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UPSC CSE Mains 2022 — Public Administration Questions with Answers
All 56 Public Administration previous-year questions from UPSC CSE Mains 2022, each with the correct answer and a full explanation. Practise them as a free, timed mock test with instant scoring.
Practice Public Administration as a timed test →- Q1.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Public Management takes ‘what’ and ‘why’ from Public Administration and ‘how’ from Business Management. Elaborate.
- Q2.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Every human organisation shall start from System-I and ultimately end up with System-IV. Comment on Likert’s statement.
- Q3.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
All tribunals are courts, but all courts are not tribunals. Explain.
- Q4.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Classical Organisation Theory formed the bedrock for the modern organisation theories. Analyse.
- Q5.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Interaction between the State and Civil society has hitherto been largely neglected, especially in developing countries. Examine.
- Q6.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
‘The administrative state is the creation of a power to bind us, with rules … that are not made by legislature.’ Discuss the constitutionality of the administrative state and its future.
- Q7.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Transformational leadership requires high degree of coordination, communication and cooperation. Explain.
- Q8.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Human relationists postulate that ‘what is important to a worker and what influences his/her productivity level may not be the organisational chart but his or her associations with other workers’. Is it more relevant today?
- Q9.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Barnard posits the zone of indifference as the human condition that animates authority relationships and cooperation in modern organisations. Examine.
- Q10.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
New public service celebrates what is distinctive, important and meaningful about public service. Discuss.
- Q11.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Strategic communication ought to be an agile management process. Discuss the conceptualization of strategic communication for the government actions.
- Q12.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
‘Leadership is seen as dealing with change, whereas administration is viewed as coping with complexity.’ In this context, discuss the contextuality of leadership and administration for the success of organisations.
- Q13.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Regulatory governance frameworks have become essential building blocks of world society. Discuss their potential and impact in fulfilling the hopes and demands.
- Q14.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Social auditing is not just saving the money, it creates positive impact on governance. Comment.
- Q15.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Development Administration ‘embraces the array of new functions assumed by the developing countries’. Explain.
- Q16.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Policy evaluation contributes fundamentally to sound public governance. Discuss.
- Q17.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Weber’s construct of bureaucracy has served a great heuristic purpose in furthering research in the field of Comparative Public Administration. Do you agree with the statement? Give reasons.
- Q18.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Standards are the foundation which do not replace regulations but complement them. Comment.
- Q19.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
‘Outcome budgeting addresses the weaknesses of performance budgeting.’ Elaborate.
- Q20.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
‘The more exogenetic the process of diffraction, the more formalistic and heterogenous its prismatic phase; the more endogenetic, the less formalistic and heterogenous.’ Examine this hypothesis of Riggs.
- Q21.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
The environment and situational conditions under which the government operates have an important bearing on its human resource development practices. Examine.
- Q22.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
‘Lindblom regarded rational decision-making as an unattainable goal.’ In the light of the statement, suggest measures to avoid policy failures.
- Q23.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
The results of Washington Consensus were far from optimal for transitional economies. In this background, discuss the change of direction towards post-Washington Consensus.
- Q24.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
A sound budgeting system is one which engenders trust among citizens that the government is listening to their concerns. Elaborate this in the context of budgetary governance.
- Q25.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Performance problems are rarely caused simply by lack of training and rarely can performance be improved by training alone. Critically analyse the statement.
- Q26.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
The audit function has always been viewed as an integral part of government financial management. Discuss the significance of internal audit in improving the performance of the government sector.
- Q27.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Most civil service regimes still equate ‘Public Sector Ethics’ with anti-corruption efforts. Discuss the insufficiency of Ethics-code in this background.
- Q28.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Failure of public policies has often been attributed to problems of implementation, while implementors question the policy design. Discuss the contestation.
- Q29.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“Mughal administrative system was centralised despotism”. Comment.
- Q30.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“The office of the District Collector admirably survived the changing times from colonialism to the present times”. Comment.
- Q31.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“The smooth transaction of business in Ministries and Departments depends on the role played by Cabinet Secretariat”. Discuss.
- Q32.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“The Government of India Act, 1935 is the most important source of Indian constitution”. Identify its features.
- Q33.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“The Chief Secretary is the chief communication link between the state and central government”. Explain.
- Q34.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“The Indian federal structure is largely symmetric albeit with some asymmetric features”. Examine the status of States and Union Territories through the principle of weighted and differentiated equality in India.
- Q35.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan is a progressive policy. Analyse.
- Q36.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“Indicative Planning, is a middle path of planning and market mechanism to ensure coordination between public and private activities.” Explain.
- Q37.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“The New Economic Reforms during the past three decades have not only reduced the scope of industrial licensing and areas reserved exclusively for Public Sector but also infringed the autonomy of existing public sector undertakings”. Examine.
- Q38.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Ayog has become super cabinet in formulating the development agenda of our country”. Examine the statement by giving suitable examples.
- Q39.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Despite the constitutional status, the District planning committees remained a non-entity in preparation and implementation of plans. Discuss.
- Q40.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“The Indian judicial system has failed to deliver justice expeditiously”. Examine the challenges faced by the judiciary and suggest measures to overcome them.
- Q41.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Analyse the specific areas of controversies with regard to Union-State financial relations, particularly in the context of one nation – one tax policy.
- Q42.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Examine the role of central government in adjudication of disputes relating to water of interstate rivers.
- Q43.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Examine the lateral entry recruitment in government in the context of Part XIV of the Indian Constitution.
- Q44.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Examine the role of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in protecting the interests of the investors in securities.
- Q45.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Citizens charters in India have not succeeded in their objectives in making administrative system citizen centric. Do you agree? Give reasons.
- Q46.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Following the onset of globalisation, the traditional bureaucratic model appears to have lost its significance. Comment.
- Q47.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“The financial suitability of the Urban local bodies can become a reality only when they receive their due share of public finances.” Explain.
- Q48.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The recommendations of National Finance Commissions are more norms based than the need based. In the light of this statement analyse the terms of references of 15th National Finance Commission.
- Q49.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“The objective of Mission Karmyogi is to enhance capacity building of Indian Civil Servants and improve governance.” Discuss.
- Q50.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Parliamentary control over administration is no substitute for judicial control. Comment.
- Q51.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
In India, for the upliftment of majority of people, governmental intervention remains a central fact of life. Nevertheless, the effective implementation of policies depends on the ethical values of Public Servants. Discuss.
- Q52.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is today a primary cause of widespread and paralysing unwillingness on the part of government institutions to decide and act. Discuss.
- Q53.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Do you think that the new localism relegate the spirit of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992?
- Q54.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The main objective of Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 is to enable tribal society to assume control over their livelihoods and traditional rights. Critically examine the implementation of the Act.
- Q55.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The effectiveness of law and order administration depends on cooperative attitudes of people towards police, than bringing reforms in the structure and procedures of law and order machinery. Do you agree? Give reasons.
- Q56.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Examine the role of Lokpal in ensuring transparency and accountability in Indian administration.
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