Super Power Bureaucrats of India

Dear All,
In his Book "SUPER POWER-'The Amazing Race between China’s Hare and India’s Tortoise' Raghav Bahl gives this very apt description of how Indian bureaucrats function, by and large!
Lt Gen Harbhajan Singh (Retd)

The Indian civil servant is enormously intelligent. He is amongst the brightest in the land. He gets it quickly. He is usually articulate and accessible. He can see thru a problem and understand solutions. His instinct is to push a decision, not take it. But he often lacks the gumption to ‘just do it’. He is trained to see the glass as half empty, never half full. His instinct is to push a decision, never take it. He is a champion of the ‘middle route’, the ‘golden mean’. He stays clear of anything that is even remotely controversial, breakthrough or bold. He uses ‘consensus’ and ‘consultation’ as a shield to ‘protect his backside’. His favorite phrase is that ‘government decisions are a process-not result oriented’. Of course there is that exceptional officer who goes against the grain, who innovates and takes risks, but to borrow another favorite phrase, ‘by and large’ these guys like to hedge their bets to the point of inaction.