In India, the Civil Service is the collection of civil servants of the government who constitute the permanent executive branch of the country. This includes servants in the All India Services, the Central Civil Services, and various State Civil Services, who are recruited by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), and each state's Public Service Commissions.

The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service official, also known as a public servant or public employee, is a person employed in the public sector by a government department or agency for public sector undertakings. Civil servants work for central and state governments, and answer to the government, not a political party.