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Reservation for specific services is inherently inefficient. Posts becoming ex-cadre (no longer reserved for specific services) increases a sense of insecurity, especially because the average entrant through the present civil service examination is older than the average entrant through the present engineering service examination. IRTS, IRAS and IRPS have moved up the most (1987 batch promoted), while IRSME, IRSEE and IRSS have relatively lagged (1985 batch promoted). For instance, consider promotion to Higher Administrative Grade (HAG). Since posts have historically been reserved for specific services, vertical mobility has been uneven across those eight services. Note that, with decentralisation, Railway Board has been pruned, and if vertical mobility is interpreted as a position in Rail Bhawan, that opportunity is limited, irrespective of whether IRMS is constituted or not. The knottier problem is that of retrospectively integrating those 8,401 officers into IRMS.

In any event, the further up the ladder one moves, the more the importance of functional specialisation vis-a-vis management skills declines. With parity between GMs and members, this becomes a conscious career choice. With an engineering background, officers can aspire to become GMs. Irrespective of educational background, officers can opt for a general management cadre and aspire to be members of the board, even CRB. To cite one method, there can be a bifurcation mid-career, say in the 14th year of service. Nor is there any great issue with vertical mobility of IRMS.

But that suggestion by FROA, incorporated into Debroy Committee’s Report, suggests one way of doing this. The details will be worked out between IR, UPSC and DOPT. For new entrants, IRMS constitutes no great problem. An Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) has now been announced (IRLS of the quote becomes IRMS), breaking down departmentalism and silos. This is akin to what happens with Indian Foreign Service, and there can be a new examination conducted by UPSC. “Railway Board will place indent on UPSC specifying the number of recruits needed for each discipline such as Civil/Mech/ Elec/S&T Engineers or simple graduates in any subject… After selection of pre-decided numbers from each specialisation/general subjects, they will be merged into a single IRLS (Indian Railway Service) by UPSC itself through a pre-decided formula of inter-se seniority”. But, in a presentation before the Debroy Committee, FROA (Federation of Railway Officers’ Associations) presented a case for a single service and entry examination, and suggested a method that could be used. The Debroy Committee recommended two distinct services, technical versus non-technical, if there were two separate modes of entry, resulting in a non-homogeneous group of officers.

The Debroy Committee found reservations of Gupta-Narain Committee were unwarranted. A Gupta-Narain Committee (1994), set up to examine feasibility of implementing this single service idea, questioned whether this could be done.

Prakash Tandon Committee recommended a single service. Unification has been recommended by several committees-Prakash Tandon (1994), Khanna (1998), Rakesh Mohan (2001), Sam Pitroda (2012) and Bibek Debroy (2015). Departmentalism and functioning in silos are not caused by this alphabet soup of eight services alone, but multiple services certainly contributes. As of today, there are 8,401 officers, not evenly distributed across the eight services. Three-IRPS, IRTS and IRAS-are non-technical, recruited through the civil service examination conducted by UPSC. Five-IRSME, IRSEE, IRSSE, IRSS and IRSE-are so-called technical services, recruited through an engineering service examination conducted by UPSC. Today, there is an alphabet soup of services in Indian Railways (IR)-IRPS (Indian Railway Personnel Service), IRTS (Indian Railway Traffic Service), IRSS (Indian Railway Stores Service), IRSME (Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers), IRSEE (Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers), IRSSE (Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers), IRSE (Indian Railway Service of Engineers) and IRAS (Indian Railway Accounts Service).