References:

1. Public Administration by Laxmikant

2. New Horizons of Public Administration by Mohit Bhattacharya
3. Restructuring Public Administration by Mohit Bhattacharya
4. Indian Administration by Fadia
5. 2 ARC reports
nd

6. Various committee reports like Punchi commission, National

Police Commission etc
7. IIPA journals, Yojana, Kurukhetra
8. http://publicadministrationtheone.blogspot.in
Some tips
1. Mug up complete syllabus, every bit in it. This will help you in
interlinking paper I with paper II and vice versa. Always keep
previous years question paper set with you and practice answers
writing when you finish any concept.
2. Relate various thinkers with each other. Find similarities and
differences in their thoughts and causes behind put forwarding
any particular theory. For example you can relate Taylors
mental revolution with Barnards zone indifference etc.
3. Relate administrative theories with administrative practices. In
Paper I, add example from paper II and in paper II add theories of
paper I. For example Simons decision making model can be
related with public policy. Maslow-Herzbergs motivation theories
can be related with personnel management. Riggss concepts of
heterogeneity, overlapping, formalism can be related with
problems in bureaucracy etc.
4. Add examples from current affairs in your answers. For example
while talking about citizen participation in administration we can
give example of MyGov.in. While talking about municipal
governance we can add SMART cities, AMRUT etc.
5. Practice answer writing continuously. Draw diagrams and include
keywords like mental revolution, circular response, job
enlargement, job enrichment, fact, value, networking model of
governance, good governance, neo weberian state, sheltered
bureaucracy etc. Make a list of keywords and quotes of thinkers
to enrich your answers. Try to answer same questions again and
again and you will find that every time you have some more
dimensions in the answers and your interlinking ability is
improving.
6. Recently, difficulty level of paper is increasing especially paper I.
Questions are not straight forward and sometimes the terms
 mentioned in question are totally new. People get less marks in
pubad because they fail to understand correct direction of the
question. So before solving paper, first read whole paper and
select such questions with which you are more comfortable.
While writing answers read each question 2-3 times. Break
question into smaller parts. Try to understand main theme of the
question even if you dont understand some terms. Prepare a
broad structure in your mind and then write answer addressing
various dimensions.
7. Last and the most important thing while studying public
administration is, you need to understand that public
administration is very dynamic subject. Public administration
both as a subject and as practice is constantly restructuring
itself with changing internal and external context. Globalization
and technological developments are leading to both
opportunities and challenges like climate change, terrorism,
achieving SDG (sustainable development goals) etc and
changing the way administration is carried out at national and
global level. Organizational theories of 20 century are not
th

applicable to 21 centurys big, multicoated, interlinked and

st

virtual organizations.
So, while studying any concept in public administration try to find its
contemporary relevance/irrelevance.
Some of the phenomena in contemporary public administration are
1. Global Governance
2. Networking Model of Governance
3. New Public Management
4. Good Governance
5. E-governance/digital governance
6. Neo Weberian State
7. Ethics in Public administration
8. Gender perspective in public administration
9. Comparative Public Administration
10. Ecological/Environmental concern
11. Citizen centric administration etc.
Finally, the key to score good marks in pubad is, not being bookish
and giving more emphasis on interlinking and contemporary
relevance.
I hope this article will be useful in preparation.
I would like to thank insights for providing aspirants an amazing
platform for preparation that too free of cost and boosting their
morale. Really commendable job. Keep it up.
All the best!!!