Officers of the Uttar Pradesh cadre of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) occupy top seats in the current government, even as bureaucrats with Gujarat links have grown in prominence over the past year.
The appointment of power secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha as cabinet secretary is the latest instance of UP, the state with the highest population and the largest cadre strength in the civil service, retaining a dominance in the corridors of power.
Sinha's predecessor, Ajit Seth, is also from the UP cadre; his term, after three extensions, will end on June 12. Since 1994, seven cabinet secretaries (including Sinha) are from UP of the nine in that period. The other five from UP being Surendra Singh, T S R Subramanian, Prabhat Kumar, Kamal Pande and B K Chaturvedi.
Currently, 14 secretaries to the Government of India (GOI) of a total of about 70 belong to the UP cadre of the IAS. The most senior officer in the prime minister's office (PMO), Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to the PM, was also from here. Among others from this cadre at the helm now are Anil Swarup (coal), Rakesh Garg (telecom), Rajeev Kher (commerce), Siraj Hussain (agriculture), Shankar Agarwal (labour), Aradhana Johri (disinvestment), Rajive Kumar (shipping), Sudhir Kumar (food and public distribution), Vrinda Sarup (school education and literacy), Lov Verma (disability affairs) and Anuj Kumar Bishnoi (water resources).
UP will always matter a great deal in governance, an official says. The culture of the IAS in UP is traced back to Allahabad University, which had produced eminent civil servants for a long time. The cadre often includes many of the civil service top rankers, who then make it to the highest level in the government, the official said. Bihar is another state with a large number of IAS aspirants.
The state is also described as a "tough training ground" for civil servants because of the large landscape and political repercussions of every policy decision. One of the secretaries, who started his career in UP and had long stints in that state, attributes his resilience to everything that makes up UP. Punishment postings come with the job, especially when it's a politically sensitive state like UP. Gujarat, the state where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister for 13 years, is represented across many top positions. There are only three Gujarat-cadre IAS officers on the list of GOI secretaries, many other important posts are held by officers associated with that state. The PMO has several Gujarat officials. They're also there in many other positions, one being election commissioner, held by Achal Kumar Joti, a 1975 batch IAS who was chief secretary in Gujarat from 2010 to 2013, when Modi was the CM.
The IAS cadre in UP number 484, highest in the country, of which 339 are direct recruitments and 145 through promotions, according to information available on government websites. The other cadres with high strength are Madhya Pradesh at 325, Tamil Nadu at 287, Maharashtra at 280, AGMUT (Arunachal-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories) at 260, West Bengal at 250, Karnataka at 230, Rajasthan and Bihar at 216 each and Gujarat at 204. Total countrywide cadre strength is 4,802, of which 3,467 are direct recruitments and 1,335 through promotions.
THE UP EDGE
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Currently, 14 secretaries to the Government of India of a total of about 70 belong to the UP cadre of the IAS
