ARC Reports - 2nd ARC Reports for the UPSC Mains Exam

The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) Reports are important documents from the UPSC civil services exam perspective. They contain a lot of useful information essential for the IAS Exam covering aspects of public administration, governance, ethics in civil services, conflict resolution, etc. Even though highly beneficial, most aspirants skip reading the ARC reports due to their bulk.

This article will talk about ARC reports, and will also help candidates figure out how to read these reports for civil services examination.

ARC – Administrative Reforms Commission for UPSC

The ARC or the Administrative Reforms Commission is a committee set up by the Government of India to review the public administration system and give recommendations to improve it. The reports by the Commission are called the ARC reports. The first ARC (1966) was headed by Morarji Desai initially and later by K. Hanumanthaiah. The second ARC constituted in 2005 was chaired by Veerappa Moily.

Reading about the Administrative Reforms Commission will help candidates in UPSC 2022 examination.

What is the ARC Report?

Reports published by the Administrative Reforms Commission are called ARC Reports. The 1st ARC was set up in 1966 to examine the public administration of the country and make recommendations for reform and reorganisation. The 2nd ARC (2005) prepared a detailed blueprint to revamp the public administrative system. It submitted 15 reports to the Government covering areas like RTI, ethics in governance, local governance, terrorism, public administration, e-governance, financial management and so on.

The 2nd ARC report is beneficial for IAS aspirants for UPSC Mains as it offers detailed information on public administration system and changes required.  The subsequent reports published by the 2nd ARC can be read by candidates helping them for GS-II and GS-IV mains papers.

How to Read ARC Reports for UPSC Exam?

The ARC reports contain a lot of material for the UPSC mains exam. These reports are useful for all IAS aspirants, not just those with public administration as the optional subject. These reports are indeed bulky and hence, UPSC aspirants (in a paucity of time) find it difficult to read them from cover to cover. It is recommended that aspirants read at least a summary of the available reports. The reports themselves summarise the contents at the end of each report. Aspirants can go through them. The reports are available online in the ARC official website (https://darpg.gov.in/panel/first-administrative-reforms-commission-reports) for free. Reading the reports (or the gist) will help aspirants in civil services examination General Studies papers.

The most important reports of the 2nd ARC and their PDFs are given below:

Significance of ARC Reports for IAS

The ARC Reports hold value in the completion of UPSC Syllabus and hence IAS aspirants may read the significance of these given in points below:

• The recommendations of the committee are important and should be focused on by the aspirants in their mains preparation.
• Another wonderful thing about the reports is that they contain a lot of case studies and relevant quotations that you can use in your answers in the UPSC civil services mains exam.

Candidates may also read articles relevant to UPSC IAS exam preparation given in the table below: