The ‘Sarkari’ Mirage

India is a nation of ironies. The country remains poor, its governments perennially short of cash — and yet, a government job here is the golden ticket. It pays more than almost any comparable position in the private sector, offers lifetime tenure, inflation-proof pensions, generous holidays, and, often, an intangible but powerful bonus: social prestige and discretionary power.

Economists such as Alex Tabarrok and Kunal Mangal have shown that when you factor in the value of job security, perks, and informal “rents,” the lifetime worth of a government job can be as much as ten times that of an equivalent private position. No wonder millions of Indians spend years — sometimes decades — preparing for entrance exams to secure one.

In Tamil Nadu alone, 2.3 million people once applied for just 368 positions — and the much coveted position was – An office boy! It’s the same story across India: staggering competition for jobs that often require little more than a high school education.

That one of the world’s fastest-growing economies has its youth aspiring to become office Peons should worry us deeply. These are roles that technology has long made redundant, but they continue to symbolise security and social standing.

Coaching Republic

India’s obsession with government exams has warped the country’s education system. Schools and universities have become pipelines for test preparation rather than centres of learning. Success is no longer measured by innovation, curiosity, or creativity, but by how many students crack the next round of government exams.

This obsession has created a massive shadow industry — coaching institutes, test-prep publishers, private tutors, and YouTube teachers with celebrity followings. In some states, most notably backward States like Bihar, you can’t drive a few miles without seeing giant billboards advertising “star tutors” who promise that you will crack the exam and secure government jobs.

Consider “Khan Sir,” a charismatic tutor from Bihar whose YouTube channel, Khan GS Research Centre, boasts more than five million followers — a fan base most scientists, professors, or even rock stars would envy. That a coaching teacher commands more recognition than an ISRO scientist speaks volumes about what Indian society rewards.

Opportunity Cost of a Dream

There’s nothing wrong with wanting a government job. People respond to incentives, and these jobs are designed to reward security over enterprise. The problem lies in what this does to the broader economy.

Most candidates will never get the job they’re chasing. In Tamil Nadu, fewer than 1 per cent of applicants are selected. Yet 80 per cent of the state’s unemployed report being “students” preparing for such exams — effectively out of the workforce for years. Multiply that pattern across India, and you get a picture of staggering waste: millions of educated young people not producing, not innovating, not contributing to GDP — all because they are waiting for a shot at the government payroll.

Economist Kunal Mangal’s study puts a number to this madness. For every Rs 100 the government pays in salaries, Indian society collectively spends Rs 168 in exam preparation — time, money, and lost productivity — merely to determine who earns that Rs 100. The result: India wastes roughly 1.4 per cent of its GDP every year on opportunity costs tied to government job preparation.

This isn’t an investment; it’s rent-seeking on a national scale.

Social Fallout

The exam system is not only wasteful but also deeply exclusionary. With roughly half of government positions reserved under affirmative action quotas, competition for the remaining seats is brutal. Every year, millions walk away disappointed — not only jobless but disillusioned.

This sense of injustice festers, particularly among young men. It fuels cynicism toward the state, resentment toward affirmative action, and mistrust between communities. In a country where nearly half the population is under 25, such frustration is combustible.

Roots of the Problem

The roots of India’s bureaucratic obsession go back nearly two centuries. In 1835, Thomas Babington Macaulay — a British colonial administrator — argued in his infamous “Minute on Indian Education” that the Raj should create an English-educated class of clerks, intermediaries and administrators to serve imperial interests.

Independent India inherited the structure but never reformed its purpose. The old clerical system evolved into a bureaucratic elite that now serves not the British Empire, but a homegrown alliance of politicians and big business. Macaulay’s clerks remain — only their masters have changed.

Pay Gap and Price of Permanence

According to India’s National Statistical Office (NSO), India has a nominal per capita income of about Rs 2.35 lakh per year. The median salary for central and state government employees, by contrast, ranges between Rs 6 and Rs 8 lakh — more than three times the national average. Add housing, healthcare, holidays, and social status, and the shot at corruption and the gap widens even further.

This is one of the sharpest public-private pay differentials in any democracy. And because government jobs are practically permanent, they encourage complacency and mediocrity. The security that should empower innovation instead smothers it.

Time to Reset

India cannot afford to glamorise government jobs while neglecting private enterprise. Public-sector pay must be brought closer to market realities. Tenure should depend on performance, not time served. Recruitment systems should move beyond rote memorisation and toward assessing problem-solving, creativity, and adaptability.

Equally important, India must bridge the gulf between the public and private sectors. Engineers and doctors shouldn’t see the civil service as their only ticket to respectability. Mobility between sectors — through fellowships, deputations, and lateral entry — could infuse government with new skills and attitudes while breaking the aura of exclusivity that surrounds it.

From Macaulay’s Clerks to Modern Managers

For too long, India has been producing clerks for a world that no longer needs them. It’s time to rethink what public service means in the 21st century — not a lifetime sinecure but a dynamic career of solving public problems. Macaulay’s legacy of clerical servitude has endured long enough. If India truly wants to join the ranks of prosperous nations, it must stop wasting its brightest years chasing government stamps and start rewarding those who create, build, and innovate. The country has no shortage of talent — only of imagination in how it uses it.

Views expressed are personal. The writer is an Ex-IPS officer, and he writes regularly on policy and economy