The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the premier administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. The IAS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian Forest Service (IFS). Members of these three services serve the Government of India as well as the individual states. IAS officers are also deployed to various government constitutional bodies, staff and line agencies, auxiliary bodies, public sector undertakings, regulatory bodies, statutory bodies and autonomous bodies.
As with other countries following the parliamentary system of government, the IAS is a part of the permanent bureaucracy of the nation, and is an inseparable part of the executive of the Government of India. As such, the bureaucracy remains politically neutral and provides administrative continuity to the ruling party or coalition.