• The three branches of the government are the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. 
• The executive is the organ that implements the laws made by the Parliament and legislature.
• It is the administrative head of the government.
• The Union executive consists of the President, the Vice-President, and the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as the head to aid and advise the President.

• Our Constitution distributes between the Union and the States not only the legislative power but also the executive power, more or less on the same lines.
• The result is that it is not competent for a State to exercise administrative power with respect to Union subjects, or for the Union to take up the administration of any State function unless authorised on that behalf by any provision in the Constitution.
• In administrative matters, a rigid division like this may lead to occasional deadlocks.
• To avoid such a situation, the Constitution has engrafted provisions enabling the Union as well as a State to make a mutual delegation of their respective administrative functions:

As to the delegation of Unlon functions, there are two methods:

• With the consent of the State Government, the President may, without any legislative sanction, entrust any executive function to that State
• Irrespective of any consent of the State concerned, Parliament may, while legislating with respect to Union subject, confer powers upon a State or its officers, relating to such subject. Such delegation has, in short, a statutory basis.
• Conversely, with the consent of the Government of India, the Governor of a State may entrust on the Union Government or its officers, functions relating to a State subject, so far as that State is concerned.