CIVIL SERVICE

The term civil service has two distinct meanings:

* Branch of governmental service in which individuals are hired on the basis of merit which is proven by the use of competitive examinations.
* Body of employees in any government agency, except the military.

A civil servant or public servant is a civilian public sector employee working for a government department or agency. The term explicitly excludes the armed services, although civilian officials will work at "Defence Ministry" headquarters. The term always includes the (sovereign) state's employees; whether regional, or sub-state, or even municipal employees are called "civil servants" varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom, for instance, only Crown employees are civil servants, county or city employees are not.

Many consider the study of civil service to be a part of the field of public administration. Workers in "non-departmental public bodies" (sometimes called "QUANGOs") may also be classed as civil servants for the purpose of statistics and possibly for their terms and conditions. Collectively a state's civil servants form its Civil Service or Public Service.

No state of any extent can be ruled without a bureaucracy, but organizations of any size have been few until the modern era. Administrative institutions usually grow out of the personal servants of high officials, as in the Roman Empire. This developed a complex administrative structure, which is outlined in the Notitia Dignitatum and the work of John Lydus, but as far as we know appointments to it were made entirely by inheritance or patronage and not on merit, and it was also possible for officers to employ other people to carry out their official tasks but continue to draw their salary themselves. There are obvious parallels here with the early bureaucratic structures in modern states, such as the Office of Works or the Navy in 18th century England, where again appointments depended on patronage and were often bought and sold.

he Indian Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym ICS, originated as the elite civil service of the Indian Government under British colonial rule in India, and continues in the contemporary Civil Services of India, though these are now organised differently.

Contemporary Indian Civil Service

In spite of relatively contemporary careers like management and IT holding sway over the country's youth, the Civil Services have still not lost the vast popularity enjoyed by them through the years, from the time of the British Raj

The Constitution provides for more Civil Services branches to be set up by giving the power to the Rajya Sabha to resolve by a two-thirds majority to establish new all-India services or central services. The Indian Forest Service and the Indian Foreign Service are the two services set up under this constitutional provision.

Running the administration of a vast and diverse country like India requires efficient management of its natural, economic and human resources. That, precisely, is the responsibility of the civil services. The country is managed through a number of Central Government agencies in accordance with the policy directions given by the ministries.

The construction of the Civil Services follows a certain pattern. The All India Services, Central Services and State Services constitute the Civil Services. Today a number of coaching centers are providing civil service coaching,which concentrates mostly in Delhi, Hyderabad and Trivandrum. Examinations for the state services are conducted by the individual states of India.