(FAQs) About Public Administration

Q1. What is the basic reason for Public Administration becoming so popular among the aspirants of Civil Services and State Services ?
Ans. Public Administration is pragmatic in nature dealing also with Indian Administrative System, which facilitates the success of candidates at each and every stage of examination, that is, Preliminary, Mains and Interview. As compared to other social sciences, humanities, Public Administration is more dependable and manageable within a specified time period subject to the condition that a systematic approach is adopted during the course of preparation to meet the requirements of the examination.

Q.2. What is the best way to understand the contributions of the thinkers in a right perspective?
Ans. Learn basic theories and techniques of Managements relevant to the subject matter of Public Administration. This is important because most of the thinkers have been primarily concerned with developing theories to improve the management of private sector. First of all, try to understand the essential ingredients of any theory and also understand the contemporary socio-eco-political conditions prevailing at the time of the crystallization of the theories.After this, the second step should be to understand the contributions of respective thinkers under specific theories.

Q.3. What specific suggestions you can offer to prepare the Mains with Public Administration?
Ans. (a) The syllabus comprises of two papers, but it is never desirable to prepare the two papers separately. The integrated approach to the completion of syllabus is always desirable. This saves time and provides in-depth understanding of the subject matter in a realistic manner.
(b) The main examination is generally considered to be highly subjective in nature. But through objective preparation the zone of subjectivity can be reduced to a great extent.
(c) Conceptual topics, like Theories of Administration, Administrative Behaviour, Comparative and Development Administration, require extra effort but are scoring at the same time.
(d) Comments, statements and observations by eminent thinkers, scholars and administrators should be analysed with due emphasis to grasp their substantive meaning.

Q.4. What should be the best way to present answers in the examination ?
Ans. On completion of the textual readings, writing practice is must. Try to attempt the answers in an orderly, effective and exact expression, combined with due economy of words. In comment type questions your attempt should be to answer well within the prescribed limits. For medium and long questions the answers should be written in about 300 and 500–700 words respectively. To conclude, it can be suggested that the consultation of authentic standard reference books is crucial in the success-oriented preparation of Public Administration.

Q.5. I do not have any background in Public Administration (henceforth PA). Will I be able to cope?
Ans. PA is the only subject in which almost all the students choosing it as an optional subject are without any formal background whatsoever. It attracts students of backgrounds as diverse as Engineering, MBBS, MBA, pure science students as well as social science ones..

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