The author brings to you an index on the incidence of administrative civil servants in India.
By Siddharth Singh, 5th August, 2013
Recently, a young Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Durga Shakti Nagpal was in the eye of a political storm in India. She was suspended by the government of the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) for allegedly “flaring tensions among muslims”. However, the media brought to light that she had taken on the sand mafia in her administrative region (who illegally extracted and sold sand for construction and other purposes) , and this – in all probability – led to her suspension. The implied allegation is that politicians from the ruling political party in that region are hand-in-glove with the sand mafia.
When the Central Government was supposedly giving signs that it may take on these suspension orders, a leader from the state of Uttar Pradesh directed a barb towards the central government, via the media: “the government of Uttar Pradesh would say we need no IAS officers in our state. Withdraw them all, we will manage with our state officers.”
Possibly reacting to this, Sidin Vadukut, a writer and columnist, wondered on Twitter,
Just generally wondering… Which state has the fewest per capita usage of IAS officers? Is there data?
— Earl of Vadukut (@sidin) August 5, 2013
IAS officers are often casually referred to as babus. Babus are the most elite class of administrative officers in India. There are other tiers of bureaucracy, but babus wield the most political clout.
So here it is, the Incidence of Babus Index. It measures the number of IAS officers per 10 million (1 crore) population. Unsurprisingly, Uttar Pradesh – India’s most populous state – has the fewest babus per capita.
| State (Cadre) | Population (2011 Census) | IAS Officers (2011 Civil List) | Incidence of Babus Index (2011) – Number of IAS officers per 10 million or 1 crore population |
| Uttar Pradesh | 199581477 | 341 | 17.1 |
| Bihar | 103804637 | 198 | 19.1 |
| West Bengal | 91347736 | 231 | 25.3 |
| Maharashtra | 112372972 | 297 | 26.4 |
| Rajasthan | 68621012 | 182 | 26.5 |
| Jharkhand | 32966238 | 107 | 32.5 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 84655533 | 284 | 33.5 |
| Karnataka | 61130704 | 215 | 35.2 |
| Gujarat | 60383628 | 216 | 35.8 |
| India | 1210193422 | 4331 | 35.8 |
| Odisha | 41947358 | 151 | 36.0 |
| Tamil Nadu | 72138958 | 281 | 39.0 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 72597565 | 290 | 39.9 |
| Chhattisgarh | 25540196 | 113 | 44.2 |
| Kerala | 33387677 | 156 | 46.7 |
| Punjab | 27704236 | 164 | 59.2 |
| Assam + Meghalaya | 34133279 | 204 | 59.8 |
| Haryana | 25353081 | 176 | 69.4 |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 12548926 | 90 | 71.7 |
| Uttarakhand | 10116752 | 83 | 82.0 |
| AGMUT | 24013870 | 218 | 90.8 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 6856509 | 104 | 151.7 |
| Manipur + Tripura | 6392788 | 142 | 222.1 |
| Nagaland | 1980602 | 54 | 272.6 |
| Sikkim | 607688 | 34 | 559.5 |
Note: AGMUT stands for Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Union Territories (including Delhi)
Disclaimer: These numbers are estimates and are not intended to be a part of a serious study. The population is from the 2011 census and the number of IAS officers is per the Civil List of 2011. The reported number of officers in each state may be inaccurate owing to in-transition posts.
