Indian Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The Political Affairs Committee is the most important cabinet committee in India. It is headed by the Prime Minister and deals with the major questions of policy, including internal and external political issues.

The Economic Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs and Appointments Committees each handle a defined area. Since the Political Affairs Committee covers the broadest range, it is called the super cabinet.

The Prime Minister heads it and its members are the senior ministers, which is why it was called the super cabinet and was the body that handled the main political decisions of the government.

Answer: C

The three criteria considered by a Chief Minister in choosing the Chief Secretary are seniority, service record with performance and merit, and the Chief Minister's own confidence, so (i), (ii) and (iv).

Approval of the Governor (iii) is not one of the criteria considered in the choice, since the appointment is made by the government of the state on the Chief Minister's advice. The options with (iii) are therefore wrong.

In practice the appointment of a Chief Secretary reflects the Chief Minister's trust in the officer, together with seniority and a good record, because the post is the link between politics and the civil service.

Answer: D

Assertion (A) is false and reason (R) is true. Additional functions are given to the UPSC by an Act of Parliament under Article 321, so no amendment of the Constitution is needed, which makes (A) false.

The reason is true, because the proviso to Article 320 does not require the UPSC to be consulted on reservation of posts in favour of backward classes. Hence the option with (A) false and (R) true is the answer.

Answer: C

The Chairman of each Zonal Council in India is the Union Home Minister, who presides over meetings of the Council.

The Chief Ministers of the states in the zone serve as members and take turns as Vice-Chairman. The Union Finance Minister and the Chief Secretary do not chair the councils.

Zonal Councils were set up under the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 and there are five of them, which give states in a zone a forum for common problems under the Home Minister's chairmanship.

Answer: D

The Second Administrative Reforms Commission recommended the setting up of a Central Civil Services Authority and State Civil Services Authorities in its report on refurbishing personnel administration.

The Alagh Committee, the Satish Chandra Committee and the First Administrative Reforms Commission looked at other matters such as the reform of the civil services examinations and the personnel system and are not credited with the Authorities proposal.

The Commission's report on refurbishing personnel administration proposed the Authorities to make recommendations on civil service appointments to give greater professionalism and independence.

Answer: C

The Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi, runs the Advanced Professional Programme in Public Administration (APPPA), a course for mid-career officers.

The Administrative Staff College in Hyderabad, the LBS National Academy in Mussoorie and the National Institute of Rural Development in Hyderabad run other training programmes and not this one.

The programme is meant for officers in service who wish to deepen their knowledge of administration without leaving their careers.

Answer: D

The key matches the Fulton Committee Report with 'the gifted layman', the Administrative Reforms Commission report on personnel administration with 'general purpose service', Robert Presthus with 'compelling inadequacies', and Jawaharlal Nehru with 'elitist bureaucracy', giving iv, ii, iii, i.

The Fulton Committee criticised the cult of the amateur generalist, and the other pairs state the views of the named bodies and writers on the generalist. The other codes do not agree with those views.