Public bureaucracies play a key role in the process of nation building, socio-eco development, policy formulation and policy implementation, especially in the context of the developing societies. The maintenance of National integrity and the success and failures of various programs of socio-economic development in these countries have depended to the great extent on the capacities of these bureaucracies.

The bureaucracy in India is the product of two different sets of influences: British traditions of the past and the democratic welfare state of the present. The bureaucracy, created by the British to maintain the imperialist traditions of a colonial Government was a remarkable administrative legacy. However, since the end of the colonial period it has been persistently argued that Indian administrators, retaining negative aspects of the imperial legacy are maladjusted, lack dedication and tend to be authoritarian. In Indian, bureaucratic dysfunction has become a norm. The Indian bureaucracy suffers from certain strange paradoxes. A rigid adherence to procedure combined with a ready susceptibility to personal pressure and intervention.

One of the most undesirable characteristics of bureaucracy in India is that administration is treated as a secret even as esoteric process. There is no appreciation of the citizens view point and exercises in public relations are aimed more at publicity and propaganda than at establishing rapport with the community or making genuine attempts to improve the public in the administrative process. The bureaucracy in India is so rigidly hierarchical that there is no mutual trust between Government units or even employees with in a particular department. When confronted with a difficult decision. The Indian bureaucrat seldom makes any attempt to tackle the problem with initiative and imagination.

The administrative and management culture prevalent in India today reflects the family atmosphere and the way people live at home. This rigid nature of ties in the family is reflected in the control that people adopt at the office. People are actually taught not to question but only to remember and follow. The superiors expect loyalty not to the project but to him. Corruption has almost become the way of life. A sort of cynicism seems to prevail that one has got to live with it. The officers excessive dependence upon notations entered by the junior clerks on every file, the out dated administrative procedures and formalism, the excessive delay in forwarding an application, the infinite time taken to pass the final order, the uncertainty and variance in the application of rules and regulations, methods of flattery that encourage subservience for obtaining service, from the administrators and the, lubrication required in the form, of payment to powerful political or bureaucratic functionaries to get the work done have all become a part of the administrative culture of India. Performance is at the level of the lowest common denominator.

Apart from its relations with the political leadership, the other factor which, influences the administrative culture of India is lack of morality in the administration, unethical conduct is not only responsible for carelessness and irresponsibility towards citizens. The prevailing    political atmosphere, the falling standards of public life and the loss of moral values among the political leaders have bred a corresponding insensitivity, demoralization and unresponsiveness among public officials.