Speaking in the House of Commons in 1922, British prime minister Lloyd George called the civil service in India a “steel frame”, and argued that the structure would collapse without it. A lot has changed with time after India inherited this steel frame from its colonial ruler. In 2012, Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd, a Hong Kong-based consultancy, found that the bureaucracy in India was the worst among 12 Asian countries surveyed. Clearly, the bureaucratic system in the country has not evolved according to the changing nature of administrative challenges and a growing economy where the activity is shifting towards the private sector. The latest evidence, as reported in this newspaper and elsewhere, is the war of words between members of civil services, as the officers of the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS) are lobbying hard against parity with other All India Services in compensation, promotions and other benefits. Both sides are making representati...