IAS Mains Previous Years Paper : Public Administration (1993)

PAPER - I
SECTION A
1. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) Waldo speaks of the fears of F.M. Marx that Public administration has grown so board, and so much is involved at its periphery that it stand “In danger of disappearing completely as a recognizable focus of study.”
(b) “Though somewhat unwittingly, Herbert Simon and James March have provided the muscle and the flesh to the Weberian (bureaucratic) skeleton.”
(c) “The Hawthorne researches demonstrate the need to analyze organizations as living social structures.”
(d) “Decentralization is never just a technical exercise, with intentions and effects neatly confined to questions of economy and efficiency.”

2. How does Public administration differ in the developed and developing societies? How far can it modernize the traditional political culture of developing countries?

3. (a) “The transition to a study of the negatives aspects of bureaucracy is afforded by the application of Veblen’s concept of trained incapacity.” Examine.
(b) “While the entrepreneur makes strategic decisions, the manager makes strategic ones.” Elucidate.

4. “A managerial leader should effectively communicate to motivate his team.” How do Maslow and Hertzberg see this inter linkage between motivation and communication?

SECTION B
5. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) “Comparative Public administration as a field of research is not so much comparative, as it is the study of Public administration in foreign countries.”
(b) ‘Government has numerous ideal objectives, and three of these are closely linked to accounting and finance: efficiency, effectiveness and equality.”
(c) “The most effective safeguard against the abuse of delegated legislation is not to delegate it in such a manner that it may invite abuse.” -
(d) “The activities of public administrators at various stages of the policy process illustrate the difficulty of divorcing politics from administration.”

6. How has the interest of judiciary in administrative decisions grown over the years? Has it extended the frontiers of administrative law?
7. (a) “One way of analyzing implementation problems is to begin by thinking about what “perfect administration” would be like, comparable to the way in which economists employ the model of perfect competition.” Discuss.
(b) “Administrative reforms represent efforts, intended to enhance and/or expand the administrative and managerial capacity of Public administration to achieve national objectives or goals.” Elucidate.

8. Explain the principle involved in the preparation of budget Assess the scope of budgetary techniques in financial management.

PAPER - II
SECTION A
1. Comment upon any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) “The British colonial administration superimposed the professorial system on the historically inherited district administration in India, in the absence of rural local governments at the district level.”
(b) “The generalist-neutralist model of Civil Service, more than any other model ‘of Civil Service, fits in framework of parliamentary democracy in India, a legacy of the British pattern with which Indians have been familiar.”
(c) “The concept of Fiscal Federalism calls for the National Development Council to regulate Plan decisions about discretionary grants-in-aid, which should in fact be distributed by the Finance Commission.”
(d) “The Comptroller and Auditor General’s audit of Public Undertakings is an effective instrument of parliamentary control, but the form, content and the approach of this audit have affected the efficiency and profitability of the Public Undertakings in India.”

2. Trace the evolution of Judicial Administration in India during the British period and highlight the legacies that persist and the judicial reforms that have followed during the Twentieth Century.
3. (a) “Internal Security is a para-political exercise and a pare military operation in detecting, combating and dissolving ‘Threat Profiles’ m the area of law and order, social order and national security.” Discuss.
(b) “The Prime Minister’s Office is a staff agency. Its line functions are inconsistent with the Secretariat Systems of administration.” Comment.
4. Outline in brief the organization and working of the Union Ministry of Finance and offer concrete suggestions for organizational reforms in the light of the new economic policy of liberalization of the Central Government.

SECTION B
5. Comment upon any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) “A holistic approach to Integrated Rural Development implies strengthening and regulating the sectoral and spatial interactions and linkages and transformation of the rural habitat.”
(b) “It is time to rationalize urban bodies in matters of size and distribution of functions with a regional authority taking an overall charge of area-wide problems.”
(c) “Professionalisation Civil Services demand that their training programmes should be tagged with the Personnel policies of promotion1 placement and career planning at each level.”
(d) “People’s participation in administration, being a part of the political mobilization process in India, is determined by the elite groups at each level of administration.”

6. Attempt an evaluation of various welfare programmes Sponsored by the Central and State government and district level agencies, for the development of women and children, accounting for their success or failure.

7. (a) “The incumbents to civil service posts and political offices, who derive, their legitimacy and strength from intellectual merit and popular support respectively, cannot have identical perspectives on development. Naturally, therefore, the former has a higher and heavier responsibility to avoid conflict and preserve integrity in development administration” Comment.
(b) “The departments, the directorates the corporations the companies and the Boards have different organizational purposes and statutory functions in State administration” Discuss.

8. Discuss some of the State models of Panchayati Raj in the Uniform Constitutional frame of 73rd Amendment with special reference to Panchayati Polls, grassroots justice, local finances and centrally sponsored development programmes