What is Indian Economic Service?

• The Indian Economic Service (IES) is an organized Group ‘A’ Central Service.
• The IES was constituted in 1961 with the objective of institutionalising a core professional capacity within the Government to undertake economic analysis and render advice for designing and formulating development policies, strengthening delivery systems, and monitoring and evaluating the public programmes. 
• The Cadre Controlling Authority of the IES is located in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs). The management of the service is on the basis of the service rules called the IES Rules, first notified in 1961. The service rules of 1961 have since been superseded by the comprehensively revised IES Rules 2008.
• A distinguishing feature of the service is that its Cadre posts are spread across different Ministries/ Departments of the Central Government, numbering around 55.
• The service is, therefore, an inter-Ministerial and inter-Departmental service. The posts are primarily located in Ministries/ Departments dealing with economic and social sectors. Even within organizations that account for a large proportion of its Cadre posts, like the Planning Commission, IES officers posted therein serve in a diverse range of subject areas, such as finance, social sector, rural development, education, health, agriculture, industry, trade, transport, and information technology. 
• IES officers are, thus, exposed to development issues in diverse sectors and contribute to policy-making in the Central Government over the entire span of their service career. With the economic reforms having transformed the nature and domain of economic policy-making in the country, the IES, as a service, provides a pool of in-house economic expertise that is well placed to meet the growing demand for analytical economic inputs for policy-making in the government.