Transparency, accountability and responsiveness in governance

  Transparency and accountability in administration as the sine qua non of participatory democracy, gained recognition as the new commitments of the state towards its citizens. It is considered imperative to enlist the support and participation of citizens in management of public services. Traditionally, participation in political and economic processes and the ability to make … Read more

Citizens’ Charter

Citizen charter The Citizens’ Charter is an instrument which seeks to make an organization transparent, accountable and citizen friendly. A Citizens’ Charter is basically a set of commitments made by an organization regarding the standards of service which it delivers. Every citizens’ charter has several essential components to make it meaningful; the first being the … Read more

Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

The English word  administer‘ is derived from a combination of two Latin words and ?ministrate‘ meaning ?to serve or manage‘. Literally, the term means management the affairs of public or private. Administration refers to mobilisation of resources – human and material- to achieve pre-set of objectives. Administration is thus an activity undertaken in pursuit of … Read more

Good governance

The “key word” to be used in this is the “Good Governance” in the various phases of the service definition, development, refining and monitoring, and the whole concept of Good Governance services is based on “putting the citizen (user) at the centre of innovative services” starting from enabling of a specific procedure: citizens shall be … Read more

Concept of Social Audit and its importance

SOCIAL AUDIT “Social auditing is defined as a systematic attempt to identify, analyse, measure (if possible), evaluate, and monitor the effect of an organisation’s operations on society (that is, specific social groups) and on the public well-being.” Social audit as a term was used as far back as the 1950s. In a nutshell, it refers … Read more

Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues and problems of implementation

Meaning of Public Policy Are goal oriented Are outcome of the government’s collective actions It is what the government actually decided or chooses to do Is positive in the sense that it depicts the concern of the government and involves its action to a particular problem on which the policy is made Distinction between policy … Read more

Foundational values and role civil services in democracy

Values are the standards on which, we evaluate things. For every situation we don’t have time to ‘test’ the case on ethics theories such as utilitarianism. Values provide time saving short-cut in such situation. Under New public management (NPM), the concept of public services is fast changing. Bureaucrat has become directly accountable to citizen-customer. He … Read more

Administrative ideas in Kautilya’s Arthashastra

Kautilya and Arthashastra: Kautilya was the Prime Minister of Chandragupta Maurya. Chandragupta found the Mauryan Empire with his help. Arthashastra was written by him. It is the most important source for writing the history of the Mauryas and is divided into 15 adhikarnas or sections and 180 Prakaranas or subdivi­sions. It has about 6,000 slokas. … Read more

Mughal administration

Sher Shah’s Work    Sher Shah was one of the most distinguished rulers of north India who had done a number of developmental works (along with well-planned administrative works). His works can be studied under the following heads:   Administrative Works    Sher Shah re-established law and order across the length and breadth … Read more

Evolution of Public Administration in India

Public Administration is a sub-division of the broader concept of administration. Administration means ‘to serve’, or ‘to manage affairs’. In this sense, administration means management of the affairs of an organization. And Public administration means management of Governmental affairs and activities. Thus, Public administration is primarily concerned with the implementation of Governmental policies. History of … Read more