. If the direct payment goes to the real farmers; they can use the money wisely creatively for not only on fertilizers or pesticides but also for other farming activities. The government should provide direct cash payments to the farmers to assist in labor wages for farm operations, every body knows that farm labor cost has increased due to expensive cost of living and they have got great bargain power with several social welfare schemes. It’s the best way to integrate the NREG schemes to agriculture. I am very glad about Mr. Nandan nilekani’s proposal on direct cash transfer model for fertilizer subsidies but the implementation methodologies shall be discussed.

Farmers need a fixed amount of crop based cash assistance when the crops don’t reap by natural calamities; direct cash is a security from drought, floods and rising diesel prices. As we know that small farmers and land less farmers can’t survive simply on agriculture, they used to do animal herding but still they are in low socio economic status. They need some fixed amount of cash for reasonable standard of living and away from the poverty. The government should examine the real incomes and living costs while recommending the direct cash assistance every year; the money should go to every agriculture family including share croppers. The direct cash payment program shall be designed to encourage women farmers, organic farming and sustainable agriculture.

My work is over ...Now its my GOD's turn.........

Today the final battle is over.....The yesterday nights sleep was cut short to 4 hours due to subconsious battle going on in the mind............Got up in one shot at 6 and read the yesterdays newspaper.....Somewhere there was a constant self pampering that everything will go well today ....I was trying to divert my mind and was trying hard to prevent thinking abt positive and negative consequences dat might follow after todays event gets over.

I quickly took a nap for another hour before the panic got set in........I suddenly realised that lot of thinks are left to be revised and there was hardly anytime left before I was to get ready to leave for the Lion's Den..
I quickly gathered some strength and called up few people to take some tips and also revise as much as I can...
After half n hour I dressed up in a chick Black suit and left for the "Battle Royale" .............On reaching the venue I looked up in sky to god,took a deep breadth, and entered the hallowed corridors of power, where my inner power was to be tested today by throwing me in front of 5 hungry beasts ready to cut my testicles off and that to without me even knowing about it....

So I entered the hall which was full of nervous goats ready to be slaughtered in a few minutes.......
The first goats of every table entered their respective slaughter rooms while others wished them 'Luck' (at the same time getting some solace deep inside that they got extra half an hour before they too get slaughtered by the oldies)..........................

So the clock ticked and everyone was waiting nervously for their turn ...........Then suddenly the first batch came out..Surprisingly many came out with happy faces......I wonder whether that happiness was for coming out alive from the clutches of the hungry monsters. Few looked wounded but more or less others came out with a smile on face.

This gave us some strength and a sense of hope that we might also manage to avoid the assault by the hangmen.........I found some college mates of mine and so I could turn into a typical dceite
hanging vellah from table to table chatting and passing time....This helped me to divert my attention from the danger dat was approaching fast and thus helped me settle my nerve.....

Within few minutes the moment of truth arrived, as the peon called my name and took me near the room (just like a butcher drags a poor goat to the slaughter room).......I adjusted my Tie and entered the room where my fate was to be decided....

The onslaught began and the greyhounds pounced upon me finding me defenseless and at there mercy....However to my surprise the onslaught was much milder then wat i expected and managed to tackle them somehow.........After 30 minutes of wrestling I could come out of the ring with few scratches and wounds here n there....but over all manged to survive............
As I came out of the room and walked through the hallowed corridors of power I could sense myself having absorbed some part of it and felt little stronger and powerful.
I looked up in the sky again and thanked god, took a deep breadth and moved out of the gate....

So my work is done. I have got over with my final stage and now its all upto the almighty to shape my destiny and reward my 2 years of extreme hardwork................Lets see wats in store for me 1 month from now...............I hope the Luck be with me..........Chao!!

God has been Graceful.............and so I could make it..........

So after yesterdays nervous night the bright sun rose again and it brought with it the rays of happiness and triumph.After an hours adrenaline rush I finally got to hear the golden words from one of my friends that I have cleared the penultimate stage of my journey.

It was a gr8 moment which I can not explain in words. Two years of extreme hardwork has been partially rewarded.Although I lost many of my fellow journey men in this stage but I still feel proud and happy that I could still keep the flag flying high, and hope dat I would be able to make it through the final stage as well and emerge victorious.

Finally I want to thank the almighty for being so kind and generous.It was a gr8 gift that I received today as there is nothing sweeter than achieving what one aimed at and seing one's hardwork getting rewarded.I am very happy.
So thank you God, thanx to my family and thanx to every person who helped me to reach this stage.........
Tommorow the Battle for the Final Stage Begins............................................
Wish me Luck!! Chao.