302 – Public Administration

The only good thing to happen in my last UPSC Attempt (2016) was my Public Administration score. This blog post is about how I scored 302 (Paper I = 158 and Paper II = 144) Marks in Public Administration, in Mains-2016.

Please note that there is no short cut for scoring high in any subject. You have to READ a lot many things and refer a lot of stuff. But the thing is you need not read all these resources from the first to the last page. Your Score will depend more upon how effectively you write the answer, which we will cover in the latter part of this post.

Resources

After reading the list given below, I know few readers will be like “Ye toh pata hai, naya kuch nahi padha kya??” but believe me, you should do “naya” (try innovative and out-of-box thinking!) in answers, not in resource selection.

1.        IGNOU Books – BA and MA

Please download all the PDFs of IGNOU Public Administration books. They are available on Mrunal’s website, or you can download it from any other website you know.

You need not read every PDF, because you will find that they have chapters on almost every word of the UPSC - Public Administration syllabus. Read-only complete part of “Public Policy” (Paper – I). And also read those chapters for which you could not find material in your notes. You can just skim through other PDFs. These books are good for basic concepts only. You have to add current examples from Newspapers. For example, you will understand “what is a social audit?” from these books, and then you can add “Nearly Rs 100 Cr has been identified as misappropriated funds through social audit under MGNREGA, out of which nearly Rs 40 Cr has been recovered. Nearly 6000 field personnel have been implicated/removed from duty based on findings of social audit.”

Benefit:

Que. 5 (a) “Training is considered as paid holidays”. Comment (Paper I/2016/10 Marks)

Answer: EPA 04 – Personnel Training: Unit 17 Training (17.11)

Que. 5 (e) “In Public Policy Making, ‘Rationalism’ is the opposite of ‘Incrementalism’”. Examine (Paper I/2016/10 Marks)

Answer: EPA 06 – Public Policy: Unit-28 Policy Making Approaches and Models of Policy Analysis (28.4.3)

2.       ARC Reports

I have read all the reports of ARC. This was possible because I could not clear Prelims-2015. If it is not possible for you to read 3000 odd pages now then at least glance through (http://arc.gov.in/), And get the “recommendation” part printed.

I personally do not recommend using READYMADE notes of government documents, whether it is ARC, or Punchhi Commission or Economic Surveyor anything. But, Take your call based upon the amount TIME you have.

Benefit:

Que.  6 (b) Explain how the National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) provides a framework and direction to the government agencies for all phases of the disaster management cycle. (Paper II/2016/20 marks)

Answer: ARC Report 3 – Crisis Management: Chapter 4 – Legal and Institutional Framework

3.       Class Notes

I have taken guidance for Public Administration from Late Shri Dr. Vasant Nandedkar Sir (Pune) and Shri Pavan Kumar Sir (Delhi). Nandedkar Sir taught me how to find “rider” of the question i.e. an important theme of the question and Pavan Kumar Sir taught me how to write answer by asking the “why” aspect of the question.

Referring to any class notes will speed things up for you than making your own notes. Consolidate your notes mostly in comparative forms which will ease for revising the notes.

  

Benefit:

Saves time of making notes!!

4.      Basic Books

a.    Administrative Thinkers by Prasad and Prasad

This is A “must” (even if it is not that Mast! :p) book to understand the basic ideas of the thinker. I would suggest, taking an A4 size blank paper, and making 3 columns on it, on each side, so that you can accommodate 6 thinkers on one page. Add a few facts and basic theory of each thinker in the column which you can revise many times. This is particularly useful to make links between the thinkers. This will also help you to “use thinkers” in your answers. And thus, your answer will sound like that of the discipline of Public Administration, not a general answer.

Please note here that you should also use thinkers in Paper – II, because the paper evaluator is a Public Administration expert and would like IT if you could use thinkers contextually.

Benefit:

Que. 2 (a) “ Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y describes two contrasting models of workforce motivation applied by managers in an organization.” Examine (Paper I/2016/20 Marks)

Answer: Administrative Thinkers by Prasad and Prasad – Chapter 13

  

b.    New Horizons of Public Administration by MohitBhattacharya

This is a good book that covers many terms of the syllabus. And believe me, you will find similar terms in question papers as well. You can read this book entirely.

Benefit:

Que. 2 (b) “The New Public Administration has seriously jolted the traditional concept and outlook of the discipline and enriched the subjecting by imparting wider perspective by linking it closely to the society” Elucidate. (Paper I/2016/15 Marks)

Answer: New Horizons of Public Administration by Mohit Bhattacharya, page 10

There are also three other books by Mohit Bhattacharya Sir, which you can read selectively. Books and important topics:

1.        Social Theory,and Development Administration (1, 4, 14 and 18)

2.       Restructuring Public Administration: A New Look (3, 6, 7, 9 and 10)

3.       Public Administration: New Issues andPerspective (3, 8, 10 and 12)

c.     Public Administration by Fadia and Fadia

It looks very bulky at first sight. And it remains bulky and scary unless you open it up and start reading it. Again, I could read most of it after failure in Prelims-2015.

If you don’t have time to go through everything, then at least read headings, boxes and comparative tables from the book. Using comparative tables in papers saves a huge lot of time.

Benefit:

Que. 4 (a) “Blake and Mouton defined leadership style based on two dimensions – concerns for people and concerns for production,” In light of the statement, discuss the Managerial Grid Model. Explain with the reason which one of the styles is the best. (Paper I/2016/20 Marks)

Answer: Public Administration by Fadia and Fadia: Chapter 36 – Theories of Leadership: Managerial Grid Theory of Leadership

Que. 6 (c) “Information Technology brings efficiency and transparency to Public Administration.” Examine the statement with suitable examples. (Paper I/2016/15 Marks)

Answer: Public Administration by Fadia and Fadia: Chapter 89 – Information and Technology and Public Administration.

d.    Indian Public Administration by Arora and Goyal

Like Fadia and Fadia, this is also a huge book. By now, you must have understood that there is this simple equation,

Public Administration = Huge Books = Hard Work!

This book covers topics very exhaustively; therefore I would suggest reading the sub-parts of each topic very selectively. If you have read Laxmikanth’s Polity then you have already covered a large part of this book. Skip the repeated part.

Benefit:

Que. 7 (a) The Right to Information Act is path-breaking legislation which signals to march from darkness of secrecy to dawn of transparency.” What hurdles do the citizens face in obtaining information from the government? Explain how the reluctance of the government to part with information under R.T.I can be addressed. (Paper II/2016/20 Marks)

Answer: Indian Public Administration by Arora and Goyal: Chapter – 32 The Right to Information

e.    Government Reports

I feel one should read original documents instead of somebody’s summary of that report. Refer government websites of important Ministries/Dept/Org related to Public Administration viz, MHA, NITI Aayog, FinMin, Rural Development Ministry, etc and do read their Annual Reports.

Refer following links:

MHA: http://mha.nic.in/annualreports

NITI: http://niti.gov.in/documents/reports

FinMin: http://finmin.nic.in/documents-and-reports/reports

Urban Development: http://moud.gov.in/cms/annual-reports-of-moud.php

Rural Development: http://rural.nic.in/netrural/rural/sites/annual-report.aspx

f.      Online Reading

For a few of the things in Paper – I, and for many things in Paper – II; I would suggest making use of online and current information and interesting facts wherever possible. There are a few chapters like PSUs or Inter-State Relationships which are covered very well online.

Refer the following links:

http://dpe.gov.in/publication/annual-reports

https://www.pppinindia.gov.in/

http://interstatecouncil.nic.in/

Additional Books which are good to refer to are: 

1. Aribam's Public Administration 

2. Laxmikanth's Public Administration 

3. Mahajan's Public Administration

4. Public Administration Dictionary by Vikram Singh

There is an exhaustive list of reference websites, which you can make on your own.

I know, after reading this long list of references, many of you will remark “302 bhi Kam Aaya re!” but the main thing your marks depend on is your answers. Let’s talk about answer writing.

Answer Writing

Let me repeat, there is no short cut to hard work. You are supposed to write answers to a lot of questions to understand the “language” of optional subjects. The issue with Public Administration is to understand the question in the first place. Except Mains-2016 Papers, Public Administration papers have been difficult lately (at least since 2012). Here the trick would be to break down the question into sub-parts and then answering the sub-parts.

Few points you should keep in mind for writing good answers:

1.        After reading the question once, please read it again if you could not understand it in the first place. Unless you “understand” the question, it will be very difficult to write a relevant answer.

2.       Give Introduction and Conclusion to every answer. You need not always write the definition of each term in the Introduction unless the question demands to know your understanding of the particular term. Add an interesting fact or related constitutional article or SC Judgment in the Introduction. For example, if any question about Tribunal’s functioning is asked then I would have started with “Chandra Kumar Case judgment” in the introduction or would have added Article 323A and Article 323 B in the introduction.

3.       Body part of answer should contain bullet points. We tend to write in paragraph form when we have limited information about the question. Please avoid this engineer’s formula -> “If you don’t know about the tree, tie a goat to a tree and explain about the goat!” You don’t have to fill the available space on paper. Write what is relevant and contextual.

4.      Give examples of the points you write.

5.       Use Thinkers in paper-II as well. Please make sure that you use them contextually and not for the sake of using them.

6.      Drawing diagrams and tables will help you to save time. For example, I used square for showing “Managerial Grid” and could write 20 Marks question in less than 10 minutes. (Shown earlier.)

If you don’t know anything about the thinker/author mentioned in the question, then put your finger on that thinker/author and read the question again. I call it “finger theory”. You need not bother about that particular thinker/author. Just answer the question contextually. And by the way, you can also mention thinker from your own standard list, if it is applicable there.

For Mains-2016, I had joined VisionIAS Test Series (Public Administration). Reason being, that it was the only good option available in Pune. I have shared a link of Google drive at the end of the post where I have saved a few of my solved papers, which you might find useful.

If you have a group of friends with whom you can study Public Administration then joining any Test Series is not a must. Peer paper evaluation and feedback can be useful. If possible, you can also get in contact with “University” people for checking your solved papers. If you have been preparing for 2-3 years now, then I would suggest “self-evaluation” is the best evaluation.

There is no End!

There is a misconception that UPSC is not fair. This is particularly more popular in optional like Public Administration that UPSC is unfair (like life, isn’t it?). But believe me, if you give your 100 %, UPSC will definitely respect that. The one who has the capability of giving her/her 100 % can never be a failure in life, irrespective of UPSC result.

All the Best!

|| DUTY || HONOUR || COURAGE ||