Policy and regulations
The eternally employable mandarins: IAS officers now corner all plum assignments
A difference of two marks in the civil services exam can ultimately become a wall that keeps out non-IAS officers from top administrative posts. Is the government losing out as much as the officers?
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Civil services aspirants outside an examination centre in Gurugram; Yogendra Kumar/Hindustan Times/Getty Images
The roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST) in July 2017 was one of the most important tax reforms in India’s history. Yet, as soon as the new regulations came into force, numerous goof-ups came to light. Clarifications and U-turns followed, and many issues are still being ironed out. For a regulation that was in the making for several
— probably that will take more time to decide.… But so far, the country has been managed by generalists, and specialists are in few departments.” However, he agrees that domain expertise is a key requirement in critical policy areas.Otherwise, the nation will have to end up paying for half-baked policies and regulations, like it did in the case of GST.
