The institution of civil service formed a strong binding force in the post-independent India and has rendered eminent service to the overall socio-economic development of the country. It has been at the forefront of the development process right from the ‘commanding heights regime’ to the ‘liberalization and deregulation era’. It has not only played a pivotal role in designing policies but also ensured basic service delivery at the cutting edge of government-citizen interface. Challenges due to integration with the global trends and opening up of the economy:

• Need for specialisation: As economic reforms deepened and the State started yielding room in many domains to the market, the nature of administration changed, demanding domain knowledge, especially at the policy level.
• International Commitments: Global trends have placed greater emphasis on social and environmental issues like climate change, sustainable development, gender equality, and social inclusion. Civil servants need to formulate and implement policies that align with international commitments and promote sustainable practices.
• Fostering broad based growth: With the increasing role of private sector post liberalization in the development of the country, the role of civil servants has to change from being a regulator to a facilitator to support the growth of the private sector in a free and fair environment.
• Greater need for innovation: With over 1 billion mobile-phone users, fast-growing digital platforms and a tech-savvy population, digital innovation has the potential to accelerate India’s rise. This has led to emergence of various challenges like data security, digital divide, data management, data privacy etc.

These challenges need to be addressed through proactive policy making and efficient designs, which take into account the role of the Civil Service in the governance of the country and the expectations generated from it. The main components of Civil Service reforms should pertain to the following:

• Resize and restructure of bureaucracy: The issue of civil service efficiency vis-à-vis size is critical. The administrative reforms must look into the role clarification, core governance issues so that an optimum number of functionaries are available for effective service delivery without any spillage or leakage.
• Recruitment and training: Revise the recruitment process to emphasize meritocracy, diversity, and specialized skills. Enhance training programs to equip civil servants with the necessary knowledge and skills required to address global challenges effectively.
• Civil Services Performance management Systems: Promotions should be merit based and the respective authorities have to benchmark the best practices and evaluate the performance of the civil servants both qualitatively and quantitatively with a variety of parameters.
• Professionalism & Modernity: Concerted effort needs to be directed towards encouraging civil servants to cultivate professional skills through direct work experience or through research for three functional categories implementation, program/project preparation and policy formulation.

In this regard, a new National Architecture for Civil Services Capacity Building called “Mission Karmayogi” has been launched to create a professional, well-trained and future-looking civil service, that is imbued with a shared understanding of India’s developmental aspirations, national programs and priorities.