Introduction

This article talks about significant issues and challenges that stress in the administration system of the India and various others branches of the government. These challenges hamper the healthy functioning of the administrative bodies. Before moving forward, we should understand the rise of administration system in the country. India is the largest democratic country with inculcate a vide number of diversities. As the Preamble of the Constitution of India says that India is a Socialist Sovereign Secular Democratic Republic with a parliamentary frame of government which is federal in its composition with unitary features which are unitary in nature. There is a clear separation of powers between the Central/Union government, the State governments and Local level governments. The roots of the unique Indian Administration can be traced back to the ancient administration system. Many observers have the thought that the formation of administration system in India is indebted to the theories, traditions and customs followed in the ancient period and they are mentioned in the various ancient text such as the Vedas, Manu Smriti, Epics, Puranas, Dharmashastra, literatures of Buddhism and Jainism, Kautilya’s Arthashashtra. Mughals had one of the most efficient and centralised system of administration. The present-day administration system is also majorly influenced by the British system of administration; we have adopted certain important provisions which includes the Judicial system, parliamentary form of governance, rule of law, etc.

Government and State

Before moving further, we shall understand the difference between the government and the state. The State is a broader aspect as it includes a territory, the citizen and government or institution system. The government is as an institution which works for the welfare, regulates, directs, and coordinate in order to provide necessities to the citizens of the country. The State on account of or by means of government perform all the abovementioned activities. The State will always be a permanent and everlasting established institution and the government is temporary as it is created, quashed and changed by the people’s essential vote in the elections. The government can be seen as an organ of the state keeps law and order in check and provide with the basic facilities to the citizens such as drinking water, quality education, primary health centres, hospitals and colleges. Thus, we can conclude that the government is an essential part of the state and acts as an agency to the state through which the citizens can actually observe and identify the functioning and activities of the state.

Public Administration

Once the government is formed after winning an election, the elected government is solely responsible to govern and administer the territory that provides welfare to the citizens. So, we

can say that the administration work is actually the job of the government. We can understand this by a simple example, if we apply to get a landline or broadband connection from Airtel Bharti, we will have to go to the office or on the website fill an application and complete other formalities. After certain days, the customer gets verified by the company and gets sanctioned for the new connection and finally it is installed at your home. The administrative branch can be considered as a group who performs series of activities at different levels of hierarchy in the most effective and efficient manner in order to provide welfare and development for the citizens. Administration is a group of people performing many important tasks such as planning, formulating policies, organising functions and events, managing resources, controlling and directing, appointment of the staff, etc. In a broad context the public administrations could be understood as an instrument or organisation working towards achieving professional and academic discipline (teaching and research)1. For example, in a school there is a principal as the head, who is responsible for making important decisions for the school and then followed by a vice-principal, supervisor and a team of teachers, each teacher teaching different subjects.

It is in important to understand that elements like cultural, social, historical, socio-economic, socio-cultural, economic, political and extraneous factors play a dominant role in deciding the nature, scope, importance and existent of the public administration in India2.

Challenges in the Administration

Ø Corruption

India ranks at 80th place in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in 2020. The height of corruption which is in the government affects all the levels of governments i.e. union, state and local, economy and judiciary. This hampers the country’s basic growth and development. Many researchers believe that the causes which lead to corruption are overabundant regulations, complex and intricate licensing systems and tax policies resulting in people not opting to seek remedies and help from the government sector, opaque bureaucracy in the government offices or departments as they enjoy certain discretionary powers over many matters and certain government owned and controlled sectors; these government sectors have lack of transparency in law and following the due process.

The actions of the elected representatives of the legislative branch of the government, both at the central and state level, at times get determined by their own personal and selfish gains. These respectable organisations get corrupted by personal motives and it can be observed in the cases of framing new policies and laws which only help the big businesses to function with greater autonomy over the welfare of general public. Many of the elected Member of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) have committed many criminal activities and hold criminal records and still hold office.

The executive branch has a hierarchy and ministers are at the top of this hierarchy. They are responsible for creating laws for public welfare. Many ministers holding important offices have been involved in major scams such as the Coal Allotment Scam, 2G Spectrum Scam, Commonwealth Games Scam, Fodder Scam, Boforce Scam, etc.

Even the judiciary is no longer independent as guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Corruption is rampant everywhere. Due to the shortage of judges in the courts, many citizens feel that there is huge delay in disposing off cases and delivering justice. During the recent time, the judges are only focusing on the important urgent matters pertaining to bail hearing, constitutional law, etc. and not paying much attention to the regular matters.

Ø Contracting

Responding to growing demand of the citizens, the government started offering contracts to private organisation to fulfil the demand and needs of the public. This backfires at the private organisations charge more money for the goods and services manufactured and offered by them and are more expensive and less affordable by the people.

Ø Technology

Many departments of the government have functioning websites which provide information to the citizens. Every sector is data oriented nowadays but these websites are not updated regularly and higher possibilities to crash when number users increase. The apps created by government have the autonomy to monitor, record, store and access the users’ personal data without the consent or approval of the users and as of now there is no medium or law to limit these activities or keep the stored data secured. This can be seen in the Aarogya setu app. In order to keep these website and apps working, it requires a secure hardware and software and experts to administer these devices in order to ensure safety of the collected data. Thus, requires more funds from the budget and expenditure to spend on all these expensive devices and experts to maintain the databases.

Ø Social Equity

Even in today’s world, the public organisation or government sector needs more equal representation of different social and cultural backgrounds. For example, the department in a minorityareas must include a proportionate number of those minority members in the administration and not exclude them.

Ø Economic environment

The type of economy that a country follows also plays an important role in the administrative activities. For example, in closed economy, the government or public sector has to do all the work as there is almost zero role of the private sector. The developed countries have abundant of resources to make their polices more successfully implemented in the country than a developing country because the lack of skills, resources and technical know-hows affecting in the formulation and implementation of the laws. Therefore, we can say that the administration has and influence on formulating the economic policies, annual budget, and laws. With the effective administration, development is guaranteed.

Ø Bureaucratic Apathy

Expanding gaps between targets and accomplishments within the things of arranging and the program usage marks the period of the bureaucratic apathy or unresponsiveness in India. In spite of regulate of different committees and commissions, provisions of preparing and introduction, the case of bureaucratic apathy is accepted to be continuing in different administrative units.

Recommendations to ensure more transparency in the administration:

· The government shall use the medium of pamphlets, books, reports, surveys, brochures, etc. to provide citizens with access to information.

· Create apps with accurate and ongoing information on the works of the elected government in order to provide more accessibility of information to the citizens. The apps which does not evade a person’s privacy.

· Creation of apps which provide information relating to position in wait list which is updated regularly

· Creating a forum for receiving complaints, grievance, issues, etc. of the general public and providing them with notifications of acknowledgement.

· Creating a user-friendly system of executives to provide with interactive voice or video call session in order to have more feasible question and answers in order to clear out the grievances in a comprehensible manner.

· Creating interactive apps and user-friendly accessible websites which provide information regarding the accurate and required forms, procedures and guidelines to approach the various bodies and organs of the administration

· Websites having code of conduct and ethics regarding the working of various bodies of the administration.

· Websites having information on corruptions activities and current corruption charges against the government officials.

· The local elected level government should be provided with more power and autonomy in order to provide welfare and development at the ground level in both rural and urban areas.

· Making the citizens educated and informed about their rights and obligations which help them to partner with the government in achieving development.

Author: Karan Singh, Legal Intern at Legal Desire (June 2020)

I am a second year law student from Symbiosis Law School. I am a strong believer and preacher of our Constitution and Fundamental Rights. I have keen interest in Contract Law and Constitutional Law. In my free time. I like reading newspaper and novels.