Union Government, Administrative Institutions and Personnel

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, Paper III (General Studies III), Unit II - Concepts, Issues and Dynamics of Public Administration, under the heading “Union Government and Administrative Institutions”:

• Administrative Institutions: UPSC, Election Commission of India, C&AG, Finance Commission, Lokpal, NITI Aayog.
• Personnel Administration: Recruitment, Training, Promotion, Neutrality and Anonymity in Civil Services, Code of Conduct.
• Issues in Administration: Union-State Relations, Minister-Civil Servants Relations, Generalists-Specialists, Administrative Reforms, Social Audit.
• Control over Administration: Legislative, Executive and Judicial.

Topics in detail

Administrative institutions

• UPSC (Articles 315 to 323): composition, appointment and removal of members, independence, functions (Article 320), annual report
• Consultation with the UPSC under Article 320(3) and matters kept outside it; its advice is not binding on the government
• Election Commission of India (Article 324): a multi-member body; superintendence of elections; Model Code of Conduct; quasi-judicial powers in recognition of parties and allotment of symbols
• Removal of the Chief Election Commissioner in the manner of a Supreme Court judge; Election Commissioners removable only on the CEC's recommendation
• Comptroller and Auditor General (Articles 148 to 151): the CAG's (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971; compliance and performance audit; reports and the Public Accounts Committee
• Finance Commission (Article 280): constituted every five years; the Finance Commission (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1951; vertical and horizontal devolution; criteria such as population, area, income distance; grants to local bodies; advisory nature of its recommendations
• Lokpal: the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013; composition (a chairperson and up to eight members, half of them judicial), selection committee, jurisdiction including the Prime Minister with safeguards
• NITI Aayog (2015, replacing the Planning Commission): Governing Council, think-tank role, cooperative federalism, indices, the Aspirational Districts Programme

Personnel administration

• Recruitment: the merit system, direct recruitment and promotion, role of public service commissions; lateral entry
• Training: kinds of training; LBSNAA, Mussoorie; Mission Karmayogi and the iGOT platform; Rajasthan's HCM Rajasthan State Institute of Public Administration
• Promotion: seniority and merit, performance appraisal
• Neutrality: political neutrality of civil servants and its limits; committed bureaucracy debate
• Anonymity: ministerial responsibility and the civil servant's anonymity, and how it is changing
• Codes of conduct: All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968; Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964; Rajasthan Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1971
• Classification of services: All India Services (Article 312), Central services, state services; groups by level
• Discipline: minor and major penalties, departmental inquiry, protection of civil servants (Article 311)

Issues in administration

• Union-state relations: legislative, administrative and financial; all-India services as a link; Sarkaria and Punchhi Commissions
• Minister-civil servant relations: policy and execution, frank advice, politicisation, transfers
• Generalists and specialists: the debate, the Fulton Committee (UK, 1968), domain expertise in Indian services
• Administrative reforms: the First Administrative Reforms Commission (1966) and the Second (2005, with 15 reports); citizen's charters; e-governance
• Social audit: meaning, methods, its use under MGNREGA, Rajasthan's experience with public hearings; Meghalaya's law on social audit (2017)
• Accountability tools linked to reforms: citizen's charters, grievance redressal (CPGRAMS), performance management

Control over administration

• Legislative control: questions, debates, motions, budget, committees (Public Accounts, Estimates, Public Undertakings, Subordinate Legislation)
• Executive control: political direction, budget, civil service rules, delegated legislation, audit
• Judicial control: writs, judicial review of administrative action, public interest litigation, administrative tribunals (Article 323A)
• Other means: RTI, Lokpal and Lokayuktas, the Central Vigilance Commission, citizen's charters, media