Indian Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The statement that the Delivery Monitoring Unit in the Prime Minister's Office reviews and selects programmes including MNREGA, NRHM, JNNURM and SSA is the correct one. The unit follows the progress of flagship schemes and key projects so that delivery problems reach the Prime Minister's attention.

Appointments to posts in the Central Government are handled by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet and the Department of Personnel, not by this unit. Reviewing Budget provisions is the work of the Finance Ministry, and examining security measures is a task of security agencies, so those options are wrong.

Answer: C

The provision that a civil servant holds office during the pleasure of the Crown and cannot be dismissed by an authority lower than the one that appointed him was made for the first time by the Government of India Act, 1919. It protected Indian civil servants against arbitrary dismissal by subordinate authorities.

The Act of 1858 transferred power from the Company to the Crown. The Indian Councils Act of 1892 dealt with legislative councils. The Act of 1935 kept and elaborated safeguards but did not introduce the rule, so these options are wrong.

Answer: D

Statement (iv), that both officers have ministerial or departmental responsibilities, is the incorrect one, so the answer is Only (iv). The Cabinet Secretary and the Chief Secretary are the administrative heads of their governments, regulate and coordinate the administration, and oversee decisions and policies, which makes (i), (ii) and (iii) correct.

Neither official heads a department or holds a ministerial portfolio, so (iv) fails. The options that include (ii) or (iii) as incorrect statements are wrong because those two are accurate comparisons.

Answer: C

A high-level panel of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Central Vigilance Commissioner and the Cabinet Secretary for clean and accountable government was suggested by the Fifth Central Pay Commission, according to the key.

Paul Appleby wrote reports on Indian administration in the early 1950s and A.D. Gorwala was the author of a report on administration in 1951. Neither is linked to this panel. The Sixth Pay Commission reported in 2008 and is not the source in the key, so the other options do not fit.

Answer: C

The correct matches are the Central Administrative Tribunal with the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the Employees' Provident Fund Organization with the Ministry of Labour, the Border Road Organization with the Ministry of Surface and National Highways, and NCERT with the Ministry of Human Resource Development. This is the code (iii) (i) (iv) (ii).

Each of the other codes assigns at least one body to the wrong ministry, such as giving the Tribunal to the Labour Ministry or NCERT to the Personnel Ministry.

Answer: C

The correct chronological order of the committees is Kothari (1976), Sathish Chandra (1989), Yogendra Kumar Alagh (2001) and Hota (2004), which is the code (ii), (iv), (iii), (i). Kothari looked at recruitment policy and selection methods, Sathish Chandra reviewed recruitment policy and training, Alagh reviewed the civil services and Hota examined civil service reforms.

The codes that begin with Hota or Alagh put later committees before earlier ones and so are wrong.

Answer: D

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions was created in 1985, when personnel and training functions were brought together as a separate ministry under the Prime Minister's charge. This is the year the key gives.

The years 1970, 1973 and 1977 refer to earlier stages when the personnel function was organised as a department of the Cabinet Secretariat or a department under another ministry, and not as this ministry, so those options are wrong.

Answer: D

The statement that a member of the UPSC can resign by addressing the resignation to the Chairman is not correct. A member resigns by writing to the President of India, who appoints members and receives their resignations.

The other statements are accurate: the President determines the composition and conditions of service, half of the members must have held office under the Government for at least ten years, and the UPSC can serve a State's needs on the Governor's request with the President's consent.

Answer: A

The M.M. Punchhi Commission on Centre-State Relations (2010) is the body that recommended All India Services in education, health, judiciary and engineering, to strengthen cooperative federalism and the quality of service delivery.

The Sarkaria Commission of 1988 had recommended strengthening the existing All India Services and creating some new ones. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission's personnel report and the 2004 Committee on Civil Service Reforms dealt with other aspects of civil service reform.

Answer: A

Both (A) and (R) are correct and (R) explains (A). The relationship between employee and employer is utilitarian and contractual in its basic ethos, and the reason explains this: both are tied into mutual exchange relations, in which work is given for pay and each side expects a return.

The option that denies (R) as the explanation fails because the exchange is what makes the relationship contractual. The options calling (A) or (R) false are wrong because both describe the economic view of employment.