Will The Indian Economic Service Get Its Mojo Back?

Jokes apart, career economists are among the most sought-after professionals across the world, valued for their ability to make sense of human behaviour in relation to money and material. They provide deeper insights and influence policy formulations, making them invaluable assets. Think Milton Friedman, Paul Krugman, Amartya Sen, to name a few. If economics is the study of creating opulence for a better living, economists tell you how to achieve it. That is why, governments across the world lean on this specialised profession, often building dedicated cadres of economists who would help make policy. So did India, setting up the Indian Economic Service (IES) in 1961, as an inter-ministerial and inter-departmental service comprising trained economists for formulating and implementing the nation’s economic policies and programmes.

In the early decades, IES did well in not just offering a strong backroom for policymaking, but also giving the nation some its best economic administrators, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, late governor of the Reserve Bank of India I G Patel, and former deputy chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia. With the economic liberalization unleashed in the 1990s, one would have expected that the relevance and importance of the IES would have grown. On the contrary, it seems to have fallen out of favour with successive governments during the past three decades. There have been a few attempts to revamp, including a review of the service undertaken as late as in 2011, but not much has come out of it.

“Some individual officers have been able to reach greater heights, but on average, they have been stagnating,” said a serving IES official, who did not wish to be named. “This is sad, because the government now needs more officers with knowledge of economics,” he added. Many of the officials chosen for economic policy work are non-IES, either lateral entries from outside the government or drawn from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

However, despite the entries from the outside, career prospects of IES officers have improved compared to the 1980s. Back then, serving IES officers had led an agitation with black bands and black placards in Delhi’s Boat Club, protesting the poor prospects of officers serving in the department. “You can imagine how grave the position was that Group A officers of the government were actually leading the agitation,” an IES official told The Secretariat. After that, more avenues opened for IES officials, but only a few have been able to take advantage of them.

A post-graduate degree in economics is required for an entry into the IES – a Group A Service in the central government. A written examination in economics and other subjects, followed by an interview are mandatory. Both these are conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. After selection, the IES officers undergo probationary training at the New Delhi-based Institute of Economic Growth. Currently, there are about 500 serving officers. Their relatively lesser strength might also be responsible for their limited lobbying power in securing higher positions.

While IES officers are expected to look for suitable jobs in the government, like economic advisers to various government departments, many key jobs for which they are suitable, do not often come their way. The ‘cadre controlling authority’ of the IES is the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance. The bosses of the department are usually IAS officers or economists from outside the government.

Arun Kumar Jha, retired IES and former Principal Advisor to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said more top-level opportunities offered to IES officers created conflicts with IAS officers, who were not willing to let go of many opportunities.

“I have seen IES officers being posted as passport officers. This is strange, but that’s how it is,” said Paul Antony, retired Chief Secretary of Kerala. Antony had begun his career in the IES but switched to the IAS once he got selected.

An IES officer becoming a passport officer is rare, but usually, IES officers don’t even get the jobs for which they are best suited for. As a result, they try to educate themselves more to become theoretically more qualified. “The instances of IES officers authoring economic research papers are quite common. Thus, while holding a position, they labour a lot in preparing research papers,” said Sangeeta Verma, retired IES officer, currently serving as a member of the Competition Commission of India.

Nowadays, many IES officers go abroad to pursue research, while in service. Thus, the average quality of an IES officer today is much better than 25-30 years ago. It would, therefore, do well for the government to not let this pool of talent go untapped, more so at a time when informed policymaking is what the country needs the most.