INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AHMEDABAD INDIA Research and Publications Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Crony Capitalism: A Review Paper Vishal Gupta W.P. No. 2015-03-07 March 2015 The main objective of the working paper series of the IIMA is to help faculty members, research staff and doctoral students to speedily share their research findings with professional colleagues and test their research findings at the pre-publication stage. IIMA is committed to maintain academic freedom. The opinion(s), view(s) and conclusion(s) expressed in the working paper are those of the authors and not that of IIMA. INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AHMEDABAD-380 015 INDIA INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE (IAS) AND CRONY CAPITALISM: A REVIEW PAPER Vishal Gupta Organizational Behavior Area Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad Email Id:
[email protected] Abstract According to international statistics, India is reckoned to be among the most corrupt countries of the world. One of the ways in which corruption can occur at the point of public service delivery is through payment of bribes to access or expedite these services. Other less overt, but equally damaging, form of corruption that has an impact on people is when decisions to allocate public resources are distorted by money, power, access, connections or some combination of the above – also known as crony capitalism. One of the significant contributors to crony capitalism in India is considered to be the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). Time and again, questions have been raised about the imperviousness, wooden-headedness, obstructiveness, rigidity, and rule- and procedure- bound attitude of the bureaucracy.