Wasted in the IAS

Ideally, doctors and engineers, because they are more useful as doctors and engineers, should be banned from joining the civil services both at the central and state levels

The prime minister has spelt out a multi-point reform programme. One of the points is administrative reform. And that reminded me.

The other day on the popular quiz programme Kaun Banega Crorepati a young lady was being quizzed by Amitabh Bachchan. She said she was an almost fully trained medical doctor but wanted to join the civil services, preferably the IAS.

Which poses a serious question for those Indians who are otherwise obsessed with the gigantic waste of national resources by politicians: Isn’t this the mother of all wastages, that a fully trained doctor should become a civil servant? Would you make,