Hong Kong-based risk consultancy firm PERC finds Indian bureaucracy worst in Asia

THE Indian bureaucracy has once again been termed as the worst in Asia by a Hong Kong-based risk consultancy firm which claims that Indian politicians’ promise to reform and revitalize bureaucracy has failed as “the civil service is a power centre in its own right”. Exactly a year ago, the same firm, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), described Indian bureaucracy as the worst in Asia.

This year, India has scores 9.41 in a scale of 10, in which 10 indicates the worst possible scenario. The performance of bureaucracy in Indonesia (8.59), the Philippines (8.37), Vietnam (8.13) and China (7.93) has not been good either whereas bureaucracy in Singapore (2.53) and Hong Kong (3.49) have been found to be the best among 12 Asian countries for which the survey was undertaken.

According to media reports quoting the survey, the report further said that bureaucratic red-tape is a serious problem in India and China but "the differences in the political systems of these two countries have made inertia much worse in India than in China".

Established in 1976, Hong Kong-headquartered PERC assesses key trends and critical issues shaping Asia mainly to develop effective strategies for capitalizing on these opportunities.

The results of the survey are based on the views of 1,373 middle and senior expatriate executives expressed earlier this year. And that’s the only consolation! Maybe, the ranking of Indian bureaucracy would have a little better had it been taken into account the views of resident Indians rather than expats. Should the officers manning the departments handling the expats take extra care to the foreigners working in India?

Just take out 30 seconds to participate in the survey by babusofindia.com (BoI), placed on the top-left side of the page, and rate Indian bureaucracy yourself. Your voice could be taken more seriously by those in corridors of power.

Action and Appointments

a) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the continuation of Dr Ashok K Lahiri as Executive Director, in the Asian Development Bank, for one more year beyond June 30, 2010.

b) Ms Vandana Kumari Jena, a 1979 batch Orissa cadre IAS, presently in the cadre, has been appointed as Adviser in the Planning Commission.

c) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal for inter cadre deputation of Shri Maheshwar Dayal, IPS (TN-97) from Tamilnadu to Haryana for a period of five years.

d) Anup Kumar Thakur, a 1979 batch Assam cadre IAS, presently in the cadre, has been appointed as additional secretary in the department of agriculture and cooperation in the vacancy of Naba Kumar Das, a 1976 batch Assam cadre IAS.

e) ABP Pandey, a 1984 batch Maharashtra cadre IAS has been appointed as regional deputy director general (joint secretary level) in the Unique Identification Authority of India at Mumbai.

f) The ACC has approved the proposal for Inter-Cadre deputation of Pankaj Kumar Pal, a 2002 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS to Bihar cadre and that of Mohan Lal Meena, a 2001 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS to Madhya Pradesh cadre.

g) Prem Kumar Kataria, a 1985 batch IA&AS has been appointed as additional financial adviser (joint secretary level), in the ministry of defence (finance).