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Enhancing the Quality of Public Administration Education:
The Case of India
R. K. Mishra *
The Indian polity is passing through critical times. Not only is the socio-economic
and political structure of the country undergoing phenomenal change, but also
the expectations of people in terms of the availability of greater opportunities
and superior goods is repeatedly echoed in different forums repeatedly. Added to
this, is the dilemma of rendering efficient and effective administrative support to
people by a sprawling bureaucracy which has been labeled as “status-quoised” and
obstructive to the factors which could be harbingers of change.
The recent Constitutional amendments in India have been intended to give
power to the people. This has resulted in creating forces against the present excess
of power, thus, seeking a change in the real relationship between the executives and
people. The Country has reached a stage where it has been widely felt that what
is important is the more effective running of it. The disintegration of the Soviet
Union in the early 1990s has given rise to new perspectives, in the background of
which the whole question of the functioning of the public administration system
in the country needs to be examined, lest the Country is torn apart into pieces.
It is in this context that public administration education in India assumes a
critical dimension. This paper seeks to present the genesis and growth of public
administration education in India; the status of teaching, training and research in
this realm, its pitfalls, and the challenges it faces in the path of its emergence as a
well-established discipline in the field of Social Sciences, for its research method-
ology, contribution to knowledge, and relevance to the people in their day-to-day
business.
Genesis
Public administration education owes its great legacy to the ancient Indian period
of history. It was about 3000 years ago that Kautilya wrote the “Arthashastra” which
discussed the statecraft of administration, the functions of the king, the role of
his advisers, the methods of recruitment for bureaucracy, the penalties for non-
implementation of the state directives, etc
1
In medieval India, Akbar the Great,
in his treatise the “Ain-e-Akbari” laid down the principles of state administration,
the methods of preparation of state budgets, and the relationship between the
Centre and its constituents.
In the period of British India, measures were taken to provide sound public
administration to the masses including various enactments, such as the Indian Penal
* Senior Professor and Director, Institute of Public Enterprise, Osmania University, India
1 Arora, Ramesh, K and Kaushik, S. L. (Ed), The Universe of Public Administration: Essays in
Honour of Professor Sharma, Associated, New Delhi, 1994.
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Enhancing the Quality of Public Administration Education: The Case of India
Code, the India Companies Act, the Reserve Bank of India Act, etc. However,
public administration education in its earliest form had its first seeds sown in the
Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Madras in
1939, with the introduction of a diploma course in public administration
2
.
In 1938, the University of Allahabad launched a diploma course in local self-
government. In 1945, the University of Lucknow started a diploma course in Public
Administration in the Department of Political Science. In 1949, the University of
Nagpur started, for the first time, a full-fledged two-year programme in public
administration under the auspices of a separate department called the Department
of Public Administration and Local Self – Government. By 1973, 24 University
Departments and several affiliated colleges had started under-graduate and post-
graduate courses in public administration. In 1995, the number of University
Departments had gone up to 50.
Public administration was first a part of the history department in some universi-
ties. In other places, public administration became an integral part of the political
science Departments in the universities and was taught mostly as a compulsory
course at the post-graduate level. In the 1950s, a separate Department of Public
Administration was set up for the first time at the University of Nagpur. Another
feature of the 1950s was that in some universities, public administration teach-
ing was organised in their departments of economics. In 1955, in the University
of Rajasthan, the Department of Economics was renamed as the Department of
Economics and Public Administration to impart teaching in public administration
as a separate degree.
It was in the 1960s that public administration began to be recognized as a
full-fledged separate discipline, public administration being handled by “autono-
mous” departments within the faculties of social sciences. During this period, the
University of Rajasthan, Osmania University, Punjab University, Sagar University,
South Gujarat University, Himachal Pradesh University and Utkal University
started separate Departments of Public Administration. In the 1980s, and in the
current decade, there are two clearly discernible trends, one is the teaching of
public administration as a part of post-graduate courses in political science, and
the second, the organization of the teaching of public administration by a full-
fledged department in this area.
In the 1950s, another important development, which gave a great boost to public
administration, was the Appleby Committee Report on Public Administration,
and subsequently the establishment of a separate institute known as the Indian
Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) at New Delhi. The objective of the set-
ting up IIPA was to provide a forum for exchange of knowledge and experience
among practitioners and teachers of public administration. In 1960, IIPA started a
one-year post-graduate diploma in public administration which is mostly attended
by the civil servants who are in the mid-point of their career.
2 Barthwal, C.P. Public Administration in India: Prospect & Retrospect, Ashish, New Delhi, 1993,
pp.1-70
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