INDIAN ADMINISTRATION

MODULE 2

Q. Explain the structure and function of the central secretariat - 10

Ans: The Secretariat refers to the conglomeration of various
ministries/departments of the central government. It is at the apex of the
administrative pyramid. The Secretariat works as a single unit with collective
responsibility.
Presently, the ministers/ departments of the central government are governed by
Government of India (Allocation of Business) rules, 1961. Hence, all the
ministries/ departments enumerated in the Allocation of Business Rules, 1961 are
collectively known as the Central Secretariat.

Structure:
A ministry has three- tier structure

Political Head
Secretariat

Executive
Organization
Secretariat:
Secretariat has two distinct components.
Directing and
Officers Controlling
Staff
SECRETARIAT
Executive and
Office
Clerical Staff

The Secretariat is headed by a Secretary who is a Civil Servant. The Secretary is

assisted by Joint Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries, under Secretaries etc.
Secretariat Organization

Units Officers in-charge

Department Secretary/ additional
secretary/Special Secretary

Wing Additional/ Joint Secretary

Division Director / Deputy Secretary

Branch Under Secretary

Section Section Officer

The lowest of these units is the section in charge of a Section Officer and consist
of a number of assistants, clerks, typists and peons. It deals with the work relating
to the subject allotted to it. It is also referred to as the office. Two sections
constitute the branch which is under the charge of an Under Secretary, also known
as the branch officer. Two branches ordinarily form a division which is normally
headed by a deputy secretary. When the volume of work in a ministry exceeds
the manageable charge of a secretary, one or more wings are established with a
joint secretary in charge of each wing. At the top of the hierarchy comes the
department which is headed by the secretary himself or in some cases by an
Additional/Special Secretary. In some cases, a department may be as autonomous
as a ministry and equivalent to it in rank.
Secretariat Officials:
Secretary

Additional Secretary

Joint Secretary

Director

Deputy Secretary

Under Secretary

The Secretary, additional Secretary and the Joint Secretary and the Joint Secretary
are called top management and the Director, deputy Secretary and the Under
Secretary are called middle management. All these officials perform their duties
keeping in view the interest of Government of India as a whole. Eg. Secretary is
designated to the GOI and not to his ministry alone.

Secretary:
-Administrative head of the ministry/ department
-Appointed by the Dept. of Personnel and training, cabinet secretary and the
Prime Minister's office (PMO)
-Chief advisor to the minister on all aspects of policy and administrative affairs.
- Represents his ministry/ department before the PAC of the parliament
Additional Secretary
- he is the in-charge of the of either a department or wing of department
Joint Secretary
-He is always in charge of the wing of a department.
- Appointed by the Senior Selection Board (presided over by the cabinet
secretary)
Director/ Deputy Secretary
-The post of director was created in 1960
Though there is not much difference between their responsibilities, but the rank
and pay of the Director is higher than that of a deputy secretary.
Under Secretary
- in-charge of a branch
-Hence also called Branch officer
-He disposes minor cases on his own and submits only important cases to the
deputy secretary
The selection of the Director/Deputy Secretary/Under Secretary is made by the
Central Establishment Board (presided over by the Secretary of the Ministry of
Personnel). The final decision is taken by the Appointments committee of the
cabinet headed by the PM of India

Functions:
The Central Secretariat system in India is based on two principles:
1) The task of policy formulation needs to be separated from policy
implementation.
2) Maintaining Cadre of Officers operating on the tenure system is a prerequisite
to the working of the Secretariat system.
The Central Secretariat is a policy-making body of the government and is not, to
undertake work of execution unless necessitated by the lack of official agencies
to perform certain tasks. The Central Secretariat normally performs the following
functions:
1) Assisting the minister in the discharge of his policymaking and parliamentary
functions.
2) Framing legislation, rules, and principles of procedure.
3) Sectoral planning and program formulation.
4) Budgeting and control of expenditure in respect of activities of the ministry
department.
5) Securing administrative and financial approval for the operational program
and their subsequent modifications.
6) Supervision and control over the execution of policies and programs by the
executive departments or semi-autonomous field once.
7) Calculating steps to develop greater personnel and organizational competence
with in the ministry/department and its executive agencies.
8) Assisting in increasing coordination at the Central level.

Q. Discuss about Cabinet Secretary-10

Ans: The Cabinet Secretary is the administrative head of the Cabinet Secretariat.
He functions under the leadership of the prime minister. The office of Cabinet
secretary was created in 1950. The first occupant of Cabinet secretary was N.R
Pillai. He/She belongs to the Indian Administrative Services. The incumbent
generally has tenure of 2 to 3 years. Though, there is no fixed tenure so far, the
average tenure of the Cabinet Secretary in India has not been more than 3 years.
His/Her tenure, however, can be extended. The Cabinet Secretary is directly
responsible to the PM and reports to the PM concerning all matters.
Below the Cabinet Secretary, there are three other secretaries in the cabinet
secretariat. They head three wings respectively: security, coordination, and
political. Below the secretaries, there are a number of additional secretaries, joint
secretaries, directors, deputy secretaries, and Under Secretaries. Besides, there
are two advisers attached exclusively to the PM in areas on science and
technology.

Roles, powers and functions:

1) Chief coordinator of the Central administration (but does not have supervisory
function upon ministries/departments)
2) Attends every meeting of the cabinet and draws upon minutes that contain the
decisions reached. After the PM’s approval these are distributed by him to the
ministers and secretaries concerned.
3) He sees that the cabinet decisions are implemented properly.
4) He acts as the chief advisor to the PM on whatever matter his advice is sought.
5) He provides an element of stability and continuity when a Prime Minister
resign or dies. At such times the cabinet secretary advises the president, the
cabinet and provides assistance according to the provisions of the
Constitution.
6) He serves as a factotum when the PM deems necessary and call him to be so.
7) His sanction should be obtained by a minister before launching prosecution
against the publisher or the editor of the newspaper in cases of defamation.
8) He is the chairman of the Senior Selection Board (SSB) which selects officers
for the post of Joint Secretary in the Central Secretariat
9) Selects officers for the post of Secretary and Additional Secretary in the
Central Secretariat.
10) Chairman of Committee of secretaries on administration.
11) Chairman of Chief Secretaries Committee.
12) Head of the Civil Service Board of GOI
13) Acts as a buffer between the Civil Service and the political system.
14) Also acts as the link between the PMO and the administrative agencies.

The ARC in its report on Machinery of the Government and its procedure
of work made the following recommendations with regard to status and
role of cabinet secretary:

1) He should act as a coordinator of the Central Administration but his role

should not be limited to that of the coordinator.
2) He should act as principal staff advisor to the PM, the cabinet and its
committees on important policy matters.

Q. Discuss about Prime Minister Office (PMO) – 10

Ans: The prime Minister Secretariat came into being on August 15 1947. Since
June 1977, it is known as Prime Minister’s Office. It was created for the purpose
of taking over the functions performed till then by the secretary to the Governor
General. It provided the Secretarial assistance needed by the Prime Minister in
his public activities and functions as the head of the government It is an extra-
constitutional institution that has no constitutional status. It occupies the status of
a department of the Government of India under the Allocation of Business Rules
1961.

Organization of PMO
The Prime Minister's Office is headed politically by Prime Minister and
administratively by the Principal Secretary. The organizational hierarchy of the
office is as follows:
• Principal Secretary: He is the head of the bureaucratic pyramid of the
PMO and deals with all governmental files in the office. He also looks
after the affairs of the various ministries that the Prime Minister may ask
him to handle.
• Additional Secretary: He looks after the personnel and policy matters of
the ministries that the P.M. may ask to look after.
• Joint Secretary (I): He looks after Home Affairs, Law and Justice.
• Joint Secretary (II): He handles the administration of the PMO and the
Ministries of Surface Transport, Railway and Civil Aviation, and
Communications.
• Joint Secretary (III): He looks after the Ministries of External Affairs,
Defence and Atomic Energy.
• Director (I): He is an officer on special duty looks after rural
developmental civil supplies.
• Director (II): He is incharge of Home Affairs
• Director (III): He has no fixed responsibilities and hence acts as a trouble
shooter.
• Director (IV): he looks after the matters connected with the various state
governments.
However, the division of work is made according to the convenience and
experience of the staff in the office.

Functions: The main task of the secretariat is to help the Prime Minister in
the performance of his functions as the head of the government.
The Prime Minister's Office performs several functions:
 • Assisting the prime minister in respect of his overall responsibilities as
head of the government like maintaining liaison with central
ministries/departments and the state governments.
• Helping the prime minister in respect of his responsibilities as chairman
of the NITI Ayog, and the National Development Council.
• Looking after the public relations of 'the prime minister like contact
with the press and general public.
• Dealing with all references, which under the Rules of Business have to
come to the prime minister.
• Providing assistance to the prime minister 'in the examination of cases
submitted to him for orders under prescribed rules.
• Maintaining liaison with the President, Governors, and Foreign
Representatives in the country.
The Changing role of the PMO
The Prime Minister's Office's role has evolved and changed from Prime Minister
to Prime Minister. The office's size and role were both limited under Nehru.
During his tenure, there appears to have been a growing reliance on Ministries
and their advisers, with the Cabinet Secretary serving as a major link. The Prime
Minister's Secretariat has performed the same tasks in later periods, however all
Cabinet mattes must go through the Cabinet Secretariat. The line between the two
is not rigid, and it cannot be.
Shastri, Nehru's successor, was the one who made the initial step toward
establishing a formidable Secretariat. He nominated L.K. Jha as Secretary to the
Prime Minister, and he became the head of the Secretariat. Jha's powerful and
dynamic personality elevated the Secretariat's reputation and stature while also
adding to its responsibilities. Under Jha's leadership, the Prime Minister's Office
began to wield considerable power in decision-making, a trend that was
reinforced during Indira Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister. During Indira
Gandhi's reign the Prime Minister's Secretariat virtually became a national policy
formulation body and the Cabinet Secretariat its enforcement arm.
During the Janata period, an effort was made to diffuse the existing concentration
of power in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and reduce it to the status of a mere
'office' whose functions were merely secretarial in nature. As a result, the
Secretariat was divested of its various policy making cells
However, there has been a noticeable trend in the last eight years toward re-
concentration of policymaking power in the Secretariat. The opposition and
newspapers occasionally express the view that the Prime Minister's Secretariat is
a "micro-cabinet," because it frequently strives to replace the Cabinet in all
significant policymaking functions.
Narendra Modi, the present prime minister came once again in power with clear
majority in 2019. His PMO has now emerged as a powerful PMO. He leans on a
small group of advisors, because he finds the cabinet unwieldly for most of them
don’t think like he does. He has chosen people who think like him.