Aloes have been used worldwide for more than 3,500 years. They are desert lilies and there are more than 200 varieties. Aloe vera is an aloe plant. Aloe vera, which means “true aloe” in Latin, is generally the most widely used and most effective species of aloe. The aloe vera plant has long, spiked leaves, which are thick-skinned and contain a clear gel-like substance. It is used today in many products, including cosmetics, skin lotions and moisturizers, burn gels and even sun screen creams. Juice is also taken from the aloe vera leaves. The bitter juice is often prepared as a flavored drink and is used to help with digestive problems. Aloe vera contains numerous vitamins and minerals, enzymes, amino acids, natural sugars and agents which may be anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial. The combination and balance of the plant’s ingredients are what purportedly gives it its healing properties.
Many ancient works, including the Bible, refer to the use of aloe. One of the first documented users of aloe vera was Cleopatra, who lived from 68 to 30 B.C. She is said to have used the gel on her skin as protection from the sun, and to have thought the gel helped to keep her skin young-looking. In fact, the Egyptians may have used aloe vera in their embalming of bodies, among other uses. About the year Six B.C., Dioscorides, a Greek physician, discovered aloe vera was effective in treating a wide range of ailments, from kidney problems and constipation, to severe burns of the skin. Today aloe vera continues to be widely used around the world. Studies have shown that aloe vera speeds the healing process, particularly in burns, including those from radiation. It is also used by dermatologists to speed healing after facial dermabrasion, which removes scars from the skins top layers.
The possible benefits from the use of aloe vera gel and juice include: 1. May help sooth skin injured by burns, irritations, cuts and insect bites. 2. May help moisturize and soften the skin. 3. May help speed the healing of skin wounds, burns and other injuries. 4. May help (when taken internally)with constipation, diarrhea and other intestinal problems. 5. May speed and improve general healing when taken internally. 6. May relieve itching and swelling of irritated skin. 7. May help kill fungus and bacteria. 8. May improve the effectiveness of sun screen products.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
current Events Dedcember 2010
Assange praises The Hindu
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder and editor-in-chief, has commended The Hindu in an interviewto Business Standard published on 21st December, 2010.
In the interview given at Suffolk, the United Kingdom, Mr. Assange spoke of his impression of the Indian media. “Well, there are some very great little journalistic groups in India. [The] Hindu, [The] Times [of India] have been quite good… some of their material. In my dealings with Indians, there is such an incredible potential in the Indian media, because there is still a lot of corruption.
On the other hand, journalism is quite vibrant in the medium and lower level. You have a rising middle class. You have more people getting access to the Internet. So, I am quite hopeful of about what is going to develop in India,” he was quoted as saying.
Chinese media knocks off 1,600 km from China-India border
China appears to be making ground for claiming some 1,600 km of Indian territory judging by reports in the state-owned media on the length of China-India border.
Even as the two countries have been discussing the unresolved boundary issue for decades, the state-owned Xinhua and ‘ Global Times ., an English language newspaper published by the ‘People’s Daily’, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, have described the China-India border as nearly 2,000 km long.
The reports about the length of the border were carried in the Chinese official media ahead of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s December 15-17 visit to India.
Xinhua on the eve of Wen’s arrival in New Delhi had said the length of the border was nearly 2,000 km long.
This Chinese assessment contradicts the Indian figure of 3,500 km for the operational border between the two nations.
The Chinese premier was sharply critical of the Indian media, saying it was causing “damage” to bilateral ties.
India gears up to serve in Security Council with new outlook
India is gearing up to serve the powerful UN Security Council as a non-permanent member after a gap of 19 years with a fresh outlook on several international issues, especially human rights.
India will return to the Security Council on January 1, 2011 for a two-year period along with South Africa, Colombia, Germany and Portugal.
China to provide flood data ofSutlej river to India
China will provide India with real time flood data of Sutlejriver during monsoon, according to an agreement signed between the two countries.
Under the five year agreement,China will set up a special station in Tibet to monitor rainfall and flood situation to enable India get advanced warnings.
In turn, India will pay Rs 12 lakh per annum to China. The money will be used by Beijing to maintain the station, sources in the government said.
The flood data will be provided twice daily between June and October every year.
US Congress passes contentious Obama tax deal
US lawmakers gave final approval to President Barack Obama’s contentious deal with Republicans to avert a New Year’s tax hike and extend aid to the jobless, despite a Democratic rebellion.
The Senate passed the package by an 81-19 margin, the House of Representatives followed suit 277-148, sending the measure to Obama to sign and reap a restorative bipartisan victory six weeks after an elections rout.
The 858-billion-dollar measure was expected to give the US economy a much-needed boost while digging the country’s deficit and debt deeper, as the world’s richest country emerges from the worst downturn since the 1930s.
Japan shifts post-Cold War defence focus to China, NKorea
Japan would shift its defence focus from the Soviet Cold War threat to southern islands nearerChina, labelling the military build-up of its giant neighbour a global "concern".
Aside from boosting its southern forces and submarine fleet and upgrading its fighter jets, Japan will strengthen missile defences against the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea, it said in a major strategic review.
The cabinet of officially pacifist Japan approved the National Defence Programme Guidelines months after a territorial row flared up with China and weeks after North Korea launched a deadly artillery strike against South Korea.
The new guidelines labelled North Korea, which in recent years has fired missiles over Japan, staged two nuclear tests and last month unveiled a new uranium enrichment plant — an "urgent, grave factor for instability".
India, China relationship is a key milestone defining 21st century: PM
India and China will march together as friends and not rivals in the years to come and stressed while addressing the gathering that partnership between the two countries will be a key milestone in defining 21st century. PM Manmohan Singh Added.
Noting that resolution of the boundary question is one of the ten-pronged strategies agreed by leaders of the two countries, the leaders decided that pending its resolution, the two sides shall work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas in line with the previous agreements.
The two sides also noted the good cooperation between China and India in the field of trans-border rivers with the Indian side appreciating the assistance provided by the Chinese side on the flood-season hydrological data and emergency management.
Underlining their unequivocal opposition to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, the two countries stressed that there is no justification for any act of terrorism anywhere.
UN set to lift some Iraqi sanctions
The UN Security Council is set to take new steps to restore Iraq to the international standing it held before Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, including lifting sanctions that prohibited the country from pursuing a civilian nuclear programme.
The US held the council presidency this month and US Vice-President Joseph Biden was presided at council meeting where American officials added action is also expected to return control of Iraq’s oil and natural gas revenue to the government and terminate all remaining activities of the oil-for-food programme which helped ordinary Iraqis cope with sanctions.
India, China to resolve outstanding differences
In a bid to ease irritants which have creeped in the last one year, India and China reached broad consensus on several issues and pledged firm commitment to resolve outstanding differences, including the boundary issue at the earliest through peaceful negotiations.
"There is enough space in the world for the development of both India and China and indeed, enough areas for India and China to cooperate."
Noting that resolution of the boundary question is one of the ten-pronged strategies agreed by leaders of the two countries, the leaders decided that pending its resolution, the two sides shall work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas in line with the previous agreements.
The two sides also noted the good cooperation between China and India in the field of trans-border rivers with the Indian side appreciating the assistance provided by the Chinese side on the flood-season hydrological data and emergency management.
Indo-China sign six pacts
India and China signed six pacts, including one in the field of green technology, after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Besides the MoU on green technology, the two sides also signed an MoU each on exchange of hydrological data of common rivers, media exchanges and cultural exchanges.
Two pacts were signed in the banking sector. These were an MoU each between Reserve Bank of India and Chinese Bank Regulatory Commission and EXIM Bank of India and Chinese Development Bank
Fund set up for promotion of collaboration in Science & Tech
IT major Infosys Technologies and France based EADS agreed to donate 200,000 euro (about Rs 1.19 crore) to set up a fund that will help students of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Paris Institute of Technology (ParisTech).
"With the donation made by Infosys and EADS of 100,000 euro each that will contribute to the creation of the IITs-ParisTech-Fund for Science and Technology, it is proposed to establish an ambitious tool to strenthen the collaboration between these two groups of eminent institutions in France and in India,"
Out of euro 200,000, 70,000 euro will be used for the undergraduate level and rest will be used for PhD students in India and France.
EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services.
The IITs-ParisTech Internership programme in Science & Technology will provide undergraduate students and postgraduate students opportunity to complete an intership in the partner country within an academaic institution or a company.
The objective is to structure long-term cooperation in education and research between ParisTech and IITs, associating academic and industrial partners.
The objective of the programme is to encourage students to discover Science & Technology in the partner institutions and give them the desire to contribueb for a longer period of time to a joint research project between France and India or to start their professional careers as part of an industrial project between the two countries.
Time readers select Assange as ‘Person of The Year’
Controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is in custody in London on rape charges, has won an online vote to be Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’, amid continuous leak of thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables by his whistle-blower website.
The 39-year-old Australian national secured 382,020 votes, which gave him an easy first place, while US President Barack Obama was in the sixth position with 27,478 votes.
Assange received 148,383 votes more than Recep Tayyip Ergodan, Prime Minister of Turkey, who stood second with a score of 233,638.
Pop star Lady Gaga was third with 146,378 votes, according to the magazine, which said that its editors, who choose the actual ‘Person of the Year’, reserve the right to disagree with the results of the online poll.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was the 2009 Time ‘Person of the Year’.
Richard Holbrooke passes away
Richard Holbrooke (69), President Barack Obama’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, died. Role in Vietnam war.
Mr. Holbrooke’s career both began and ended in the service of American diplomacy trapped within the perimeter of unrelenting wars of occupation. As a young Foreign Service officer he was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Vietnam in 1962, where he served for six years and made important policy contributions for economic development and local political reform. In this posting he was most remembered, however, for lending his expertise to the Paris peace talks of 1968, which ultimately helped end the war.
German medal
In 1994, when Mr. Holbrooke took on the mantle of Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, he headed the negotiation team that was responsible for resolving the Balkan crisis. For the seminal role he played as chief architect of the Dayton Peace Accords, in 1996 Mr. Holbrooke was awarded the Manfred Wörner Medal by the German Ministry of Defence for public figures rendering “special meritorious service to peace and freedom in Europe.”
B’desh to honour 226 Indians for role in 1971 ‘Liberation War’
Bangladesh will honour some 500 foreigners, including 226 Indians, for their crucial support to the country’s 1971 ‘Liberation War’, as it marks the 40th Victory Day anniversary next year.
"The cabinet approved the proposal to accord reception to distinguished foreign nationals and organisations for their extraordinary contribution in our Liberation War."
Samy Vellu to be Malaysia’s Special Envoy to India
Samy Vellu (74), until recently president of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), will be Malaysia’s Special Envoy to India and South Asia for Infrastructure with effect from New Year’s Day 2011.
Announcing his appointment, while releasing his biography at a function in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak praised Samy Vellu for his “connection” with the South Asian countries. “Many Malaysian companies will benefit from his role as a Special Envoy on Infrastructure.”
Singapore hails ties with India
Singapore reaffirmed its “positive” ties with India and other countries which figured in a set of leaked United States’ diplomatic cables on the city-state’s relations with some of its neighbours.
A top Singapore official was quoted, in a cable, as telling U.S. officials in September 2009 that India’s policy towards the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was “stupid” and Japan was a big “loser” in the context of China’s enhancedties with ASEAN. Malaysia and some of its leaders were also seen in poor light in the comments attributed to some Singapore officials, one of whom praised China’s “intelligent diplomacy in the region”.
India to extend ties with Russia in defence, nuclear spheres
India and Russia are likely to sign half-a-dozen agreements, including a long-pending one on co-developing and producing a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA).
Another important agreement will be in the civil nuclear sphere where both sides will seek to fill in more details to the umbrella agreement signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow in December last year. India is willing to shift the Russian nuclear site from West Bengal and a concrete offer in this respect will be made during the visit.
The two sides are also expected to ink pacts in space and trade, the two areas where they have made tentative beginnings but want substantial cooperation to take place.
Sri Lanka scraps Tamil version of its national anthem
Sri Lanka has scrapped the Tamil version of its national anthem at official and state functions, a move likely to further alienate the ethnic Tamils in the country.
Now the national anthem–’Sri Lanka matha….’ can only be rendered in the majority Sinhala language at official functions, the Sri Lankan cabinet decided.
The decision was taken at the last cabinet meeting headed by the President Mahinda Rajapksha, who pointed out that no country in the world uses thenational anthem in other than one language, the ‘Sunday Times’ reported on 12th December, 2010.
“The move will mean that the current Tamil version will no longer be played at any official or state functions”
The Sinhala version is widely used across the country except for the north and east where a majority speaks Tamil.
“A directive to use only the Sinhala version is to be sent out by the Ministry of Public Administration.
Govt approves signing pact for TAPI gas pipeline project
The govt has approved signing of agreements to import natural gas through the US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, whose terms are far less stringent than those it had set for another proposed pipeline involving Iran.
In a major departure from its previously stated policy of the seller delivering the gas at its border, India has agreed to take custody of the gas at Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border and will rely on an international consortium for safe transfer of the fuel through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
While negotiating a similar project to import gas from Iran via Pakistan through a pipeline that would have been shorter, cost cheaper and easier to build, India had insisted that Tehran take the responsibility of safe passage of gas through Pakistan.
No talks have taken place for the Iran-Pakistan-India pipleline in the last few years.
Besides, in the TAPI pipleline project, Turkmenistan is not agreeable to making up for any shortfall or disruption in gas supplies.
New Delhi had previously raised security and financing concerns over Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline but appears to be satisfied about the line from Turkmenistan that would not just pass through Pakistan but also Afghanistan.
The TAPI pipeline is backed by Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the External Affairs Ministry sees it as an opportunity to project India’s commitment to Afghanistan.
Turkmenistan will supply gas from its South Yoloten-Osman field and state-owned gas utility GAIL India will enter into a Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) with the Central Asian country’s national oil firm Turkmengaz later.
China reveals world’s fastest train
China played host to railway authorities and railway experts from around the world in Beijing , and used the opportunity to showcase a high-speed train that clocked the fastest ever speed in a test run last week.
In the spotlight is the 16-car CRH380A, a new generation of high-speed train which Chinese Ministry of Railways officials say recorded a top speed of 486.1 kilometers per hour on 9th December, 2010, far exceeding Japan’s bullet trains.
Chinese railway officials say the CRH380A, designed to operate at a cruising speed of 380 kph, is the fastest train in operation in the world on 9th December, 2010.
China is reportedly in the process of developing a super high-speed train that can run at 600 kph.
China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp., which designed the CRH380A, was clearly the focus attention as foreign railway experts toured an international exhibition of railway technology organised by the Ministry of Railways on the sidelines of a world congress on high speed rail.
China boasts the world’s longest high-speed railway network, which totals 7,531 km, and Chinese railway officials say the country plans to expand the system to 16,000 km by 2020.
India to attend Nobel night for Chinese dissident
India has decided to attend the ceremony where the Nobel Peace Prize will be presented to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in Oslo on 10th December, 2010, notwithstanding China’s call for a boycott of the function.
Although China has called upon all countries, including India to keep away from the ceremony, New Delhi does not see it as a bilateral issue with Beijing, official sources said.
India is among 44 countries which has confirmed its participation as against 19 countries, including Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Columbia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam and Afghanistan which have for various reasons declined the invitation.
The sources said the country’s representation will be at the same level as in the past at the ceremony.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London & refused bail
The founder of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been refused bail by a court in London but vowed to fight extradition to Sweden.
Mr Assange denies sexually assaulting two women in Sweden. He was remanded in custody pending a hearing next week.
A judge at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court refused bail because of the risk of the 39-year-old fleeing.
A Wikileaks spokesman said the arrest was an attack on media freedom and pledged to continue publishing.
After the court appearance Mr Assange’s lawyer Mark Stephens said he would be applying again for bail.
He claimed the charges were “politically motivated” and said the judge was keen to see the evidence against Mr Assange, an Australian citizen.
Mr Stephens said Wikileaks would continue to publish material and added: “We are on cable 301 and there are 250,000 secret cables.”
Wikileaks’ Visa payments suspended
Visa Europe has begun suspending payments to whistle-blowing website Wikileaks ahead of carrying out an investigation into the organisation.
It follows a similar move by rival payments processor Mastercard on 7th December, 2010.
Visa’s announcement comes after Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange was arrested by police in London.
Mr Assange, whose website has published secret documents, is wanted in Sweden on sexual assault allegations.
Wikileaks relies on online donations to fund its operations, which will now not be possible using both Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards.
Online payment firm PayPal and internet giant Amazon have also cut their links with Wikileaks in recent days.
Wikileaks: Swiss bank freezes Julian Assange’s account
The Swiss post office’s bank, PostFinance, has frozen the accounts of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
The whistle-blowing website says the freeze includes a defence fund and personal assets worth 31,000 euros.
Wikileaks has published hundreds of secret US diplomatic cables, angering the US government and triggering moves by several companies including PayPal and Amazon to end their services.
Meanwhile, a warrant for Mr Assange’s arrest has reached the UK authorities.
Sources have told that the European Arrest Warrant for Mr Assange arrived on 6th December, 2010 afternoon.
Swedish prosecutors want to question Mr Assange in connection with allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion, which he denies.
He is believed to be in hiding somewhere in south-east England. Once the police have located him, he would be expected to appear at a magistrate’s court within 24 hours, pending extradition to Sweden.
Top Chinese officials led Google hacking: WikiLeaks
The hacking of Google Inc that led the Internet Company to briefly pull out of China was orchestrated by two members of China’s top ruling body, according to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks and cited by The New York Times on 4th December 2010.
Citing the cables, the Times said China made repeated and often successful hacking attacks on the US government, private enterprises and Western allies as far back as 2002.
Google, the world’s top Internet search engine, closed its China-based search service in March, two months after it had said it would stop censoring search results in response to what it said was a sophisticated cyber attack that it traced to China and increasing limits on freedom of expression.
The dispute was resolved in July after Google tweaked the way it directs users to an unfiltered search engine.
The Times quoted one cable dated earlier this year as saying: “A well-placed contact claims that the Chinese government coordinated the recent intrusions of Google systems. According to our contact, the closely held operations were directed at the Politburo Standing Committee level.”
The cables did not make clear how the cyber attacks blamed on China were coordinated, the Times said, and “the cables also appear to contain some suppositions by Chinese and Americans passed along by diplomats.”
The paper added that the cable quoted the contact as saying the hacking of Google “had been coordinated out of the State Council Information Office with the oversight” of two members of the Communist Party’s Politburo: Li Changchun and Zhou Yongkang. It said Zhou isChina’s top security official.
WikiLeaks diverts to European websites amid US fury
WikiLeaks directed readers to a web address in Switzerland on 3rd December, 2010 after two U.S. Internet providers ditched it in the space of two days, and Paris tried to ban French servers from hosting its trove of leaked data.
The Internet publisher directed users to www.wikileaks.ch after the wikileaks.org site on which it had published classified U.S. government information vanished from view for about six hours.
A Dutch- and a German-based site, www.wikileaks.nl and www.wikileaks.de , were also giving readers access to the leaked documents.
EveryDNS.net, which helps computers to locate the sites of its members, said it had stopped providing services to WikiLeaks at 2200 U.S. Eastern time on 3rd December.
WikiLeaks had turned to EveryDNS and host servers in Europe after Amazon.com stopped hosting the site on 2nd December, 2010.
The United States is furious about WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of confidential diplomatic cables that have given unvarnished and sometimes embarrassing insights into the foreign policy of the United States and its allies.
India, China making ‘steady progress’ on border dispute: Menon
India and China concluded their 14th round of Special Representatives border talks, with both sides agreeing to seek a “fair deal” as they made “steady progress” on a framework to resolve the long-running boundary dispute.
Menon and Dai discussed the whole gamut of issues bedeviling the two countries, including the resumption of defence exchanges put on hold by India following denial of visa to a top Indian General B S Jaswal.
Menon declined to go into details of the progress made during the border talks, citingsensitivities involved.
India, B’desh sign crucial transshipment agreement
India and Bangladesh have signed a crucial deal to allow Indian heavy equipment to be transshipped to its landlocked northeastern Tripura state for a proposed power plant through Bangladeshi territory, officials said.
Roads & Highways chief engineer Azizur Rahman and India’s Oil and Natural gas Corporation’s senior adviser R K Madan signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which would allowIndia to transport heavy equipment for its proposed Palatana Power Plant in Tripura in 96 consignments throughBangladesh.
India provides assistance to boost agriculture in Sri Lanka
India has provided seeds and 500 tractors to Sri Lanka to boost agriculture in the neighbouring country, Parliament was informed.
India has also gifted 95,000 agricultural starters packs for reviving the livelihood activities of returning Internally Displaced Persons in Northern Sri Lanka.
A six-member delegation was sent to the island country in September 2009 for a detailed discussion for setting up of an Institute of Agricultural Transformation.
US in damage control, welcomes global leadership role for India
The US said it welcomes a greater global leadership role for India, two days after its Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remark describing India as a “self-appointed front-runner” for a permanent UNSC seat was leaked.
As part of its massive leak of a quarter million classified documents of the US government, the website released a “secret” cable issued by Clinton where she has described India as a “self-appointed front-runner” for a permanent UNSC seat.
She had also directed US envoys to seek minute details about Indian diplomats stationed at the United Nations headquarters, according to classified documents released by WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks cables expose Pakistan nuclear fears
U.S. and U.K. diplomats warn of terrorists getting hold of fissile material and of Pakistan-India nuclear exchange.
American and British diplomats fear Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme could lead to fissile material falling into the hands of terrorists or a devastating nuclear exchange with India.
The latest cache of U.S. embassy cables released by WikiLeaks contains
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder and editor-in-chief, has commended The Hindu in an interviewto Business Standard published on 21st December, 2010.
In the interview given at Suffolk, the United Kingdom, Mr. Assange spoke of his impression of the Indian media. “Well, there are some very great little journalistic groups in India. [The] Hindu, [The] Times [of India] have been quite good… some of their material. In my dealings with Indians, there is such an incredible potential in the Indian media, because there is still a lot of corruption.
On the other hand, journalism is quite vibrant in the medium and lower level. You have a rising middle class. You have more people getting access to the Internet. So, I am quite hopeful of about what is going to develop in India,” he was quoted as saying.
Chinese media knocks off 1,600 km from China-India border
China appears to be making ground for claiming some 1,600 km of Indian territory judging by reports in the state-owned media on the length of China-India border.
Even as the two countries have been discussing the unresolved boundary issue for decades, the state-owned Xinhua and ‘ Global Times ., an English language newspaper published by the ‘People’s Daily’, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, have described the China-India border as nearly 2,000 km long.
The reports about the length of the border were carried in the Chinese official media ahead of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s December 15-17 visit to India.
Xinhua on the eve of Wen’s arrival in New Delhi had said the length of the border was nearly 2,000 km long.
This Chinese assessment contradicts the Indian figure of 3,500 km for the operational border between the two nations.
The Chinese premier was sharply critical of the Indian media, saying it was causing “damage” to bilateral ties.
India gears up to serve in Security Council with new outlook
India is gearing up to serve the powerful UN Security Council as a non-permanent member after a gap of 19 years with a fresh outlook on several international issues, especially human rights.
India will return to the Security Council on January 1, 2011 for a two-year period along with South Africa, Colombia, Germany and Portugal.
China to provide flood data ofSutlej river to India
China will provide India with real time flood data of Sutlejriver during monsoon, according to an agreement signed between the two countries.
Under the five year agreement,China will set up a special station in Tibet to monitor rainfall and flood situation to enable India get advanced warnings.
In turn, India will pay Rs 12 lakh per annum to China. The money will be used by Beijing to maintain the station, sources in the government said.
The flood data will be provided twice daily between June and October every year.
US Congress passes contentious Obama tax deal
US lawmakers gave final approval to President Barack Obama’s contentious deal with Republicans to avert a New Year’s tax hike and extend aid to the jobless, despite a Democratic rebellion.
The Senate passed the package by an 81-19 margin, the House of Representatives followed suit 277-148, sending the measure to Obama to sign and reap a restorative bipartisan victory six weeks after an elections rout.
The 858-billion-dollar measure was expected to give the US economy a much-needed boost while digging the country’s deficit and debt deeper, as the world’s richest country emerges from the worst downturn since the 1930s.
Japan shifts post-Cold War defence focus to China, NKorea
Japan would shift its defence focus from the Soviet Cold War threat to southern islands nearerChina, labelling the military build-up of its giant neighbour a global "concern".
Aside from boosting its southern forces and submarine fleet and upgrading its fighter jets, Japan will strengthen missile defences against the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea, it said in a major strategic review.
The cabinet of officially pacifist Japan approved the National Defence Programme Guidelines months after a territorial row flared up with China and weeks after North Korea launched a deadly artillery strike against South Korea.
The new guidelines labelled North Korea, which in recent years has fired missiles over Japan, staged two nuclear tests and last month unveiled a new uranium enrichment plant — an "urgent, grave factor for instability".
India, China relationship is a key milestone defining 21st century: PM
India and China will march together as friends and not rivals in the years to come and stressed while addressing the gathering that partnership between the two countries will be a key milestone in defining 21st century. PM Manmohan Singh Added.
Noting that resolution of the boundary question is one of the ten-pronged strategies agreed by leaders of the two countries, the leaders decided that pending its resolution, the two sides shall work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas in line with the previous agreements.
The two sides also noted the good cooperation between China and India in the field of trans-border rivers with the Indian side appreciating the assistance provided by the Chinese side on the flood-season hydrological data and emergency management.
Underlining their unequivocal opposition to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, the two countries stressed that there is no justification for any act of terrorism anywhere.
UN set to lift some Iraqi sanctions
The UN Security Council is set to take new steps to restore Iraq to the international standing it held before Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, including lifting sanctions that prohibited the country from pursuing a civilian nuclear programme.
The US held the council presidency this month and US Vice-President Joseph Biden was presided at council meeting where American officials added action is also expected to return control of Iraq’s oil and natural gas revenue to the government and terminate all remaining activities of the oil-for-food programme which helped ordinary Iraqis cope with sanctions.
India, China to resolve outstanding differences
In a bid to ease irritants which have creeped in the last one year, India and China reached broad consensus on several issues and pledged firm commitment to resolve outstanding differences, including the boundary issue at the earliest through peaceful negotiations.
"There is enough space in the world for the development of both India and China and indeed, enough areas for India and China to cooperate."
Noting that resolution of the boundary question is one of the ten-pronged strategies agreed by leaders of the two countries, the leaders decided that pending its resolution, the two sides shall work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas in line with the previous agreements.
The two sides also noted the good cooperation between China and India in the field of trans-border rivers with the Indian side appreciating the assistance provided by the Chinese side on the flood-season hydrological data and emergency management.
Indo-China sign six pacts
India and China signed six pacts, including one in the field of green technology, after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Besides the MoU on green technology, the two sides also signed an MoU each on exchange of hydrological data of common rivers, media exchanges and cultural exchanges.
Two pacts were signed in the banking sector. These were an MoU each between Reserve Bank of India and Chinese Bank Regulatory Commission and EXIM Bank of India and Chinese Development Bank
Fund set up for promotion of collaboration in Science & Tech
IT major Infosys Technologies and France based EADS agreed to donate 200,000 euro (about Rs 1.19 crore) to set up a fund that will help students of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Paris Institute of Technology (ParisTech).
"With the donation made by Infosys and EADS of 100,000 euro each that will contribute to the creation of the IITs-ParisTech-Fund for Science and Technology, it is proposed to establish an ambitious tool to strenthen the collaboration between these two groups of eminent institutions in France and in India,"
Out of euro 200,000, 70,000 euro will be used for the undergraduate level and rest will be used for PhD students in India and France.
EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services.
The IITs-ParisTech Internership programme in Science & Technology will provide undergraduate students and postgraduate students opportunity to complete an intership in the partner country within an academaic institution or a company.
The objective is to structure long-term cooperation in education and research between ParisTech and IITs, associating academic and industrial partners.
The objective of the programme is to encourage students to discover Science & Technology in the partner institutions and give them the desire to contribueb for a longer period of time to a joint research project between France and India or to start their professional careers as part of an industrial project between the two countries.
Time readers select Assange as ‘Person of The Year’
Controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is in custody in London on rape charges, has won an online vote to be Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’, amid continuous leak of thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables by his whistle-blower website.
The 39-year-old Australian national secured 382,020 votes, which gave him an easy first place, while US President Barack Obama was in the sixth position with 27,478 votes.
Assange received 148,383 votes more than Recep Tayyip Ergodan, Prime Minister of Turkey, who stood second with a score of 233,638.
Pop star Lady Gaga was third with 146,378 votes, according to the magazine, which said that its editors, who choose the actual ‘Person of the Year’, reserve the right to disagree with the results of the online poll.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was the 2009 Time ‘Person of the Year’.
Richard Holbrooke passes away
Richard Holbrooke (69), President Barack Obama’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, died. Role in Vietnam war.
Mr. Holbrooke’s career both began and ended in the service of American diplomacy trapped within the perimeter of unrelenting wars of occupation. As a young Foreign Service officer he was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Vietnam in 1962, where he served for six years and made important policy contributions for economic development and local political reform. In this posting he was most remembered, however, for lending his expertise to the Paris peace talks of 1968, which ultimately helped end the war.
German medal
In 1994, when Mr. Holbrooke took on the mantle of Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, he headed the negotiation team that was responsible for resolving the Balkan crisis. For the seminal role he played as chief architect of the Dayton Peace Accords, in 1996 Mr. Holbrooke was awarded the Manfred Wörner Medal by the German Ministry of Defence for public figures rendering “special meritorious service to peace and freedom in Europe.”
B’desh to honour 226 Indians for role in 1971 ‘Liberation War’
Bangladesh will honour some 500 foreigners, including 226 Indians, for their crucial support to the country’s 1971 ‘Liberation War’, as it marks the 40th Victory Day anniversary next year.
"The cabinet approved the proposal to accord reception to distinguished foreign nationals and organisations for their extraordinary contribution in our Liberation War."
Samy Vellu to be Malaysia’s Special Envoy to India
Samy Vellu (74), until recently president of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), will be Malaysia’s Special Envoy to India and South Asia for Infrastructure with effect from New Year’s Day 2011.
Announcing his appointment, while releasing his biography at a function in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak praised Samy Vellu for his “connection” with the South Asian countries. “Many Malaysian companies will benefit from his role as a Special Envoy on Infrastructure.”
Singapore hails ties with India
Singapore reaffirmed its “positive” ties with India and other countries which figured in a set of leaked United States’ diplomatic cables on the city-state’s relations with some of its neighbours.
A top Singapore official was quoted, in a cable, as telling U.S. officials in September 2009 that India’s policy towards the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was “stupid” and Japan was a big “loser” in the context of China’s enhancedties with ASEAN. Malaysia and some of its leaders were also seen in poor light in the comments attributed to some Singapore officials, one of whom praised China’s “intelligent diplomacy in the region”.
India to extend ties with Russia in defence, nuclear spheres
India and Russia are likely to sign half-a-dozen agreements, including a long-pending one on co-developing and producing a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA).
Another important agreement will be in the civil nuclear sphere where both sides will seek to fill in more details to the umbrella agreement signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow in December last year. India is willing to shift the Russian nuclear site from West Bengal and a concrete offer in this respect will be made during the visit.
The two sides are also expected to ink pacts in space and trade, the two areas where they have made tentative beginnings but want substantial cooperation to take place.
Sri Lanka scraps Tamil version of its national anthem
Sri Lanka has scrapped the Tamil version of its national anthem at official and state functions, a move likely to further alienate the ethnic Tamils in the country.
Now the national anthem–’Sri Lanka matha….’ can only be rendered in the majority Sinhala language at official functions, the Sri Lankan cabinet decided.
The decision was taken at the last cabinet meeting headed by the President Mahinda Rajapksha, who pointed out that no country in the world uses thenational anthem in other than one language, the ‘Sunday Times’ reported on 12th December, 2010.
“The move will mean that the current Tamil version will no longer be played at any official or state functions”
The Sinhala version is widely used across the country except for the north and east where a majority speaks Tamil.
“A directive to use only the Sinhala version is to be sent out by the Ministry of Public Administration.
Govt approves signing pact for TAPI gas pipeline project
The govt has approved signing of agreements to import natural gas through the US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, whose terms are far less stringent than those it had set for another proposed pipeline involving Iran.
In a major departure from its previously stated policy of the seller delivering the gas at its border, India has agreed to take custody of the gas at Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border and will rely on an international consortium for safe transfer of the fuel through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
While negotiating a similar project to import gas from Iran via Pakistan through a pipeline that would have been shorter, cost cheaper and easier to build, India had insisted that Tehran take the responsibility of safe passage of gas through Pakistan.
No talks have taken place for the Iran-Pakistan-India pipleline in the last few years.
Besides, in the TAPI pipleline project, Turkmenistan is not agreeable to making up for any shortfall or disruption in gas supplies.
New Delhi had previously raised security and financing concerns over Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline but appears to be satisfied about the line from Turkmenistan that would not just pass through Pakistan but also Afghanistan.
The TAPI pipeline is backed by Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the External Affairs Ministry sees it as an opportunity to project India’s commitment to Afghanistan.
Turkmenistan will supply gas from its South Yoloten-Osman field and state-owned gas utility GAIL India will enter into a Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) with the Central Asian country’s national oil firm Turkmengaz later.
China reveals world’s fastest train
China played host to railway authorities and railway experts from around the world in Beijing , and used the opportunity to showcase a high-speed train that clocked the fastest ever speed in a test run last week.
In the spotlight is the 16-car CRH380A, a new generation of high-speed train which Chinese Ministry of Railways officials say recorded a top speed of 486.1 kilometers per hour on 9th December, 2010, far exceeding Japan’s bullet trains.
Chinese railway officials say the CRH380A, designed to operate at a cruising speed of 380 kph, is the fastest train in operation in the world on 9th December, 2010.
China is reportedly in the process of developing a super high-speed train that can run at 600 kph.
China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp., which designed the CRH380A, was clearly the focus attention as foreign railway experts toured an international exhibition of railway technology organised by the Ministry of Railways on the sidelines of a world congress on high speed rail.
China boasts the world’s longest high-speed railway network, which totals 7,531 km, and Chinese railway officials say the country plans to expand the system to 16,000 km by 2020.
India to attend Nobel night for Chinese dissident
India has decided to attend the ceremony where the Nobel Peace Prize will be presented to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in Oslo on 10th December, 2010, notwithstanding China’s call for a boycott of the function.
Although China has called upon all countries, including India to keep away from the ceremony, New Delhi does not see it as a bilateral issue with Beijing, official sources said.
India is among 44 countries which has confirmed its participation as against 19 countries, including Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Columbia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam and Afghanistan which have for various reasons declined the invitation.
The sources said the country’s representation will be at the same level as in the past at the ceremony.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London & refused bail
The founder of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been refused bail by a court in London but vowed to fight extradition to Sweden.
Mr Assange denies sexually assaulting two women in Sweden. He was remanded in custody pending a hearing next week.
A judge at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court refused bail because of the risk of the 39-year-old fleeing.
A Wikileaks spokesman said the arrest was an attack on media freedom and pledged to continue publishing.
After the court appearance Mr Assange’s lawyer Mark Stephens said he would be applying again for bail.
He claimed the charges were “politically motivated” and said the judge was keen to see the evidence against Mr Assange, an Australian citizen.
Mr Stephens said Wikileaks would continue to publish material and added: “We are on cable 301 and there are 250,000 secret cables.”
Wikileaks’ Visa payments suspended
Visa Europe has begun suspending payments to whistle-blowing website Wikileaks ahead of carrying out an investigation into the organisation.
It follows a similar move by rival payments processor Mastercard on 7th December, 2010.
Visa’s announcement comes after Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange was arrested by police in London.
Mr Assange, whose website has published secret documents, is wanted in Sweden on sexual assault allegations.
Wikileaks relies on online donations to fund its operations, which will now not be possible using both Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards.
Online payment firm PayPal and internet giant Amazon have also cut their links with Wikileaks in recent days.
Wikileaks: Swiss bank freezes Julian Assange’s account
The Swiss post office’s bank, PostFinance, has frozen the accounts of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
The whistle-blowing website says the freeze includes a defence fund and personal assets worth 31,000 euros.
Wikileaks has published hundreds of secret US diplomatic cables, angering the US government and triggering moves by several companies including PayPal and Amazon to end their services.
Meanwhile, a warrant for Mr Assange’s arrest has reached the UK authorities.
Sources have told that the European Arrest Warrant for Mr Assange arrived on 6th December, 2010 afternoon.
Swedish prosecutors want to question Mr Assange in connection with allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion, which he denies.
He is believed to be in hiding somewhere in south-east England. Once the police have located him, he would be expected to appear at a magistrate’s court within 24 hours, pending extradition to Sweden.
Top Chinese officials led Google hacking: WikiLeaks
The hacking of Google Inc that led the Internet Company to briefly pull out of China was orchestrated by two members of China’s top ruling body, according to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks and cited by The New York Times on 4th December 2010.
Citing the cables, the Times said China made repeated and often successful hacking attacks on the US government, private enterprises and Western allies as far back as 2002.
Google, the world’s top Internet search engine, closed its China-based search service in March, two months after it had said it would stop censoring search results in response to what it said was a sophisticated cyber attack that it traced to China and increasing limits on freedom of expression.
The dispute was resolved in July after Google tweaked the way it directs users to an unfiltered search engine.
The Times quoted one cable dated earlier this year as saying: “A well-placed contact claims that the Chinese government coordinated the recent intrusions of Google systems. According to our contact, the closely held operations were directed at the Politburo Standing Committee level.”
The cables did not make clear how the cyber attacks blamed on China were coordinated, the Times said, and “the cables also appear to contain some suppositions by Chinese and Americans passed along by diplomats.”
The paper added that the cable quoted the contact as saying the hacking of Google “had been coordinated out of the State Council Information Office with the oversight” of two members of the Communist Party’s Politburo: Li Changchun and Zhou Yongkang. It said Zhou isChina’s top security official.
WikiLeaks diverts to European websites amid US fury
WikiLeaks directed readers to a web address in Switzerland on 3rd December, 2010 after two U.S. Internet providers ditched it in the space of two days, and Paris tried to ban French servers from hosting its trove of leaked data.
The Internet publisher directed users to www.wikileaks.ch after the wikileaks.org site on which it had published classified U.S. government information vanished from view for about six hours.
A Dutch- and a German-based site, www.wikileaks.nl and www.wikileaks.de , were also giving readers access to the leaked documents.
EveryDNS.net, which helps computers to locate the sites of its members, said it had stopped providing services to WikiLeaks at 2200 U.S. Eastern time on 3rd December.
WikiLeaks had turned to EveryDNS and host servers in Europe after Amazon.com stopped hosting the site on 2nd December, 2010.
The United States is furious about WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of confidential diplomatic cables that have given unvarnished and sometimes embarrassing insights into the foreign policy of the United States and its allies.
India, China making ‘steady progress’ on border dispute: Menon
India and China concluded their 14th round of Special Representatives border talks, with both sides agreeing to seek a “fair deal” as they made “steady progress” on a framework to resolve the long-running boundary dispute.
Menon and Dai discussed the whole gamut of issues bedeviling the two countries, including the resumption of defence exchanges put on hold by India following denial of visa to a top Indian General B S Jaswal.
Menon declined to go into details of the progress made during the border talks, citingsensitivities involved.
India, B’desh sign crucial transshipment agreement
India and Bangladesh have signed a crucial deal to allow Indian heavy equipment to be transshipped to its landlocked northeastern Tripura state for a proposed power plant through Bangladeshi territory, officials said.
Roads & Highways chief engineer Azizur Rahman and India’s Oil and Natural gas Corporation’s senior adviser R K Madan signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which would allowIndia to transport heavy equipment for its proposed Palatana Power Plant in Tripura in 96 consignments throughBangladesh.
India provides assistance to boost agriculture in Sri Lanka
India has provided seeds and 500 tractors to Sri Lanka to boost agriculture in the neighbouring country, Parliament was informed.
India has also gifted 95,000 agricultural starters packs for reviving the livelihood activities of returning Internally Displaced Persons in Northern Sri Lanka.
A six-member delegation was sent to the island country in September 2009 for a detailed discussion for setting up of an Institute of Agricultural Transformation.
US in damage control, welcomes global leadership role for India
The US said it welcomes a greater global leadership role for India, two days after its Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remark describing India as a “self-appointed front-runner” for a permanent UNSC seat was leaked.
As part of its massive leak of a quarter million classified documents of the US government, the website released a “secret” cable issued by Clinton where she has described India as a “self-appointed front-runner” for a permanent UNSC seat.
She had also directed US envoys to seek minute details about Indian diplomats stationed at the United Nations headquarters, according to classified documents released by WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks cables expose Pakistan nuclear fears
U.S. and U.K. diplomats warn of terrorists getting hold of fissile material and of Pakistan-India nuclear exchange.
American and British diplomats fear Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme could lead to fissile material falling into the hands of terrorists or a devastating nuclear exchange with India.
The latest cache of U.S. embassy cables released by WikiLeaks contains
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
I.A.S. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PAPER 1 2009 SOLVED CONTINUED
Field of Administration is field of business
The source of answer for this is from 2 books namely Prasad and Prasad and Nicholas henry ..
P&P u would have seen the corresponding reference ..Nicholas henry gives reasons why at all Public Administration dichotomy was supported in initial era .. ( a new branch and so had to support its cause diff from political science and especially during great depression , and the foundation for the principles era ..principles can develop only when u say its based on facts )
The source of answer for this is from 2 books namely Prasad and Prasad and Nicholas henry ..
P&P u would have seen the corresponding reference ..Nicholas henry gives reasons why at all Public Administration dichotomy was supported in initial era .. ( a new branch and so had to support its cause diff from political science and especially during great depression , and the foundation for the principles era ..principles can develop only when u say its based on facts )
I.A.S. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PAPER 1 2009 SOLVED CONTINUED
the field of public administration is a field of business (woodrow wilson)
The statement is in the context of late 19th century USA, when spoils system was prevalent, but voices for career bureaucracy were being raised. Woodrow Wilson emphasized the need for a separate field of study for public administration, separate from political science. Political science focussed its activity on the forms of government and policies. Public administration was thought to be a clerical work.
According to Wilson, it is getting difficult to run a constitution, than to frame one. Running the constitution means implementing the policies of the government. The policies were well laid, but the implementation was not efficient, and less effective. No matter how good the policy is, it is only as good as implemented. There was a need to study the field of public administration separately from the field of political science, as it was realized that question of public administration are not questions of political science.
The need was to make the business of government less unbusiness like. The principles of efficiency and economy were to be applied to the government administration, as well applied to the field if business. Thus the field of public administration, according to Wilson, is a field of business, as different from the field of political science.
There was a need to have science of public administration, where principles could be evolved, and applied to the practice of government administration. The public administration is no more to be done as clerical work, it requires more skills, similar to those required in the administration of private business.
But this similarity of the two administrations need not be taken too far, as their are many significant differences in public and private administrations. They differ in purpose, loyalty, exposure, environment setting and other aspects. The purpose of private administartion is profit, whereas that of public administration is pubic service.Private administrators are loyal to the owner of the orgabisation, whereas the public administration should orient their loyalty to citizenry in general, and elected political representatives in particular. Public administration is running on public money, and so its methods and techniques are exposed to the scrutiny of the public in general. Public administration works in the overall constitutional setting and political environment, whereas private administration works in the market environment.
Nevertheless, at that time of history, there was a need to make the public administration adopt certain practices of business administration. And so Wilson's remark was valid, and well received. Wilson is known as the father of public administration, for his contribution in carving out a separate field of public administration, separate from political science.
Currently, the situation is more complex. After many phases of public administration, and particularly after New Public Management, it has borrowed a lot from the private administration. It is collaborating with the private administration in the form of public private participation. The boudary between the two is getting blurred when it comes to developmental functions. Still public adminstration has maintained its separate identity from when it comes to critical functions, and welfare functions where private administration leaves a gap.
The statement is in the context of late 19th century USA, when spoils system was prevalent, but voices for career bureaucracy were being raised. Woodrow Wilson emphasized the need for a separate field of study for public administration, separate from political science. Political science focussed its activity on the forms of government and policies. Public administration was thought to be a clerical work.
According to Wilson, it is getting difficult to run a constitution, than to frame one. Running the constitution means implementing the policies of the government. The policies were well laid, but the implementation was not efficient, and less effective. No matter how good the policy is, it is only as good as implemented. There was a need to study the field of public administration separately from the field of political science, as it was realized that question of public administration are not questions of political science.
The need was to make the business of government less unbusiness like. The principles of efficiency and economy were to be applied to the government administration, as well applied to the field if business. Thus the field of public administration, according to Wilson, is a field of business, as different from the field of political science.
There was a need to have science of public administration, where principles could be evolved, and applied to the practice of government administration. The public administration is no more to be done as clerical work, it requires more skills, similar to those required in the administration of private business.
But this similarity of the two administrations need not be taken too far, as their are many significant differences in public and private administrations. They differ in purpose, loyalty, exposure, environment setting and other aspects. The purpose of private administartion is profit, whereas that of public administration is pubic service.Private administrators are loyal to the owner of the orgabisation, whereas the public administration should orient their loyalty to citizenry in general, and elected political representatives in particular. Public administration is running on public money, and so its methods and techniques are exposed to the scrutiny of the public in general. Public administration works in the overall constitutional setting and political environment, whereas private administration works in the market environment.
Nevertheless, at that time of history, there was a need to make the public administration adopt certain practices of business administration. And so Wilson's remark was valid, and well received. Wilson is known as the father of public administration, for his contribution in carving out a separate field of public administration, separate from political science.
Currently, the situation is more complex. After many phases of public administration, and particularly after New Public Management, it has borrowed a lot from the private administration. It is collaborating with the private administration in the form of public private participation. The boudary between the two is getting blurred when it comes to developmental functions. Still public adminstration has maintained its separate identity from when it comes to critical functions, and welfare functions where private administration leaves a gap.
I.A.S. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PAPER 1 2009 SOLVED
Quote:
Q. 1/c) taylor's contribution was not a set of general principles fpr organising work efficiency, but a set of operating procedures that could be employed in wach concentrate situation to secure their application.
Unlike Chester Barnard (who is criticized for having 'abstractness of presentation')
Or Maslow (who's hierarchy of needs can't be turned into a practice guideline for managers.)
Taylor doesn't just stop after giving a general principle. but gives detailed instructions & procedures on how exactly should that principle be implemented?
for example.
[top]
scientific selection of right men for right job
Here Taylor gives the 'specific operating procedures'->
Who is fit to handle pig iron ?
he shall be stupid , so phlegmatic that he nearly resembles in his mental makeup ox. (= select dumb people for manual labor.)
there is work for each type of man, dry horse & trotting horse.
There is no type of work however that suits all types of man”
Another general principle given by him
[top]Finding One best way of doing the work, replacing the old 'Rule of thumb'
But how exactly should we find that 'one best way of doing it?'
he again gives procedure :
gather mass of traditional knowledge
record it
Tabulate it
reduce it to laws rules, & mathematical formula.
Q. 1/c) taylor's contribution was not a set of general principles fpr organising work efficiency, but a set of operating procedures that could be employed in wach concentrate situation to secure their application.
Unlike Chester Barnard (who is criticized for having 'abstractness of presentation')
Or Maslow (who's hierarchy of needs can't be turned into a practice guideline for managers.)
Taylor doesn't just stop after giving a general principle. but gives detailed instructions & procedures on how exactly should that principle be implemented?
for example.
[top]
scientific selection of right men for right job
Here Taylor gives the 'specific operating procedures'->
Who is fit to handle pig iron ?
he shall be stupid , so phlegmatic that he nearly resembles in his mental makeup ox. (= select dumb people for manual labor.)
there is work for each type of man, dry horse & trotting horse.
There is no type of work however that suits all types of man”
Another general principle given by him
[top]Finding One best way of doing the work, replacing the old 'Rule of thumb'
But how exactly should we find that 'one best way of doing it?'
he again gives procedure :
gather mass of traditional knowledge
record it
Tabulate it
reduce it to laws rules, & mathematical formula.
I .A. S . PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PAPER 1 2009 SOLVED
Instructions :
candidates should attempt que.no.1 & 5 which are compulsory & any 3 of the remaining questions selecting atleast 1 question from each section.
1. comment on any 3 of the following statements not more than 200 words each :
a) the field of public administration is a field of business (woodrow wilson)
- woodrow wilson is regarded as father of public administration as he emphasized the need for a separate study of p.a. he also indicated the nature of this study & the lines along which it should be developed . this was his vision of p.a. his ideas are contained in his seminal 1887 essay "the study of administraiton" which is seen as the beginning of the discipline of p.a.
context of Wilson's Ideas :
Wilson's ideas have to be seen as a part of the movement to reform the civil serice of america that began in 1883 with the pendleton act.
Wilson's Vision On P.A :
wilson called for & laid the foundation of a systematic study of a administration.
the major elements are :
- there should be a separate study of administration.
- such study should be a science
- he outlined the perspective for the new science.
- he outlined the suject-matter of the new science
- he indicated methedology for the science
NAture of administration :
- for wilson administraiton menat detailed & systematic execution of law
- it consisted of application of cases, of general laws.
- he talked & related administraiton with politics
- wilson beleived administration & politics are separate aspects of government.
- he laid the foundation of politics-administraiton dichotomy system of governance.
- the foundations of administration for him were the principles of politics.
- he was aware that radical distinction between these 2 would lead to the creation of bureaucratic ellite.
- finally, he thought he disagreed with interference of the general acknowledge public opinon as a valuable control on the bureaucracy. b) he believed that , especially in democracies, administration had to be responsive to the public opinion.
Wilson's View P.A. Linked to Business.Administration :
- wilson made & linked p.a. to business administraiton.
- this is because he felt even business was separate from politics.
- this has been interpreted as wilson regarding public & private administraton to be the & thus calling for a generic science of administration.
- he called for public administration taking the technology of administration used by private sector as also its central concerns of eeficiency, economy & effectiveness.
- while saying that 'administraiton is business' wilson also understood the wider & indepth agenda of p.a.
- later on he said p.a. should be business-like, but not a business.
- p.a. is an organis life he said.
Need for Separate Study :
having defined administraiton as execution of policies he said that such a function was relatively simpler to 19th c. but now sowety becoming complex through forces as growing trade & commerce the functions of administration had multiplied & had become more complex & difficult.
- he also gave reasons for such neglected by a political science as:
* america being a democracy; government was subject to popular control. thus administration was limited in scope, in keeping with liberation.
- unlike europe, government was not a monopolist in america.
- there was no consunsual american public opinion, no need for agenda of administrative reform.
- this political science was never forced to focus on p.a.
b) NPA is ..... a revolution/radicalism in words & (at best) status-quo in skills/technologies
- according to robert t glembiewski; 5 goals provided a sense of NPA from a positive perspective (what it want to approach) :
1. it implies a view of mankind as being substantially malleable & potentially perfectible.
2. its pervasive theme is the demand for relevance
3. it advocates social administration equity as the most common vehicle for guiding the task of human development.
- it recognises that administrative value-neutrality is neither possible/desirable.
4. it is determinedly relational as as against the classical p.a. is emphasis on organisations & their internal process.
5. it places a definte emphasis on innovation & change.
- dwight waldo defined positive & negative features of NPA.
- +ve it is some sort of movement in the direciton of normative theory, philosophy, social concern & activism.
- -ve it turns away from positivism & scienticism.
- he pointed out that NPA projects 3 principles clearly:
i) client-oriented bureaucracy
ii) representative
iii) people's participation in administration
According to Fredrickson, NPA is :
- less generic more public
- less descriptive more prescriptive
- less neutral more normative
- less sanguine about the application of the natural-science model to social phenomena.
- no less scientific.
fredickson called NPA as 'second generation behaviouralism'.
c) taylor's contribution was not a set of general principles fpr organising work efficiency, but a set of operating procedures that could be employed in wach concentrate situation to secure their application.
- in the lateer half of 19th c, industrial revolution took place in america which led to increase in productivity but reached a plateau, afterwords efficiency starts decreasing which led to concern for practitioners & scholors & that resulted into taylor in industry & wilson in administration.
taylor studied shop floor level to understand why efficiency is low & found 'soldering' a natural & systematic phenomenon. he propounded to decrease inefficiency by :
- applying scientific methods & techniques
- management is a true science
- assumed men is an economic man.
Assumption/aim :
promoting organisation efficiency & economy.
how : through the application of science , management & technology
Impact :
- both on administrative thought & practice
- both on industrial & governmental organisation
- both in capitalist & socialist countries.
- stakhanovite movement in USSR.
Theme :
- management is true science having :
* fised laws, rules, principles
* universal applicability
* predictability
low efficiency in organisation is due to the presence of a phenomenon known as soldering.
1. natural soldering : it is basically take it easy attitude not to over exert.
2. systematic soldering : organisation & social factors to keep the supervisor's expectation of work perfect at lower level.
to increase efficiency :
- decrease soldering through science & techniques & time & motion study.
- apply these techniques to managerial prectises to produciton process.
Principles:
- develop a science for each element of man's work
- management/ manager should fully train, teach & develop workmen.
- equal division of responsibilities between the management & workmen.
Talk About :
- science
- harmony
- cooperation
- maximum output
- deveopment of each man to his greates efficiency & prosperity.
2. answer the follwoing in 300 words : 30x2 = 60
a) consider the statements below.
i) techincally; bureaucracy represents the purest type og legalrational authority
ii) bureaucracydoes not represent the only type of legal authority.
identify the theorectical context & analyze the above statements.
- weber gave the ideal type of bureaucracy.
- according to weber, bureaucracyis a corollary to large organisation. here, the over specialised division of labour to be effective , it must have right to control & direct the activites of then. in order for such control to be effective , it must be seen as legitimate . such legitimate control is called authority by weber.
weber distinguished between 3 kinds of legitimacy/authority :
- traditional
- legal rational
- chrismatic
- the form form of organisation corresponding to rational-legal authority is called bureaucracy.
Features :
- the regular activities needed to achieve the goals of organisation are divided amongst the official as their formal duties. a complex task is thus subdivided into a number of smaller manageable jobs.
- the organisations of bureaucracyare governed by a set of abstact rules, & their application to particular cases.
- a bureaucrat perform his function in a spirit of formalistic impersonality without hatred/passion.
- appointments are made on the basis of specialist knowledge.
- his job is the role.
- promotions are based on seniority/meritor both
- there is a strict separation of official & personnel lives of bureaucracy
-debureaucratic work is conducted using a system of desks & files
- the officials is engaged in the performance of impersonal duties of his office.
-weber believed that sucha a bureaucracyis rational, efficient, stable, predictable.
Apprisal of Weber's Critique :
1. weber had meant his model to be only an ideal type . its purpose is to serve as sign-post & guide what should the organisation be like, if is to be rational.
2. though weber's model predominentaly structural , it has certain behavioral implications.
3. weber developed his model in the context of the german society of his times.
4. weber himself was aware of the demerits of bureaucracy& has pointed them out eg. itys standardization leads to suppression of initiatives, a single minded pre-occupation with uniformity & order.
5. finally it may be accepted that weber's model does have some deficiencies in today's context.
2.b) which of the models in development administraiton is / are characterised by 'selectivism' 'attainment' 'poly-functionalism? describe the corresponding theoretical roots & attributes.
- a prismatic society is characterised by 'selectivism' ' attainment' 'poly-functionalism. the basic characteristics of presimatic society are, formalism, heterogenity, overlapping.
1. formalism :
- a discrepancy exists between the precriptive & the descriptive , between formal & affective power , between impression given by constitution , law & regulations , organisational charts & statistics, actual practises & facts of govt., & society, the greater the discrepency between formal & effective , the more formalistic is a system.
- prismatic society is characterised by high degree of formalism.
- the prismatic society formalism appears in many forms & at structires like elections, cabinate, parliament etc.,
at the administration level appears intra-bureaucratic politics & ritualisation of procedures. this happens because bureaucrats have no clear sense of the goals & politics to be accomplished there is no effective political control over the bureaucracy. hte officials take their own decisions--- the prevalence of formalism encourages corruption.
2. heteroginity :
APS is characterised by high degree of heterogenity which means "the simultaneous presence, side by side of quite different kinds of systems, practices & view points. the "fused" & "refracted"models are relatively homogenous. in p.a. there exist urban area with a sophisticated intellectual class, western styles offices & the modern gadgets of administration, side by side there exist rural areas possessing tradition looks & outlooks, with villages heads or "elders" combining various political , administration, religious & social roles. heterogeneity not only in the society as a whole , but it applies also to the p.a.
3. Overlapping :
the extent to which that is described as 'administrative' behaviour is actually determined by non-administrative criteria. price indeterminacy in bazaar-canteen models is an instance of overlapping. in such a model, besides supply & demand forces which affect prices, other factors also affect the prices as the social & political relationships of buyers & sellers to each other.
the concept of price indeterminacy can be extended to included not only goods & services, but all factors of production, such as labour, capital, land, time, money. the p. of the classification combines both duties & status , achievment & ascription . salaries fixed according to status/rank & not on the basis of work performed.
- overlapping is closely related to the phenomenon of formalism & heterogeneity.
3. it is said "the perspective of p.a., developed over a century, with a tradition of management of public institution & services has received a jolt from the novelty of new public management.
bring aout the core values, approaches & assumptions of traditional p.a. & show how the new public management has attempted to change/retain them & to what extent.
- NPM connotes organising a running public organisation in more management-oriented way as that of private organisation so as to achieve more citizen satisfaction & socitel welfare.
Factors :
the years of late 80s & early 90s witnessed tremendous changes the world over necessitating changes even in the paradigm of public admin. these are :
- knowledge revolution
- technological revolution (IT/e-governance) & communication revolution.
- increased competition nationally & internationally in providing goods & services.
- aspirations of the people from government have increased.
- reduce financial resources of govt., led to managerial rethink to optimaly utilise the scarce resources.
- international dimensions :
* increasing globalisation
* increase hold of WTO overnaitonal govt's., & their policies
* emergencies of MNC's on the world scene on a huge scale.
Features :
- NPM aims at management , not policy.
- it deals with converting public bureaucracyinto agencies which deal with each other on a user pay basis.
- re-adjusting the role of the govt.,
- performance improvement
- client focus
- greater devolution & decentralisation
- flexibility
- organisation structures are simplified & hierarchies flattened to create condition for more positive & productive managerial leadership.
- providing the human & technological resources that manager needs to meet their performance margins.
- creating competitive environement
Various Techniques of NPM :
- ZBB(zero-based budgeting)
- total quality management
- HRM
- networking
- human resources accounting
- social auditing
- operational research techniques
- MBO
NPM & Tradiitonal :
NPM stipulates that public servants should have to accept more personal account for the actions of their agencies for enhanced autonomy & flexibility to them.
SECTION B
5.answer any 3 of the follwoing in not more than 200 words :
b) "technical like PERT & CPM help in effective ofice management" elaborate.
- PERT is a model for project management designed to analyse & represents the tasks involved in completion of a project . this model was givne by BOOZ & Alolen Hamilton. PERT is more of an event-oriented technique when time is important rather than cost. it was developed primarily to simplify the planning & scheduling of large & complex projects. PERT is used for every large scale, one-time complete, non-routine projects.
- PERT chart is tool to facilitate decision making. first draft of a pert chart will number its events in multiples of 10 to allow later insertion of additional events. planner decides which are the pert events & their proper order. the longest possible continous parthway takes from the initial event to the terminal event is known as critical path.
- the point marking the start /completion of one/more tasks is the pert event. the minimum possible time required to accomplish a task, assuming thing proceeds better is normally expected is optimistics time & when found out assuming every thing proceeded normally is most likely time ; where as pessimistic time denotes the maximum possible time required to complete the task, assuming everything goeas wrong.
- against all the bove expected time is the best estimate of time required to complete the task, because it relies on average, if the extended period of time. lagtime is the earliest time by which a success/event can follow a specific pert event.
- slack of an event is a measure of the excess time & resources available in achieveing the event. positive slack indicates a head of schedule against the negative indicating behind the schedule. on shedule is represented by zero slack. fast tracking it is to increase the pace of achievement & it denotes performing more critical events in parallel.
PERT Implemntation :
- determination of tasks
- order of completion
- task, time & dependency informaiton
- connectivity line between different nodes representing activities & tasks.
- broken/dotted lines
- multiple parallel/interconnectivity networks
- analysis
CPM :
this chart are similar to pert charts & are reformed to as CPM/PERT . critical path is the main stream of CPM. a critical path contains of set of dependent tasks, which together task the longest to complete. one way to draw critical tasks with a double line, rather than single line.
d) Yehezkel Droor normative models of policy making tend to be academic in perspective with poor operational utility. comment.
- dror finds lindblom's incremental model of decision making quite conservative & unsatisfactory. he belives that incremental approach is unjust as it creates a gap between those who have more power & those who have little power. the later catagory of people will find it difficult to bring about change in place of incremental & rational models. dror offers all alternative model which seeks to accept the need for rationality ; need for introduction of management technology for enhancing rationality of decision-making at low levels. policy science approach for dealing with complex problems requiring decisions at the higher levels, & need to take account of values & irrational elements in decision-making.
- dror's aims is to increase theraitonal context of govt., & build into his model the 'extra-rational' dimensions of decision-making.
dror's calls it 'normative-optimalism' which combines core elements of the rational model with extra-rational factors that are excluded from the 'pure rationality' in place of pure rational model, dror puts forwards a more complex model of about 18 stages which includes meta-policy-making stage, policy-making stage & post-policy-making stage.
Characteristics :
- it is qualitative not quantitative
- it contains both raitonal & extra-rational elements
- it is basic raitonal to economically rational.
- it is concerned with meta-policy-making
- it contains a built-in-feedback.
6. consider the following :
a) self-help groups enables women to realise their full potential in some sphere of life.
b) SHGs are providing avenues of political mobilisations.
examine the implication of these two statements & assess the potential of SHGs for development.
- SHG is a small voluntary associated of poor people preferably from the same socio-eco background who come together for the purpose of solving their co-problem through self-help.
Objectives :
- it consists of poor people whoc do not have access to formal financial institutions.
- govt., create a SHG bank in charge from where they can have cost effective delivery of credits.
- it plays a crucial role in improving savings , reduces poverty & social inequalities leading to empowerment of people especially women.
Advantages :
1. business activities upliftment if the group member economically they also help to bring social upheaval through collective work.
2. in current global economic climate micro credit can be used as a poverty alleviation too.
3. it makes people more self reliant
4. develops culture resulting in participatory democracy.
5. it results in more efficient usage of natural resources .
Current Major Issues/Problems :
- ignorance of menbers : even though the authorities take measures for creating awareness among the group members about the schemes beneficial to them, still majority of the group are unaware of the schemes of assistances offered to them.
- inadequate training facilities : the training facilities given to the members of SHGs in the specific areas of products selection , quality of products, production technologies, managerial ability, packing are not adequate to complete with that of strong units.
- problems related with materials :there is no systematic, arrangement to collect raw materials in bulk quantities & preserve them properly.
Problems Of Marketing :
- lacking of sufficient orders
- lack of adequate sale with the market agencies
- lack of adequate sale promotio measures.
- lack of permanent market for the production of SHGs.
- agencies of proper brand name
- poor/unattractive packing system
- poor quality of products.
- stiff competition from other major suppliers
- lack of stability & unity especially among women SHGs.
- exploitation by strong members.
* weak finanical management : it is found that in certain units the returns from the business is not properly invested further in the unit, & the funds diverted for other personal & domestic purpose.
* low return : the return on imvestment is not attractive incertain groups due to inefficient management.
* inadequate financial assistance : it is also found that in most of the SHGs, the financial assistance provided to them by the agencies concern is not adequate to meet thier actual requirements.
* inadequate & ill-trained staff to meet the financial institutions.
* inadequate support from line departments.
Suggestions :
- locally available material
- KERAMS (kerala rural development & marketing society)
- panchayt area can form co-operative society
- NGOs
- caliber & expertion
- awareness camps
- financial institutions/management
7. it is said that 'position classification' , as originally conceived is sound in terms of its operational characterics, but complicated & unresponsive in practive. why is it still considered better than other models of civil service classification ?
- according to willougby classification & standardisation of public employment constitutes the basis upon which the whole personnel structre must rest. a proper & systematic classification of personnel in govt., is very essential for the management of civil service in the modern state.
- PC also known as the duties classification , involves the grouping of positions on the basis of duties , responsibilities & qualifications . thus nature of job is the basis of classification, rather than the person holding the position. in this system of classification the lowest unit is the position. a position connotes a set of duties & responsibilities assigned to an empployee. a position & the incumbent of the position are different from each other. the position at any given time , may be occupied /vacant, & is immaterial for the purpose of classification . furthur employee states salary depends on his duties & responsibilites.
- this kind of classification is in use in USA, japan, taiwan, philippines & canada. there is another kind of classification called rank prvalent in UK,france india, malysia etc., however, position classification is one of the main elements of merit & system, because PC upholds the principle of equal pay for equal work & is this more just than rank, which is unrrelated to the nature/difficulty of work.
- in PC a class is made up of a number of similar position sufficiently alike in respect to their duties & responsibilities . put together. all positions in a class have identical duties with similar levels of difficulty . glenn stahl calls the class as the operating unit of PC.
- the development of PC involves many steps within the admin.systems 1. analysing & recording of the duties, 2. grouping of the position into classes.
- PC provides for a high degree of specialisation, hence, suitable for specialist service like engineering, geologist etc.,
candidates should attempt que.no.1 & 5 which are compulsory & any 3 of the remaining questions selecting atleast 1 question from each section.
1. comment on any 3 of the following statements not more than 200 words each :
a) the field of public administration is a field of business (woodrow wilson)
- woodrow wilson is regarded as father of public administration as he emphasized the need for a separate study of p.a. he also indicated the nature of this study & the lines along which it should be developed . this was his vision of p.a. his ideas are contained in his seminal 1887 essay "the study of administraiton" which is seen as the beginning of the discipline of p.a.
context of Wilson's Ideas :
Wilson's ideas have to be seen as a part of the movement to reform the civil serice of america that began in 1883 with the pendleton act.
Wilson's Vision On P.A :
wilson called for & laid the foundation of a systematic study of a administration.
the major elements are :
- there should be a separate study of administration.
- such study should be a science
- he outlined the perspective for the new science.
- he outlined the suject-matter of the new science
- he indicated methedology for the science
NAture of administration :
- for wilson administraiton menat detailed & systematic execution of law
- it consisted of application of cases, of general laws.
- he talked & related administraiton with politics
- wilson beleived administration & politics are separate aspects of government.
- he laid the foundation of politics-administraiton dichotomy system of governance.
- the foundations of administration for him were the principles of politics.
- he was aware that radical distinction between these 2 would lead to the creation of bureaucratic ellite.
- finally, he thought he disagreed with interference of the general acknowledge public opinon as a valuable control on the bureaucracy. b) he believed that , especially in democracies, administration had to be responsive to the public opinion.
Wilson's View P.A. Linked to Business.Administration :
- wilson made & linked p.a. to business administraiton.
- this is because he felt even business was separate from politics.
- this has been interpreted as wilson regarding public & private administraton to be the & thus calling for a generic science of administration.
- he called for public administration taking the technology of administration used by private sector as also its central concerns of eeficiency, economy & effectiveness.
- while saying that 'administraiton is business' wilson also understood the wider & indepth agenda of p.a.
- later on he said p.a. should be business-like, but not a business.
- p.a. is an organis life he said.
Need for Separate Study :
having defined administraiton as execution of policies he said that such a function was relatively simpler to 19th c. but now sowety becoming complex through forces as growing trade & commerce the functions of administration had multiplied & had become more complex & difficult.
- he also gave reasons for such neglected by a political science as:
* america being a democracy; government was subject to popular control. thus administration was limited in scope, in keeping with liberation.
- unlike europe, government was not a monopolist in america.
- there was no consunsual american public opinion, no need for agenda of administrative reform.
- this political science was never forced to focus on p.a.
b) NPA is ..... a revolution/radicalism in words & (at best) status-quo in skills/technologies
- according to robert t glembiewski; 5 goals provided a sense of NPA from a positive perspective (what it want to approach) :
1. it implies a view of mankind as being substantially malleable & potentially perfectible.
2. its pervasive theme is the demand for relevance
3. it advocates social administration equity as the most common vehicle for guiding the task of human development.
- it recognises that administrative value-neutrality is neither possible/desirable.
4. it is determinedly relational as as against the classical p.a. is emphasis on organisations & their internal process.
5. it places a definte emphasis on innovation & change.
- dwight waldo defined positive & negative features of NPA.
- +ve it is some sort of movement in the direciton of normative theory, philosophy, social concern & activism.
- -ve it turns away from positivism & scienticism.
- he pointed out that NPA projects 3 principles clearly:
i) client-oriented bureaucracy
ii) representative
iii) people's participation in administration
According to Fredrickson, NPA is :
- less generic more public
- less descriptive more prescriptive
- less neutral more normative
- less sanguine about the application of the natural-science model to social phenomena.
- no less scientific.
fredickson called NPA as 'second generation behaviouralism'.
c) taylor's contribution was not a set of general principles fpr organising work efficiency, but a set of operating procedures that could be employed in wach concentrate situation to secure their application.
- in the lateer half of 19th c, industrial revolution took place in america which led to increase in productivity but reached a plateau, afterwords efficiency starts decreasing which led to concern for practitioners & scholors & that resulted into taylor in industry & wilson in administration.
taylor studied shop floor level to understand why efficiency is low & found 'soldering' a natural & systematic phenomenon. he propounded to decrease inefficiency by :
- applying scientific methods & techniques
- management is a true science
- assumed men is an economic man.
Assumption/aim :
promoting organisation efficiency & economy.
how : through the application of science , management & technology
Impact :
- both on administrative thought & practice
- both on industrial & governmental organisation
- both in capitalist & socialist countries.
- stakhanovite movement in USSR.
Theme :
- management is true science having :
* fised laws, rules, principles
* universal applicability
* predictability
low efficiency in organisation is due to the presence of a phenomenon known as soldering.
1. natural soldering : it is basically take it easy attitude not to over exert.
2. systematic soldering : organisation & social factors to keep the supervisor's expectation of work perfect at lower level.
to increase efficiency :
- decrease soldering through science & techniques & time & motion study.
- apply these techniques to managerial prectises to produciton process.
Principles:
- develop a science for each element of man's work
- management/ manager should fully train, teach & develop workmen.
- equal division of responsibilities between the management & workmen.
Talk About :
- science
- harmony
- cooperation
- maximum output
- deveopment of each man to his greates efficiency & prosperity.
2. answer the follwoing in 300 words : 30x2 = 60
a) consider the statements below.
i) techincally; bureaucracy represents the purest type og legalrational authority
ii) bureaucracydoes not represent the only type of legal authority.
identify the theorectical context & analyze the above statements.
- weber gave the ideal type of bureaucracy.
- according to weber, bureaucracyis a corollary to large organisation. here, the over specialised division of labour to be effective , it must have right to control & direct the activites of then. in order for such control to be effective , it must be seen as legitimate . such legitimate control is called authority by weber.
weber distinguished between 3 kinds of legitimacy/authority :
- traditional
- legal rational
- chrismatic
- the form form of organisation corresponding to rational-legal authority is called bureaucracy.
Features :
- the regular activities needed to achieve the goals of organisation are divided amongst the official as their formal duties. a complex task is thus subdivided into a number of smaller manageable jobs.
- the organisations of bureaucracyare governed by a set of abstact rules, & their application to particular cases.
- a bureaucrat perform his function in a spirit of formalistic impersonality without hatred/passion.
- appointments are made on the basis of specialist knowledge.
- his job is the role.
- promotions are based on seniority/meritor both
- there is a strict separation of official & personnel lives of bureaucracy
-debureaucratic work is conducted using a system of desks & files
- the officials is engaged in the performance of impersonal duties of his office.
-weber believed that sucha a bureaucracyis rational, efficient, stable, predictable.
Apprisal of Weber's Critique :
1. weber had meant his model to be only an ideal type . its purpose is to serve as sign-post & guide what should the organisation be like, if is to be rational.
2. though weber's model predominentaly structural , it has certain behavioral implications.
3. weber developed his model in the context of the german society of his times.
4. weber himself was aware of the demerits of bureaucracy& has pointed them out eg. itys standardization leads to suppression of initiatives, a single minded pre-occupation with uniformity & order.
5. finally it may be accepted that weber's model does have some deficiencies in today's context.
2.b) which of the models in development administraiton is / are characterised by 'selectivism' 'attainment' 'poly-functionalism? describe the corresponding theoretical roots & attributes.
- a prismatic society is characterised by 'selectivism' ' attainment' 'poly-functionalism. the basic characteristics of presimatic society are, formalism, heterogenity, overlapping.
1. formalism :
- a discrepancy exists between the precriptive & the descriptive , between formal & affective power , between impression given by constitution , law & regulations , organisational charts & statistics, actual practises & facts of govt., & society, the greater the discrepency between formal & effective , the more formalistic is a system.
- prismatic society is characterised by high degree of formalism.
- the prismatic society formalism appears in many forms & at structires like elections, cabinate, parliament etc.,
at the administration level appears intra-bureaucratic politics & ritualisation of procedures. this happens because bureaucrats have no clear sense of the goals & politics to be accomplished there is no effective political control over the bureaucracy. hte officials take their own decisions--- the prevalence of formalism encourages corruption.
2. heteroginity :
APS is characterised by high degree of heterogenity which means "the simultaneous presence, side by side of quite different kinds of systems, practices & view points. the "fused" & "refracted"models are relatively homogenous. in p.a. there exist urban area with a sophisticated intellectual class, western styles offices & the modern gadgets of administration, side by side there exist rural areas possessing tradition looks & outlooks, with villages heads or "elders" combining various political , administration, religious & social roles. heterogeneity not only in the society as a whole , but it applies also to the p.a.
3. Overlapping :
the extent to which that is described as 'administrative' behaviour is actually determined by non-administrative criteria. price indeterminacy in bazaar-canteen models is an instance of overlapping. in such a model, besides supply & demand forces which affect prices, other factors also affect the prices as the social & political relationships of buyers & sellers to each other.
the concept of price indeterminacy can be extended to included not only goods & services, but all factors of production, such as labour, capital, land, time, money. the p. of the classification combines both duties & status , achievment & ascription . salaries fixed according to status/rank & not on the basis of work performed.
- overlapping is closely related to the phenomenon of formalism & heterogeneity.
3. it is said "the perspective of p.a., developed over a century, with a tradition of management of public institution & services has received a jolt from the novelty of new public management.
bring aout the core values, approaches & assumptions of traditional p.a. & show how the new public management has attempted to change/retain them & to what extent.
- NPM connotes organising a running public organisation in more management-oriented way as that of private organisation so as to achieve more citizen satisfaction & socitel welfare.
Factors :
the years of late 80s & early 90s witnessed tremendous changes the world over necessitating changes even in the paradigm of public admin. these are :
- knowledge revolution
- technological revolution (IT/e-governance) & communication revolution.
- increased competition nationally & internationally in providing goods & services.
- aspirations of the people from government have increased.
- reduce financial resources of govt., led to managerial rethink to optimaly utilise the scarce resources.
- international dimensions :
* increasing globalisation
* increase hold of WTO overnaitonal govt's., & their policies
* emergencies of MNC's on the world scene on a huge scale.
Features :
- NPM aims at management , not policy.
- it deals with converting public bureaucracyinto agencies which deal with each other on a user pay basis.
- re-adjusting the role of the govt.,
- performance improvement
- client focus
- greater devolution & decentralisation
- flexibility
- organisation structures are simplified & hierarchies flattened to create condition for more positive & productive managerial leadership.
- providing the human & technological resources that manager needs to meet their performance margins.
- creating competitive environement
Various Techniques of NPM :
- ZBB(zero-based budgeting)
- total quality management
- HRM
- networking
- human resources accounting
- social auditing
- operational research techniques
- MBO
NPM & Tradiitonal :
NPM stipulates that public servants should have to accept more personal account for the actions of their agencies for enhanced autonomy & flexibility to them.
SECTION B
5.answer any 3 of the follwoing in not more than 200 words :
b) "technical like PERT & CPM help in effective ofice management" elaborate.
- PERT is a model for project management designed to analyse & represents the tasks involved in completion of a project . this model was givne by BOOZ & Alolen Hamilton. PERT is more of an event-oriented technique when time is important rather than cost. it was developed primarily to simplify the planning & scheduling of large & complex projects. PERT is used for every large scale, one-time complete, non-routine projects.
- PERT chart is tool to facilitate decision making. first draft of a pert chart will number its events in multiples of 10 to allow later insertion of additional events. planner decides which are the pert events & their proper order. the longest possible continous parthway takes from the initial event to the terminal event is known as critical path.
- the point marking the start /completion of one/more tasks is the pert event. the minimum possible time required to accomplish a task, assuming thing proceeds better is normally expected is optimistics time & when found out assuming every thing proceeded normally is most likely time ; where as pessimistic time denotes the maximum possible time required to complete the task, assuming everything goeas wrong.
- against all the bove expected time is the best estimate of time required to complete the task, because it relies on average, if the extended period of time. lagtime is the earliest time by which a success/event can follow a specific pert event.
- slack of an event is a measure of the excess time & resources available in achieveing the event. positive slack indicates a head of schedule against the negative indicating behind the schedule. on shedule is represented by zero slack. fast tracking it is to increase the pace of achievement & it denotes performing more critical events in parallel.
PERT Implemntation :
- determination of tasks
- order of completion
- task, time & dependency informaiton
- connectivity line between different nodes representing activities & tasks.
- broken/dotted lines
- multiple parallel/interconnectivity networks
- analysis
CPM :
this chart are similar to pert charts & are reformed to as CPM/PERT . critical path is the main stream of CPM. a critical path contains of set of dependent tasks, which together task the longest to complete. one way to draw critical tasks with a double line, rather than single line.
d) Yehezkel Droor normative models of policy making tend to be academic in perspective with poor operational utility. comment.
- dror finds lindblom's incremental model of decision making quite conservative & unsatisfactory. he belives that incremental approach is unjust as it creates a gap between those who have more power & those who have little power. the later catagory of people will find it difficult to bring about change in place of incremental & rational models. dror offers all alternative model which seeks to accept the need for rationality ; need for introduction of management technology for enhancing rationality of decision-making at low levels. policy science approach for dealing with complex problems requiring decisions at the higher levels, & need to take account of values & irrational elements in decision-making.
- dror's aims is to increase theraitonal context of govt., & build into his model the 'extra-rational' dimensions of decision-making.
dror's calls it 'normative-optimalism' which combines core elements of the rational model with extra-rational factors that are excluded from the 'pure rationality' in place of pure rational model, dror puts forwards a more complex model of about 18 stages which includes meta-policy-making stage, policy-making stage & post-policy-making stage.
Characteristics :
- it is qualitative not quantitative
- it contains both raitonal & extra-rational elements
- it is basic raitonal to economically rational.
- it is concerned with meta-policy-making
- it contains a built-in-feedback.
6. consider the following :
a) self-help groups enables women to realise their full potential in some sphere of life.
b) SHGs are providing avenues of political mobilisations.
examine the implication of these two statements & assess the potential of SHGs for development.
- SHG is a small voluntary associated of poor people preferably from the same socio-eco background who come together for the purpose of solving their co-problem through self-help.
Objectives :
- it consists of poor people whoc do not have access to formal financial institutions.
- govt., create a SHG bank in charge from where they can have cost effective delivery of credits.
- it plays a crucial role in improving savings , reduces poverty & social inequalities leading to empowerment of people especially women.
Advantages :
1. business activities upliftment if the group member economically they also help to bring social upheaval through collective work.
2. in current global economic climate micro credit can be used as a poverty alleviation too.
3. it makes people more self reliant
4. develops culture resulting in participatory democracy.
5. it results in more efficient usage of natural resources .
Current Major Issues/Problems :
- ignorance of menbers : even though the authorities take measures for creating awareness among the group members about the schemes beneficial to them, still majority of the group are unaware of the schemes of assistances offered to them.
- inadequate training facilities : the training facilities given to the members of SHGs in the specific areas of products selection , quality of products, production technologies, managerial ability, packing are not adequate to complete with that of strong units.
- problems related with materials :there is no systematic, arrangement to collect raw materials in bulk quantities & preserve them properly.
Problems Of Marketing :
- lacking of sufficient orders
- lack of adequate sale with the market agencies
- lack of adequate sale promotio measures.
- lack of permanent market for the production of SHGs.
- agencies of proper brand name
- poor/unattractive packing system
- poor quality of products.
- stiff competition from other major suppliers
- lack of stability & unity especially among women SHGs.
- exploitation by strong members.
* weak finanical management : it is found that in certain units the returns from the business is not properly invested further in the unit, & the funds diverted for other personal & domestic purpose.
* low return : the return on imvestment is not attractive incertain groups due to inefficient management.
* inadequate financial assistance : it is also found that in most of the SHGs, the financial assistance provided to them by the agencies concern is not adequate to meet thier actual requirements.
* inadequate & ill-trained staff to meet the financial institutions.
* inadequate support from line departments.
Suggestions :
- locally available material
- KERAMS (kerala rural development & marketing society)
- panchayt area can form co-operative society
- NGOs
- caliber & expertion
- awareness camps
- financial institutions/management
7. it is said that 'position classification' , as originally conceived is sound in terms of its operational characterics, but complicated & unresponsive in practive. why is it still considered better than other models of civil service classification ?
- according to willougby classification & standardisation of public employment constitutes the basis upon which the whole personnel structre must rest. a proper & systematic classification of personnel in govt., is very essential for the management of civil service in the modern state.
- PC also known as the duties classification , involves the grouping of positions on the basis of duties , responsibilities & qualifications . thus nature of job is the basis of classification, rather than the person holding the position. in this system of classification the lowest unit is the position. a position connotes a set of duties & responsibilities assigned to an empployee. a position & the incumbent of the position are different from each other. the position at any given time , may be occupied /vacant, & is immaterial for the purpose of classification . furthur employee states salary depends on his duties & responsibilites.
- this kind of classification is in use in USA, japan, taiwan, philippines & canada. there is another kind of classification called rank prvalent in UK,france india, malysia etc., however, position classification is one of the main elements of merit & system, because PC upholds the principle of equal pay for equal work & is this more just than rank, which is unrrelated to the nature/difficulty of work.
- in PC a class is made up of a number of similar position sufficiently alike in respect to their duties & responsibilities . put together. all positions in a class have identical duties with similar levels of difficulty . glenn stahl calls the class as the operating unit of PC.
- the development of PC involves many steps within the admin.systems 1. analysing & recording of the duties, 2. grouping of the position into classes.
- PC provides for a high degree of specialisation, hence, suitable for specialist service like engineering, geologist etc.,
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