To stop the rot, you need to know what’s rotting! The problems are aplenty: weak governance, poor design and implementation of welfare programmes, abysmal record management, unabated corruption, wasteful public expenditure and the like. Despite their integrity, hard work and competence, IAS officers find themselves trapped in many such situations. In addition, they receive little or no support from the top and bottom rungs. In this part memoir, part scholarly disquisition, the author analyses the current situation in India, and suggests policy changes aimed at transforming individual competencies of IAS officers into better collective outcomes for the larger common good.