India’s Administrative Crisis

Vivek has a thoughtful post on why civil servants quit,

 There was a time when the civil services offered a better deal than the corporate sector in India. That time came to an end more than a decade ago. My own assessment is that we are in a transitional phase right now. The civil services still have a fair bit of social prestige and just enough salary to snare a couple of idealistic people every year, but the loss of talent to the corporate sector is huge. The corporate sector is not only the best paymaster today, but also provides a much better environment to work.

Pragmatic on how the elite is shunning the Military

The modern day Indian society has created a context in which the ‘betters’ want the rewards of being intellectually/ culturally/ financially superior without any of the constraints of their superordinate status. An exalted status is not only about the benefits that you claim. It’s also about what you renounce. One of the roles of an evolved society is to make clear to the ‘betters’ not only the privileges they get but also the responsibilities that they have; then it should create the necessary governance systems – nonlegal but socially and culturally sanctified – to ensure that those responsibilities are fulfilled by the ‘betters’ for the larger benefit of the society.