Since independence, India has undertaken a number of efforts to establish an efective development-oriented, ditizen-friendly and responsive system of administration to contribute toward good governance. While the tratditonal system of public administrations was appropriate for the pre-independence period, subsequent social, economic and political changes neessitated radical changes in policies and their implementation. A set of new issues called fora trorough reorientation of the system of public administration. Administrative development had, therefore, to be planned and executed in ghe face of evergrowing conflicts between various non-state actors/institucions and the state. The strategies for administrative development adopeted not only include evolving appropriate politico-administrative instituicions for democratic governance, but also a consistent effort on reorienting the formal and informal aspects as well as improving the techno-professional skills of bureaucracy at all levels.In addition to his as appropriate balance and cooperation between the public and private sectors was essential in the context of growing liberalization and globalizations. The experience of India emphatically demonstrates that an active and sconsocialtional assotications of citizens at all levels of the governmental structure is critical to the process of modernization of the state and administration. The dispersion of political and administrative power among various groups and regions emerges as a usergul strategy for ensuring the continuity of the state and democracy in a vast country with numerous ethnic, religious and linguistic divisions