The country is facing a nearly 19% shortage of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, with at least 1,300 of the 6,877 sanctioned positions remaining vacant, a parliamentary panel has warned.
The parliamentary standing committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice urged the department of personnel and training (DoPT) to immediately fill vacancies in cadres such as AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories), which has over 25% vacancies.
The panel's 160th report on Demands for Grants (2026-27) points to over 30% shortage of IAS officers of different ranks in states like Kerala (32.03%), Manipur (30.43%) and Nagaland (43.62%).
The committee recommended a special strategy for the northeastern states and smaller cadres where the shortage is disproportionately high.
Additionally, the panel recommended the government develop a comprehensive framework to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) in public administration, with strong safeguards to protect sensitive government data and ensure human officials retain final decision-making authority.
