Department of Personnel & Training

(Cadre Review Division)

-.-.-.-

 

 

SUB:  REPORT ON STATISTICAL PROFILE OF GROUP ‘A’ CENTRAL SERVICES   AS ON 1st JANUARY 2008

 

 

            INTRODUCTION

 

            One of the important assignments of the Cadre Review Division is the maintenance of statistical profile of all the Group ‘A’ organized services of the Government of India and its periodical analysis. The data collection and its analysis is done on half yearly basis (1st  January and 1st June every year). The statistical profile includes the number of posts at different levels, percentage of posts in various grades, structural ratios at various levels and threshold profile of the services.

 
2.         SCOPE AND COVERAGE

 

            The statistical information as on 1st January 2008 has been collected in respect of 55 Services from the respective Cadre Controlling Authorities. For the remaining services, previous data has been used.  This data has then been analyzed vis-ŕ-vis the existing norms to assess the conditions prevailing in the individual services as well as in the distinct categories of services.

 

2.1       These Services have been broadly divided into four separate categories , as explained below:

 

Table-I           It contains information in respect of 15 Group ‘A’ Non-Technical Services.      The recruitment to these Services is made through the ‘Combined Civil Services Examination.’

Table-II          It contains information in respect of 20 Technical Services, recruitment to which is made through the ‘Combined Engineering Services Examination.’

Table-III         It contains information in respect of 6 Health Services, recruitment to which is made either through U.P.S.C. or in some cases, by the respective Selection Boards.

Table-IV         It contains information in respect of 17 Services, termed as ‘Other Services’ recruitment to which is made other than the Civil Services, Engineering and Health Services Examinations.

                       

                        These tables also contain information in respect of cadre structure and structural ratios of the corresponding Services in terms of percentages, threshold analysis of the Junior most batch promoted to various levels viz. Above Additional Secretary, Additional Secretary, Senior Administrative Grade (SAG), JAG – Non-Functional Selection Grade and Junior Administrative Grade (JAG).  These Tables also contain the Year of last Cadre Review done for each of these Services.

 

3.         UTILIZATION

           

            The statistical profile and its analysis give an insight about the individual services, promotional avenues, managerial hierarchy and cadre management. It serves as a useful tool in analyzing the cadre review proposals with particular reference to the availability of posts at various levels in different services and also for comparing the promotional prospects of the officers manning various posts in similar Services.

 

4.         STATISTICAL PROFILE AS ON  01.01.2008

 

4.1       The tables (No. I to IV) not only reflect the status of various Group ‘A’ Services inter-se, but also indicate the proximity and deviations from an ideal cadre structure. Though the same cadre structure cannot be recommended for all services because of varied nature of their roles and functions, the extent of deviations does have a bearing on cadre management. An ideal cadre structure in terms of the 5th Central Pay Commission recommendation comprises 30% of the Senior Duty Posts (SDP) at STS level, 30% at JAG (Ord) level, 20% at JAG (NFSG) level, 17% at SAG level and 3% at HAG level. The ideal structure has been depicted graphically at Appendix-I.

 

4.2       The category wise distribution of posts in various grades in percentage of the total duty posts is given below:

 

 

 

S. No.

Group of Service

Grades

H.A.G. (above A.S.)

H.A.G.(A.S. Level)

S.A.G.

J.A.G.

(J.A.G.+ NFSG)

Time Scale

(STS+JTS)

1.

Non-Technical Services.

0.63%

2.54%

14.26%

27.49%

55.07%

2.

Technical-Services.

0.23%

1.00%

7.68%

24.78%

66.31%

 

3.

Health Services.

0.01%

0.28%

4.60%

37.48%

57.63%

 

4.

Other Services

0.11%

0.25%

1.52%

18.37%

79.75%

 

 

4.3       It is evident from the above data that the services belonging to non technical category only have the prescribed strength at HAG and SAG levels.  The services of other categories are far behind in this regard. The structural pyramids of the 4 Groups of Services as brought out in the 4 Tables referred to above as on 01.01.2008 are shown graphically in the Appendices II-V.  It may be added that in the Tables the posts of ‘Reserves’ in the Junior Time Scale have been shown separately and the structural ratios have been worked out on the basis of ‘Total Duty Posts (TDP)’ only, so as to give a more realistic picture of the Cadre Structure.

 

4.4       Coming to the individual services, the Indian Revenue Service with 2.77 % of TDP at HAG level, 17.28% at SAG and 29.64% at STS level is the nearest to the ideal structure. The Indian Audit and Accounts Service would come next. The Indian Foreign Service on the other hand with 10.01% at HAG level represents a “Heavy Top Structure”.  The other service with more than 3% at HAG level is Indian Audit and Accounts Service. The Indian Revenue Service with a sanctioned strength of 4184 posts forms the biggest cadre.

 

4.5       The Technical Category (Table-II) comprises 20 services, out of which the Indian Telecommunication Service is the biggest with a sanctioned strength of 8335 posts.  This category of services has surprisingly low percentage of posts at HAG and SAG levels. Only Indian Railways Service of Mechanical Engineers and Indian Railways Service of Electrical Engineers have adequate posts at these levels. The cadre structure of various Engineering Services of Railways uniformly swells at STS and JAG levels hovering around 30-40% of the TDP compared to around 10% at JTS level.  The Indian Telecommunication Service also reflects the most lopsided structure with 77.80 posts at JTS+ STS level.

 

4.6       The third category, i.e., Central Services (Health) comprises six services in all, of which the Central Health Service is the biggest with 7496 posts. These services represent the most irregular structures. While 57.34% of the TDP in the Indian Railway Medical Service are at JTS level, 75.08 of the ITBP Service posts are at STS level. In case of the CRP Health Service 87.89 of the posts are JAG level. It would, however, be interesting to see how these irregular structures affect the promotional avenues. This has been examined in the threshold analysis.

 

4.7       The remaining 17 services have been put together in “Other Services” category. Table IV contains the statistical profile of these services. These services uniformly shrink at SAG and HAG levels. Only the Indian Legal Service has 5.88% of TDP at HAG level.

 

5.         THRESHOLD ANALYSIS

 

5.1       An ideal service is one which maintains a balance between legitimate aspirations of officers and functional requirement.  The availability of promotional avenues does constitute an important parameter for cadre management. The threshold analysis of the statistical profile helps assess this aspect of cadre management and situation prevailing in the individual service. The Tables I– IV also  provide the requisite data for threshold analysis of Non-Technical Services, Technical Services, Health Services and Other Services respectively.

 

NON-TECHNICAL SERVICES – 15 SERVICES (TABLE-I)

 

5.2       The data (third Column of Table-I) reflects a very wide variation in the number of years taken for promotion from JTS to SAG level. The junior most batch covered for promotion to SAG level in the Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES) belongs to the year 1981. It thus took almost 27 years for an officer of IDES to reach SAG level. The figure for Indian Trade Service and Indian Postal Service is 24 years. On the other hand, in Indian Audit and Accounts Service, even 1991 batch has been covered. Similarly for promotion to HAG (AS level) also, the India Audit and Accounts Service, Indian Railways Personnel Service and Indian Civil Accounts Service have covered their 1979 batch, while other services have lagged behind.  Surprisingly, the Indian Foreign Service even with its ‘Heavy Top Structure’ could not match up these services. The variations have been depicted clearly in the illustration given below. The series 1 & 2 reflect the number of years taken to reach SAG and HAG (AS level) respectively.

 

 

 

TECHNICAL SERVICES – 20 SERVICES (TABLE-II)

 

5.3       The statistics (column No. 3 of Table-II) again show a wide variation in the availability of promotional avenues.  The junior most batch covered for  promotion to SAG level ranges from 1972 to 1986.  While on one hand, 1986 batch officers of  the Indian Railway Service of Engineers have been promoted to SAG level, those belonging to 1973 batch of   Indian Supply Service and in Indian Inspection Service are still waiting for their turn. This perhaps is attributable to less number of posts at SAG level. IIS and ISS have only 5.26% and 8.08 % of TDP respectively. The proposals for cadre review of both these services are, however, under process. These proposals are expected to remedy the problem of stagnation. The illustration below clearly depicts the scenario prevailing in different services of technical category.   The series 1 & 2 reflect the number of years taken to reach SAG and HAG (AS level) respectively.

 

HEALTH SERVICES  - 6 SERVICES (TABLE-III)

 

5.4       Even though this category consists of only six services, the variation in the number of years taken for promotion to SAG and HAG (AS level) is most glaring. While 1992 batch of the Central Health Services has already been covered for promotion to SAG level, other services of this category are far behind. This sort of variation is also there within the Central Health Services. In case of the sub cadre of General Duty Officers of Central Health Services, 1976 batch is yet to be promoted to SAG level. In fact the data reveals an acute level of stagnation at SAG and above. Another surprising aspect is that the Indian Railway Medical Service has undergone cadre review on four occasions, but it also suffers from the same ailment. As explained above, the health services have the most irregular cadre structure which perhaps is the main reason for stagnation at higher levels. The bar chart below illustrates the variation in the promotional avenues.   The series 1 & 2 reflect the number of years taken to reach SAG and HAG (AS level) respectively.

 

OTHER SERVICES – 17 SERVICES (TABLE - IV)

 

5.5       It is observed that in the case of ‘Other Services’, the position of appointment to the level of SAG is not good as compared to all other Services.  The batch of officers of Other Services covered for appointment to SAG ranges from the year 1971 to 1996 (Lateral entry in the Company Law Service).  Barring Indian Economic Service, Indian Statistical Service, ITBP and BSF, the representation at HAG level is very low. The stagnation at SAG and HAG levels is because of availability of less number of posts at these levels compared to those at JTS and STS level. The data also proves that irregular cadre structure does affect the promotional avenues.

 

CONCLUSION

 

            The threshold analysis of all the categories of services has been depicted in detail at Annexure I to IV   . The services belonging to Non-technical category (Table-I)  constitute better cadres particularly with reference to availability of posts at SAG and HAG levels and the number of years generally taken in promotion to these levels.  The Indian Audit & Accounts Service roughly scores over the rest in terms of promotional avenue even though its last cadre review was done in 1989. The number of posts available at various grades and the frequency of cadre review are actually manifestation of an ad-hoc approach toward cadre management. In recent past, a number of proposals have been received seeking to create proportionately large number of posts at a particular level or to grant in-situ promotions/ upgradations on personal basis with stagnation as the only justification. This underlines the need for a more scientific and holistic cadre management.

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