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Home/upsc: ministries & departments

Mains Answer Writing Latest Questions

Prateek
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PrateekLearner
Asked: June 5, 2024In:
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Is there a need to rationalize the large number of ministries in the Government of India? Discuss with logical arguments. (Answer in 200 words)

upsc: ministries & departments
  1. Debanshu Patra
    Debanshu Patra Begginer

    Rationalizing the large number of ministries in the Government of India is essential for several reasons. Firstly, it enhances efficiency and coordination by reducing overlapping functions and responsibilities, thus speeding up decision-making processes. Streamlining ministries can lead to better utRead more

    Rationalizing the large number of ministries in the Government of India is essential for several reasons. Firstly, it enhances efficiency and coordination by reducing overlapping functions and responsibilities, thus speeding up decision-making processes. Streamlining ministries can lead to better utilization of resources, both human and financial, by cutting down administrative overheads and redundancy, ensuring more effective allocation to priority areas.

     

    Moreover, fewer ministries ensure more coherent and integrated policy formulation and implementation, avoiding conflicting policies and improving the governance framework. This also enhances accountability and transparency, making it easier to monitor performance and enforce transparency, thereby fostering public trust in the administration.

     

    Adopting best practices from developed countries with streamlined ministries can improve India’s administrative structure. Rationalization allows for a focus on core governmental functions, reducing bureaucratic complexity and enabling quicker responses to emerging challenges and opportunities.

     

    However, it is important to consider potential drawbacks, such as the loss of sector-specific expertise and transitional challenges. Careful planning and management are required to minimize disruptions and maintain focus on specialized areas. Overall, rationalizing ministries can significantly improve governance efficiency, resource utilization, and policy coherence in India.

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Kavita Singh
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Kavita SinghLearner
Asked: June 17, 2024In:
  • 0

In the Indian Parliamentary system, Cabinet Committees are crucial in reestablishing the principles of homogeneity of the Executive and collective responsibility. Explain.(150 words)

upsc: ministries & departments
  1. Kumkum Singh
    Kumkum Singh Begginer

    Answer: Cabinet Committees are extra-constitutional bodies provided in the Government of India Transaction of Business Rules, 1961. They are set up to relieve the Cabinet of some burden of work. They usually comprise Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State to deliberate and take a final call on impRead more

    Answer: Cabinet Committees are extra-constitutional bodies provided in the Government of India Transaction of Business Rules, 1961. They are set up to relieve the Cabinet of some burden of work. They usually comprise Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State to deliberate and take a final call on important policy issues related to different sectors such as security, politics, economy, among others. Due to their composition, they can be indirectly said to be equivalent to the Council of Ministers (CoM). Role in reinstating collective responsibility and principle of homogeneity of the Executive:

    • Collectively answerable: Article 75(3) of the Constitution states that the CoM is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha. Cabinet Committee’s decisions make the CoM collectively answerable to the Lok Sabha for the policies and decisions of the government, even though a decision taken may pertain to a single ministry.
    • Joint decision: Cabinet Committees’ decisions become a joint decision of all the Ministers, hence it is the duty of every minister to stand by cabinet decisions and support them both within and outside the Parliament.
    • Reflective of the decision of the Government: In all areas delegated to the Cabinet Committees, normally the decision of the Cabinet Committee in question is the decision of the Government of the day.
    • They also ensure homogeneity of the Executives in following manner:
      • Cabinet Committees play the role of assisting the Government in decision-making thereby ensuring coordination among different Ministries by erasing differences that arise within various Ministries or Departments.
      • Cabinet Committees are involved in ensuring the meeting of minds of different Ministries with the help of the Standing and Ad hoc Committees of Secretaries.
      • Cabinet Committees collectively work towards managing grave crises that are faced by the nation by means of coordinating different activities of the Ministries in such circumstances. For e.g.: Economic Affairs Committee directs and coordinates governmental activities in the economic sphere.

    In this way, Cabinet Committees have played highly relevant roles in guiding the Cabinet and its ministers in the process of handling the largest democracy in the world and provide good governance to its citizens.

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Aditi Sharma
  • 2
Aditi SharmaBegginer
Asked: July 15, 2024In:
  • 2

Talk about the India government’s Cabinet Secretariat’s organizational structure and duties. Compare it to the administrative hub of other significant democracies and examine its role in coordinating the operations of numerous ministries and departments.

upsc: ministries & departments
  1. Parmanad Singh
    Parmanad Singh Begginer

    The Rajya Sabha, or the Council of States, is the upper house of the Indian Parliament and plays a significant role in the country's parliamentary system. Let's evaluate its role and compare it with the upper houses in other major bicameral legislatures: Role of the Rajya Sabha in the Indian ParliamRead more

    The Rajya Sabha, or the Council of States, is the upper house of the Indian Parliament and plays a significant role in the country’s parliamentary system. Let’s evaluate its role and compare it with the upper houses in other major bicameral legislatures:

    Role of the Rajya Sabha in the Indian Parliamentary System:

    Representation of States and Union Territories: The Rajya Sabha provides representation to the states and union territories of India, with each state and UT having a specific number of seats allocated based on their population.
    Legislative Functions: The Rajya Sabha has the power to introduce, consider, and pass bills, except for money bills, which can only originate in the Lok Sabha (the lower house).
    Oversight and Accountability: The Rajya Sabha can hold the government accountable through mechanisms like question hour, short-duration discussions, and calling attention motions.
    Constitutional Amendments: The Rajya Sabha plays a crucial role in the amendment of the Constitution, as any constitutional amendment requires the approval of both houses of Parliament.
    Impeachment of the President: The Rajya Sabha, along with the Lok Sabha, can initiate the process of impeachment of the President of India.
    Comparison with the U.S. Senate and the U.K. House of Lords:

    United States Senate:
    The U.S. Senate represents the states, with each state having two senators, regardless of population.
    The Senate has equal legislative powers to the House of Representatives, including the ability to introduce, debate, and pass bills.
    The Senate plays a crucial role in the confirmation of presidential appointments and in the ratification of treaties.
    The Senate also has the sole power to conduct impeachment trials of the President, Vice President, and other federal officials.
    United Kingdom House of Lords:
    The House of Lords is the upper house of the U.K. Parliament, but it has a more limited role compared to the Rajya Sabha and the U.S. Senate.
    The House of Lords is primarily a revising chamber, with the ability to delay and amend bills passed by the House of Commons (the lower house).
    The House of Lords has no power to initiate or veto money bills, and its role in legislative process is generally secondary to the House of Commons.
    The members of the House of Lords are mostly appointed, rather than elected, and include life peers, hereditary peers, and bishops of the Church of England.
    While the specific powers and structures of the upper houses vary across different countries, they all share the common goal of providing representation, oversight, and a check on the legislative power of the lower houses. The Rajya Sabha in India plays a significant role in the parliamentary system, with powers that are more comparable to the U.S. Senate than the U.K. House of Lords.

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Nandani Naina
  • 1
Nandani NainaBegginer
Asked: July 19, 2024In:
  • 1

upsc: ministries & departments
  1. Vinni Bihari
    Vinni Bihari Begginer

    A cooperative is a voluntary association of individuals having common needs, who join hands for the achievement of common economic interest. It aims to provide support to its members, with focus on the interest of the poorer sections of society, through the principle of mutual help. There are differRead more

    A cooperative is a voluntary association of individuals having common needs, who join hands for the achievement of common economic interest. It aims to provide support to its members, with focus on the interest of the poorer sections of society, through the principle of mutual help. There are different types of cooperatives working in India viz. Consumers’ Cooperatives Societies, Producers’ cooperative societies, Cooperative Credit Societies, Cooperative Farming Societies and Housing Cooperative Society.

    Significance of Cooperatives in India:

    • Enhancing Social Cohesion: Unlike other processes of social cohesion that are public and involve a third party, the cooperative way is natural, intimate, private and does not involve a third party. It makes cooperation, in the cooperative, an alternative approach to social cohesion.
    • Social empowerment: It promotes equal rights, enhances bargaining power of the poor, promotes leadership as all members are equal and free for their rights as well as Cooperative institutions elect their leaders democratically.
    • Promoting Financial inclusions: Cooperatives have been revolutionary institutions in providing credit to farmers at cheaper rates and substituting the role of moneylenders and other non-institutional suppliers of credit from the rural scene.
    • Reduce inequality of wealth: It helps in facilitating equal distribution of wealth by enhancing accessibility to loans at affordable rates and providing financial and other assistance to marginalized and economically weak sections.
    • Role of Cooperatives in Indian Agriculture: It helps in provision of credit, input delivery and its effective usage, processing and marketing of agricultural produce, storage facilities and information sharing.

    Recently, the Union Government has created a separate Ministry of Cooperation to be led by the Union Home Minister to give impetus to cooperatives as:

    • It will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country.
    • It will help deepen cooperatives as true people based movements reaching up to the grassroots.
    • It will work to streamline processes for Ease of Doing Business for cooperatives and enable development of Multi-State Cooperatives.
    • Under the new Ministry, the cooperative movement would get the required financial and legal power to penetrate all over India.

    However, the Supreme Court has declared some portions of Part IXB, introduced in the Constitution by the 97th Amendment Act of 2012, which provided the terms for running cooperative societies in a single state as unconstitutional. This has created doubts regarding the role of the newly created Ministry of Cooperation as it will now have powers to frame rules only for multi-state cooperatives or for those cooperatives, which are working in Union Territories. Notwithstanding the legal challenges, there is a need for a strong cooperative movement for developing the rural and agriculture sector of India. For this, various other measures like structural reforms in terms of winding up weaker and inefficient societies and merging stronger and efficient societies, promoting multipurpose societies, ensuring efficiency in functioning, capacity building and promoting transparency for making the cooperative more effective and realizing its objectives are needed to be taken at both levels- union and state- in the spirit of cooperative federalism.

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Dinesh Raghavan
  • 0
Dinesh RaghavanBegginer
Asked: January 21, 2025In:
  • 0

Roadmap for Answer Writing 1. Introduction Briefly define DRSCs and their purpose in Parliament. Mention why they are referred to as ‘Mini Parliament’ (e.g., bicameral composition, oversight functions, and policy scrutiny). 2. Role and Significance of DRSCs Highlight their importance in parliamentary democracy, including: Oversight over ...

upsc: ministries & departments
  1. Team
    Best Answer
    Team Supreme

    Model Answer Nature of Recommendations Non-Binding Recommendations: The recommendations made by DRSCs are not binding on the government, reducing their impact. Example: Despite detailed recommendations by the Committee on Communications and Information Technology to mitigate internet shutdowns, therRead more

    Model Answer

    Nature of Recommendations

    • Non-Binding Recommendations: The recommendations made by DRSCs are not binding on the government, reducing their impact.
      • Example: Despite detailed recommendations by the Committee on Communications and Information Technology to mitigate internet shutdowns, there has been minimal implementation.

    Low Productivity

    • Declining Committee Engagement: The 16th Lok Sabha witnessed a 22.1% reduction in sittings compared to the 15th Lok Sabha. Additionally, the productivity of Standing Committees decreased by 26.8% in terms of working hours.
      • This undermines the deliberative function that DRSCs are supposed to supplement.

    Decreasing Bill Referrals

    • Decline in Referrals: During the 17th Lok Sabha, only 16% of Bills were referred to DRSCs, a sharp decline from 71% and 60% in the 15th and 14th Lok Sabhas, respectively.
      • This limits the committees’ role in scrutinizing legislation and policies in detail.

    Inadequate Technical and Support Staff

    • Staffing Deficiencies: DRSCs lack sufficient full-time technical and research staff, hindering their capacity for in-depth analysis and comprehensive reporting.
      • This reduces their ability to hold the executive accountable effectively.

    Conclusion

    To enhance the functioning of DRSCs and restore their role as a robust mechanism of parliamentary oversight, the following measures are necessary:

    • Making recommendations binding to ensure implementation.
    • Increasing the referral of Bills for thorough scrutiny.
    • Strengthening committee staffing and technical support.
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