Development Administration is the modern approach to public administration. Its features are-
(i) Change-oriented: Development administration seeks to re-orient towards development goals in the socio-economic and political sphere through transformation, innovation, and growth. In India after Independence, the two biggest challenges before the government were food scarcity and poverty, and economic backwardness. Hence, the focus was on agriculture as well as on industrial and infrastructural development.
(ii) Output-oriented: Development administration seeks to achieve certain outcomes on the basis of clear, quantitative norms of performance. This focus on targets motivates, the administration to produce the desired results, for e.g., pegging a target of 8 – 10% growth rate for the economy is a reasonable goal to be achieved.
(iii) Citizen participation: It is necessary that people actively participate in the development processes of planning, implementation and evaluation e.g., the 73rd and 74th amendments are a landmark in the evolution of grassroots democratic institutions both in rural and urban areas in India.
(iv) Public commitment: The process of development is filled with challenges and barriers. Hence, the civil servants (bureaucracy) need to have a strong sense of involvement, commitment, and concern to achieve the development objectives.