(Paper) IAS Mains Previous Years Paper : Public Administration (1989)
IAS Mains Previous Years Paper : Public Administration (1989)
PAPER - I
SECTION A
1. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) For charisma to be transformed into a permanent routine structure, it is necessary that its anti
economic character should be altered. (Weber)
(b) The essence of New Public Administration is “some sort of movement in the direction of
normative theory, philosophy, social concern and activism.” (Waldo)
(c) Management of the flow of work upward & downward within human hierarchies and
between human hierarchies is the art of administration. (Appleby)
(d) Development administration is “an action oriented goal oriented administrative system.”
(Edward Weidner)
2. “Public Administration today stands at the crossroads of public choice theory, pluralism, corporatism and elitism.” Discuss.
3. The prismatic sola model “enables us to cope with many problems of transitional societies....” (Riggs). What are these problems and how can this model enables us to cope with them.
4. (a) Elucidate whether increasing organizational size gives rise to dialectical forces having
opposite organization effects.
(b) Argue for and against the Simonian perspective that the “decisional science envelopes
decisional structure, decisions and their feedback not in an integrated manner but anything
other than that.”
SECTION B
5. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) “From Taylorism to Mayoism the organization theory has travelled a long road in quest of
Organizational Effectiveness.”
(b) “Popular belief is that ownership change from public to private brings about improved
performance.”
(c) “Public bureaucracies have not grown yet to adopt their accounting and auditing mechanisms
to the ever growing automation within them.”
(d) “Policy process must take account of the political complexion of an authority, demography
and the historical pattern of service.”
6. Outline the instrinsic and extrinsic rewards that motivate the public employees to achieve personal and organizational goals.
7. “Administrative Law has the obligation to observe the principles of natural justice and fairness.” Elaborate.
8. (a) Do you think that sudden eruption of ‘Information society’ has adapted and accelerated
administrative development?
(b) Give reasons for the failures on the part of bureaucracy and the legislature to supervise the enactment
of the budgetary provisions
PAPER - II
SECTION A
1. Comment upon any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) ‘Lord Ripon’s Resolution of 1882 has been described as the Magna Carta of Local Self-
Government in India. It was a Policy Statement and marked a fundamental change in the
basic approach.’
(b) ‘The Cabinet Committees provide a useful forum for interface between officials and nonofficials
in participatory situation in “Policy Administration” in a Parliamentary Democracy.’
(c) ‘No Statement made by any person to a Police Officer in the course of an investigation shall
be signed by the person making it; nor shall any such Statement or any record thereof, be
used for any purpose at any enquiry or trial.’
(d) ‘The Office of the Chief Secretary should be rotated among the top Civil Servants in the State
Administration.
2. Trace the evolution of Judicial Administration in India during the Mughal and British periods of Indian History and highlight the major landmarks of this evolution from 1774 to 1911.
3. (a) ‘It is high time that the distribution of Central Assistance Under Article 282 of Indian
Constitution, (which is entirely or even mainly made on the basis of Semi-Judicial Awards of
the Finance Commission) needs to be re-examined in all its implications.’ Why?
(b) ‘As the Panchayati Democracy descends down to the dustings, the Office of the ‘Collector’,
like that of the ‘Governor’ tends to become anachronistic in the Federal Political System of
India.’ Examine the Statement.
4. Outline in brief the organizational structure and working of the Ministry of Finance or Ministry of
Home of the Union Government of India and discuss the role, relationship and relevance of its field
organizations.
SECTION B
5. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each
(a) ‘Pricing Policy for Products and Services have to be different for monopolistic, semimonopolistic
and competitive kinds of Public Enterprise. A policy of No Profit, No Loss cannot be recommetided as the long-term goal or as a permanent policy for most State
Undertakings in India.’
(b) The Ombudsman, The Parliamentary Commissioner, The People’s Procurator General, the
Conseil d’etat and the Lokpal represent some of the major experiments in designing
“Machinery Grievances.”
(c) ‘The Directorates in the departments of State Administration serve very little functional
purpose.
(d) ‘The Parliamentary Control over administration is a misnomer It is like the blade at the top of
the Guillotine, which need not fall to be politically effective If accountability to Parliament
gets improved, the desire to control by its members will abate.’
6. ‘The Old City owned its vitality to religious and cultural forces as a centre of administration.... The Modern City, however, is an economic phenomenon.’ In the light of the above statement discuss the problems of (a) Suburban Sprawls, (b) Slum Dwelling, and (c) Urban Renewal in Metropolitan areas, high-lighting the Central Issues of (i) structural reorganization, and (ii) functional distribution in City Government.
7. (a) ‘The ultimate picture of the Planning Organization in India has to be a network of planning
units in the villages and enterprises, coordinated at successive higher levels by State Planning
Commissions, which will ultimately feed the Planning Commission at New Delhi.’ Make out
a case for decentraljsed and depoliticized federal planning in India.
(b) ‘The Union Public Service Commission should have an integrative and coordinating role visà-
vis State Public Service Commissions in more or less the same way as in the Case of
Supreme Court of India vis-à-vis the High Courts in the States. A sound case exists for an
institutional linkage between UPSC and SPSCs for evolving a National Policy, a uniform
approach and common work procedures.’ Discuss.
8. Evaluate the administrative experience of Rural Development Schemes or Programmes in the area of Social Justice during last two decades. What role should the voluntary agencies play in the administration of Social welfare to ameliorate the conditions of women in the villages?