Book Description

Development administration is concerned with plans, policies, programmes and projects which focus on nation building and socio-economic development. It aims to achieve socio-economic goals through the talents and expertise of bureaucrats. Development administration focuses on the results to be achieved rather than the traditionalist view of strict adherence to rules and hierarchy. Strict adherence to rules creates rigidness, delay and procrastination. The essence of development administration is to bring about change through integrated, organised and properly directed governmental action. In the recent past, the governments in most of the developing nations have shifted their focus on development by means of planned change and people’s participation. With this shift of administrative concern towards developmental objectives the researchers and practitioners of Public Administration have been forced to conceptualise the developmental situation and to bridge the gaps in the administrative theory. The growing welfare functions of the government have brought into the limelight the limitations of the traditional theory of administration. The essence of administration in the present conditions lies in its capacity to bring about change in the structure and behaviour of different administrative institutions, to develop an acceptance for the change and to create a system that can sustain change and improve the capacity of institutions to change. All this calls for renewed efforts on the part of institutions engaged in the tasks of development. Thus development administration as an area of study and as means to realise developmental goals assumes importance. This book contains plenty of substance for scholars, but the writing has the verve and clarity to seize and entertain the general reader as well. Contents: • Role of NGOs and Voluntary Organisations • Economic Policy in India Since Independence • Local Self Government: Meaning, Nature and Scope • Concept of Rural Development • Centralization and Decentralization • Population, Urban Environment and Health in India