Why Do Bureaucrats Log Off: Lucrative Opportunities Outside?

After all, why would the country’s most powerful men and women want to quit a job, considered the most prestigious? 

Squaring The Circle

When I quit the civil services in 1997, it was a rarity. I did not know many who had quit the services before me, or soon thereafter. My personal experience has forced me to do a deep dive analysis of why bureaucrats opt out. 

For this, I have used all tools of research, including ones beyond the obvious, like Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity. In addition, I reached out to civil servants who quit and those who didn't, to understand the issue. For sake of brevity, I have restricted my search to three All India Services, and have not included the various other central services. 

I had faced the dilemma — to quit or to stay — in 1997. Those trying to leave are facing it today. My tentative answer to the question is: “It depends”.

Let’s face it. As a group, civil servants continue to command respect for the power they wield, their perceived integrity, dedication and capability. Bureaucrats have played a pivotal role in shaping modern India. 

So what lures them to log off? Let me try and decode something that is otherwise extremely difficult to explain. Indian civil servants quit at various stages of their career — a few even during training.

Now, the number of officers who quit mid-career without pensionary benefits is on the rise. Many others wait for partial or full pensionary benefits before opting for voluntary retirement. There are also many who complete their tenure, retire, and then join the corporate sector or other institutions. 

Barring exceptions, after quitting government service, particulatly after retirement — voluntary or otherwise — the two-year mandatory "cooling-off" period for civil servants has been reduced by a year.

Counting The Exits 

According to information furnished by the Government in the Rajya Sabha on March 13, 2024, the number of sanctioned posts in the three All India Services was 15,106 as on January 1, 2024, with 6,858 in the IAS, 5,055 in the IPS, and in the 3,193 IFS. The exits (resignations or voluntary retirements) must be seen in this context.

As the government, at the central level, does not maintain the list of quitters, the task of looking for those who left, why they left and how they fared, is a rather arduous and challenging exercise. 

But over the last 10 days, I launched a major hunt to locate resignations and voluntary retirements. Apart from using the research tools mentioned above, I also reached out to my contacts within various services in different cadres.

I found that the number of quitters from the cadres of the IAS, IFS and IPS, in the last 30+ years (1995-2025) is around 300. Even if I take inadvertent undercounting into account, the number of those who have left these prestigious services does not exceed 500, with the IFS witnessing the minimum exits. 

Quitters from the IAS and IPS constitute 4.20 per cent of the total, an attrition rate much lower than that found in the corporate world.

It is worth noting that as per information furnished by the Government in the Lok Sabha on November 25, 2024, a total of 853 Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers have either resigned or taken VRS in the last 10 years between 2014-2024. This includes 383 IRS (Income Tax) officers and 470 IRS (Customs & Indirect Taxes) officers.

Reasons? Difficult to say, Motivations are varied. But after examining individual cases, I have come to my own conclusions. And the reasons are both positive and negative.

On the positive side, the motivations include greener pastures outside — flexibility, and, of course, the lure of a high salary and position. On the negative side, the reasons are a lack of autonomy, frequent transfers, being stuck in far-off cadres, the feeling of being undervalued, career stagnation, and political pressure.

Direction Of Flight

Is there a single trend guiding the officers in choosing employment opportunities? The stort answer is no. Here is what I found:

1. Many have joined politics 
2. Next is the safe harbour of developmental finance institutions (World Bank, ADB) and UN organisations. Most go on deputation and get absorbed there.
3. Some have joined consulting majors (both domestic and global, like McKinsey)
4. Others have joined the corporate sector

Early on, corporate jobs that opened up for bureaucrats required liaising with government agencies. Gradually, this has diversified into other professional roles. But what has not been talked about is this: In recent times, many are leaving to launch their own entrepreneurial ventures.

From Civil Services To Entrepreneurship

The most trailblazing journey has been of civil servants venturing out into entrepreneurship. The early birds were my friends and colleagues from the Railways service: Sanjeeva Shivsh (1994) in 2007, who setup ThinkStartup to provide entrepreneur education in school and colleges, my batchmate Kapil Rawat (IRTS: 1985), who went on to promote rail freight terminal company SCRPL, and my IRAS junior Prashant Nikam, the co-founder of Sapio Analytics.

The list just got bigger and bolder. 

Unacademy, one of the most promising online learning portals, was launched by Roman Saini, the youngest IAS officer of the 2014 batch, who left in 2016 after just three years of service. 

Rajan Singh, who served as police commissioner of Thiruvananthapuram for three years during his eight years of service, resigned to launch ConceptOwl, again, an online learning platform that prepares students for competitive exams. 

Vivek Kulkarni, a member of the 1979 batch of IAS officers, made the transition from civil services to the private sector by co-founding Brickwork India, which provides virtual assistants to multinational companies. 

Pravesh Sharma, a 1982 batch IAS officer, voluntarily retired from the service in 2016 to start Sabziwala, a chain of retail fruits and vegetables, with the aim of ensuring fair prices for everyone, and Syed Sabahat Azim, a 2000-batch IAS officer, who resigned to launch the affordable healthcare chain Glocal Healthcare Systems.

A Few Curated Case Studies

1.     From Civil Service To Politics

The trend is not new. It began in the Nehru era itself, with officers of the then-ICS joining the Government as ministers or in gubernatorial roles. Some of the prominent names include V P Menon, C D Deshmukh, Dharma Vir, Chandulal Madhavlal Trivedi, Girija Shankar Bajpai, Vishnu Sahay, Braj Kumar Nehru, and Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari.

Among the three All India Services, IFS has been the most stable with the lowest attrition rate. The exceptions are K Natwar Singh (1953-batch), Mani Shankar Aiyar (1963-batch) and Meira Kumar (1973-batch) — who quit to join the Congress Party, and later S Jaishankar (1977-batch), and Hardeep Singh Puri (1974)-batch, who, after retiring from the bureaucracy, were appointed Cabinet Ministers in the Narendra Modi government.

According to information furnished to the Rajya Sabha by the Ministry of External Affairs on November 11, 2024, only three IFS officers took voluntary retirement in the past five years.  

A key reason why few IFS officers quit is that they reach the pinnacle of their career (ambassadorial posts) toward the end of their careers. 

IAS Officers Who Quit: IAS officers who have been quick to quit and join politics include Ajit Jogi (1968-batch) and Yashwant Sinha (1960-batch). Jogi became the first Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, while Sinha served as Finance Minister and later External Affairs Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. 

Others who have followed in their footsteps are Raj Kumar Singh (1975-batch), RCP Singh (1984-batch); Arvind Kumar Sharma (1988-batch), Aparajita Sarangi (1994-batch), Velagapalli Varaprasad Rao (1983-batch) and Manish Verma (2000-batch). Here's the kicker: The number of civil servants joining politics is on the rise.

IPS Officers Who Quit: P V Rangaiah Naidu, the former DGP of Andhra Pradesh, was possibly the first IPS officer to join the Lok Sabha (Khammam, 1991) and serve as a Union Minister of State (MoS). For the sake of brevity, I am not recounting all the names, but I know at least 25 IPS officers who gave up to join politics — K Annamalai (2011-batch) being only the latest. After his resignation, he became the president of Tamil Nadu BJP.

Arvind Kejriwal: One name that comes to almost everyone’s mind of a civil service officer quitting to join politics is Arvind Kejriwal. His political journey is nothing short of a case study.

After resigning from the IRS, he started off as a social and political activist. In no time, he went on to capture the imagination of the whole nation, and then, form his own political party — the AAP. The rest is history, as they say. He went on to become the Chief Minister of Delhi, by sweeping the Assembly seats, leaving no room for any Opposition.

A note of caution: It has not always been a bed of roses for civil servants quitting service to join politics. Even if the beginning has been promising, the end has not always been rosy.

2.     Civil Servants To The UN, World Bank, ADB

It is usually a two-way traffic. Some civil servants go on deputation and return after some years, while others get absorbed in these institutions.

In both cases, apart from the prestige attached to such postings, there is a definitive pull of dollar salaries and even dollar pensions.

Though there are many such cases, let me stick to my acquaintances: R S Soin, my boss who went to the Asian Development Bank and stayed there; my classmate Diwesh Nath Sharan (IAS) who left to join the ADB and retired as Deputy Director General there; Vinayak Mohan Prasad (IRS), who is currently working at the WHO; and Vinay Sharma who went to the African Development Bank, and retired as the Director of the World Bank. The number of such people is legion and beyond the scope of one piece.

3.     Civil Service To Consulting Firms 

There are many cases of civil servants quitting government, joining consulting firms, and excelling. For me, this list starts with Pradeep Singh (IAS) and Pradeep Puri (IAS). While the former left after 17 years of service in 1995, the latter resigned in 1998, to move into the NGO sector.

At the time, many people called their actions foolhardy. In between them, I left in 1997 after 11 and a half years with the GoI, and have continued with my passion — infrastructure consulting at the age of 67.

The other prominent IAS officer who left and excelled in various roles thereafter (mostly as a knowledge worker) is O P Agrawal (IAS: 1977).

Among young IAS officers who left for consulting majors are Raj Kamal (IAS: 1994) and Rajat Modwel (IAS: 1990). Both left to join McKinsey and Co, which they subsequently left, and have excelled in various positions thereafter. Others who left the IAS to join consulting firms include Dhiraj Mathur (PwC) and Anurag Srivastava (PwC), while IPS officer R K Raghavan joined Tata Consultancy Services.

4.     From Civil Services To Corporate Sector

We are in the eighth month of this year now. Already, 2025 has seen many resignations of young IAS/IPS officers. These include Kamya Mishra (IPS), also known as Bihar’s Lady Singham, who resigned at the age of 28; Rachita Juyal; IPS officer Nimit Goyal, who resigned at the age of 33 to join the private sector; and IPS officer Siddharth Kaushal, who was posted in Andhra Pradesh and resigned, citing personal reasons. He too is likely to join the private sector.

One of the most successful transitions from the IPS to the corporate sector is of A N Singh, who joined Tata Steel, became its Deputy Managing Director (Corporate Services), and then transitioned to the role of Managing Trustee of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and associated trusts.

The list of those who left the IPS in the last 15 years does not exceed 50. It includes Ajoy Kumar, who left the IPS to join Tata Motors, but subsequently joined politics.

Till the year 2000, the trend to quit the government to join the corporate sector was rather minuscule. The numbers began shooting up sometime in the early 2000s. But it has not become an exodus, and it is unlikely to become so.

Data available in the public domain suggest that in the 10-year period — 2002 and 2012 — 181 IAS officers left their jobs to join big corporate houses. Though the comprehensive data for the last 15 years is unavailable, the number of IAS and IFS who left the government during the period is at the best 150-200.

Besides the reasons already listed, bureaucrats are also leaving after acquiring higher degrees from some of the world’s best institutions. This adds to their profile and they find immediate recruitment in the private sector. 

And now, as the frenzy of entrepreneurial spirit gathers steam, many officers are no more hesitant in launching their own ventures.

Civil services continue to be the dream career for millions of aspiring youngsters. It is a profession that offers incredible opportunities in nation-building, but with India becoming an economic superpower, the world outside the government umbrella is equally lucrative and satisfying. 

(This is Part 2 of a two-part series. You can read Part 1 here)

(The writer is a former civil servant. Views are personal)