Administrative Reforms Commission or ARC as it is popularly known is a gigantic exercise in Administrative Reforms undertaken by the Government of India, only twice since India became independent. First ARC was appointed in 1966 under the chairmanship of Moraji Desai. This was commission which expanded into a huge machinery consisting of 20 Study groups and scores of subcommittees. It submitted its report within two years of intensive research and analysis. This report contained a wealth of highly valuable recommendations to infuse life into an essentially colonial and outdated system of administration. Many of its recommendations were put into practice by the Government. But due to changed socio-economic and political landscape of the country the need for setting up a Second Administrative Reforms Commission was being increasingly felt. This led to formation of Second ARC by the Government of India in the year 2005 under the chairmanship of Shri Veerappa Moily.
The need to setup a Second ARC was felt due to the changing priorities being set before Indian Administration. The socio-economic reality of 21st century India is way too different from the Mid-Twentieth century India when First ARC was setup. In current scenario of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization the administration has to shoulder new responsibilities and shed some older ones. The role of state as the most important economic in erstwhile pre liberalization India has given way to the role as the most important facilitator of economic activity in the country as whole. In view of total opening up of the economy for private investment the administration has to shift its focus primarily to the welfare activities. But, the role of state as a regulator of economic activities and ensuring fair and smooth functioning of the markets has become even more important. Thus regulatory and welfare responsibilities of the government have increased exponentially in past couple of decades. In addition, government has to continuously upgrade its capability in view of onset of the information society in India where people are demanding equal status with the government in governing the country. The issue of public accountability and citizens’ right to information has been ensured by an act of the parliament. The challenges faced by the country are also tremendous- Centre State relations, Issues of Corruption and inefficiency in the administration, growing impatience in the citizenry, impact of global culture, spurt in regional and sectarian tendencies and last but not the least the menace of the terrorism are some of the herculean challenges staring in the face of administration.
With this background let us analyze the recommendations of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission of India and their implications. Second ARC (we will call it only ‘ARC’ hence forth) has submitted 11 reports till now and a short brief on terrorism. These reports deal primarily with following areas-
1st Report of ARC    - 'Right to Information : Master Key to Good Governance', June 2006
2nd  report of ARC   - Unlocking Human Capital: Entitlements and Governance - a case study
3rd  report ARC        -Crisis management
4th  report ARC         -Ethics in Governance'
5th  report of ARC    -PUBLIC ORDER
6th  report of ARC    -Local Governance
7th Report                 - 'Capacity Building for Conflict Resolution'
8th Report                 - COMBATTING TERRORISM- PROTECTING BY RIGHTEOUSNESS 
9th Report                 - Social Capital-A shared Destiny
10th Report              - Refurbishing of Personnel Administration – Scaling New Heights
11th Report              - PROMOTING e-GOVERNANCE: The SMART Way Forward

Here I would suggest that you memorize the issues dealt in each report as given here. This can actually come as a question in prelims and certainly one of these reports will come in Mains this year, especially in the papers of Public Administration, Sociology and Political Science and in all probability in GS also as a short question. In the next few articles we are going to analyze the ARC recommendations in detail.