MEDICAL SERVICES
Welcome
Instituting an All India Health Cadre would ensure that medical professionals are properly trained to tackle the needs and demands of India’s health sector.
Those selected then undergo two years of training in a variety of subjects, including a year-long exposure to all levels of administration. For the first nine years, these officers are required to work in districts in senior management posts as sub divisional officers, additional district magistrates, project directors of tribal development, district collectors and so on. After nine years of service, they move to the secretariat or work in the commissionerates like commercial taxes, education, health, urban development and the like. They can also opt to work in the central government but only for a period of five years each time.
The system has worked well and is as good as it can be, given the overall decline in values, weakening systems of governance, the systematic destruction of institutional pillars, failure to build and sustain conventions and practices, politicisation, corruption and so on. Yet, the IAS continues to be invaluable, particularly when compared to other central services, due to their understanding of the institutional context of governance at the district and state levels, and their ability to quickly learn and adapt to new challenges and demands.
