Coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several parties cooperate. Coalition governments are usually formed as no party can individually achieve a majority in the parliament. However, a coalition government may also be created in a time of national difficulty or crisis. If a coalition collapses, a confidence vote is held … Read more
Rule of Law may be defined as a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures … Read more
“The Scheduled Areas” are those tribal inhabited areas which are located in other parts of the country than the North-East India. These areas are located in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa and Rajasthan. Besides these areas, some other regions of the country also are governed … Read more
Political Parties and Elections Political parties are an established part of modern mass democracy, and the conduct of elections in India is largely dependent on the behaviour of political parties. Although many candidates for Indian elections are independent, the winning candidates for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections usually stand as members of political parties, … Read more
Constitution of Indian under article 163 states that There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions, except in so far as he is by or under this Constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them … Read more
The Governor is the head of the state executive. He is also the representative of the Centre in the state. The Governor acts as the nominal head whereas the real power lies in the hand of the Chief Ministers of the states and the Chief Minister’s Council of Ministers. Article 153 of the Constitution states … Read more
Articles 168 to 212 in Part VI of the Constitution deal with the organisation, composition, duration, officers, procedures, privileges, powers and so on of the state legislature.In most of the States, the Legislature consists of the Governor and the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha). This means that these State have unicameral Legislature. In a Six States( … Read more
The India High Courts Act 1861 was enacted to create High Courts for various provinces and abolished Supreme Courts at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay and also the Sadar Adalats in Presidency towns. These High Courts had the distinction of being the highest Courts for all cases till the creation of Federal Court of India, which … Read more
Articles 233 to 237 in Part VI of the Constitution make the following provisions to regulate the organization of subordinate courts and to ensure their independence from the executive . Articles 233 to 237 in Part VI of the Constitution make the following provisions to regulate the organization of subordinate courts and to ensure their … Read more
The executive powers of the President are exercised by the Council of Ministers. The Constitution provides that “there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President in the excercise of his functions”. Here the word “shall” indicates that the President cannot function without the … Read more
Vice-President performs a dual role : (1) as Vice-President (2) as the Chairman of Rajya Sabha. The Vice-President is the ex-officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha which means that whosoever is the Vice-President, he/she presides over the Rajya Sabha and performs normal duties of a presiding officer. These include maintenance of order in the House, allowing … Read more
The principal function of planning, especially in a federal system, is to evolve a shared vision of and commitment to the national objectives and development strategy not only in the government at all levels, but also among all other economic agents. NITI Aayog acts as the quintessential platform of the Government of India to bring … Read more
First Plan (1951 – 56) Target Growth : 2.1 % Actual Growth 3.6 % It was based on Harrod-Domar Model. Influx of refugees, severe food shortage & mounting inflation confronted the country at the onset of the first five year Plan. The Plan Focussed on agriculture, price stability, power and transport It was a successful … Read more
Decentralized Planning is a type of planning where local organisations and institutions formulate, adopt, execute actions and supervise the plan without interference by the central body. Decentralized planning in the State operated mainly through the following institutions and instruments; Grama Sabha (GS): People’s participation in decentralization was sought to be ensured mainly through meetings of … Read more
India is the third largest producer of cereals, with only China and the USA ahead of it. India occupies the first position in milk production and is the third largest producer of fish and second largest producer of inland fisheries in the world. According to ministry of Agriculture ,India is likely to produce a record … Read more
Delegation The active process of entrustment of a part of work or responsibility and authority to another and the creation of accountability for performance is known as delegation. Thus, there are three elements of delegation as follows- Assignment of Responsibility: This is also known as entrustment of duties. Duties can be divided into two parts: … Read more
The Supreme Court is the highest court of The Indian Republic. Judiciary, the third organ of the government, has an important role to play in the governance. It settles the disputes, interprets laws, protects fundamental rights and acts as guardian of the Constitution. India has a single unified and integrated judicial system and that the … Read more
The founding fathers of our Constitution desired to secure justice, social, economic and political for all citizens. They realized that the inequitable forces embedded in the socio-economic system and also political organizations, had resulted in deprivation and disadvantages for the poor and the weaker sections of the society. They, therefore, considered it necessary to provide … Read more
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), commonly referred to as the World Bank, is an international financial institution whose purposes include assisting the development of its member nation’s territories, promoting and supplementing private foreign investment and promoting long-range balance growth in international trade. The World Bank was established in December 1945 at the … Read more
Human Poverty Index (HPI) The Human Poverty Index (HPI) was first introduced into the Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1997 in an attempt to bring together in a composite index the different features of deprivation in the quality of life to arrive at an aggregate judgement on the extent … Read more
The World Bank defines poverty in absolute terms. The bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.90 per day> (PPP), and moderate poverty as less than $3.10 a day. Types of Poverty Absolute poverty measures poverty in relation to the amount of money necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and … Read more
Economic, social and environmental sustainability The United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a universal and transformative development strategy. The 2030 Agenda commits the global community to “achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions—economic, social and environmental—in a balanced and integrated manner”. Bruntland Report … Read more
Inclusive Growth is economic growth that creates opportunity for all segments of the population and distributes the dividends of increased prosperity, both in monetary and non-monetary terms, fairly across society.Indian Plans after the independence were based on the downward infiltration theory, which failed to bring equitable growth to all the sections of the Indian society. … Read more
The term underdevelopment refers to that state of an economy where levels of living of masses are extremely low due to very low levels of per capita income resulting from low levels of productivity and high growth rates of population. Underdeveloped countries are now known as ‘developing countries’ signifying that such nations are capable of … Read more
The GDI measures gender gaps in human development achievements by accounting for disparities between women and men in three basic dimensions of human development—health, knowledge and living standards using the same component indicators as in the HDI. The GDI is the ratio of the HDIs calculated separately for females and males using the same methodology … Read more
Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. The most critical ones are to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated and to enjoy a decent standard of living. Additional choices include political freedom, guaranteed human rights and self-respect.Human development has to be development of the people, by the people, for the … Read more
According to the 1996 World Food Summit, food security exists “when every person has physical and economic access at all times to healthy and nutritious food in sufficient quantity to cover the needs of their daily ration and food preferences, in order to live a healthy and active life.” The nutritional dimension is an integral … Read more
Agroforestry: Agroforestry is a land-use system in which trees/shrubs are grown in association with agricultural crops, pastures or livestock. This integration of trees and shrubs in the land-use system can be either a spatial arrangement, e.g. trees growing in a field at the same time as the crop, or in a time sequence, e.g. shrubs … Read more
Some of the government schemes for the benefits of the farmers in Jharkhand are: Single Window Platform-> Jharkhand has become the first state in India to launch a single-window facility for farmers. Kisan Suvidha App-> It is a free mobile application that provides weather forecasts for the next five days, besides information on prices of … Read more
WHO Defines Food security to exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food security has three interlinked contents such as :- Availability of food, Access to food and absorption of food. Food … Read more
Financial inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to sections of disadvantaged and low-income segments of society, in contrast to financial exclusion where those services are not available or affordable. Government of India has launched an innovative scheme of Jan Dhan Yojna for Financial Inclusion to provide the financial … Read more
Impacts of Privatization Privatization in generic terms refers to the process of transfer of ownership, can be of both permanent or long term lease in nature, of a once upon a time state-owned or public owned property to individuals or groups that intend to utilize it for private benefits and run the entity with the aim of … Read more
Economic Growth Economic growth means an increase in real GDP. This increase in real GDP means there is an increase in the value of national output / national expenditure. Economic growth is an important macro-economic objective because it enables increased living standards and helps create new jobs. Measurement of Economic Growth Economic growth is measured … Read more
Globalization essentially means integration of the national economy with the world economy. It implies a free flow of information, ideas, technology, goods and services, capital and even people across different countries and societies. It increases connectivity between different markets in the form of trade, investments and cultural exchanges. The concept of globalization has been explained … Read more
Indian Money Market and Banking system is regulated by Reserve Bank of India.The Reserve Bank of India was established on April 1, 1935 in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. Main Functions of RBI are as follows:- Monetary Authority: Formulates, implements and monitors the monetary policy. Objective: maintaining price … Read more
VAT is a multi-stage tax levied at each stage of the value addition chain, with a provision to allow input tax credit (ITC) on tax paid at an earlier stage, which can be appropriated against the VAT liability on subsequent sale. VAT is intended to tax every stage of sale where some value is added … Read more
Balance of Payments is a systematic record of all economic transactions undertaken by residents of one country i.e. households, firms and the government with their counterparts in rest of the world. It consists of: 1. Current Account, 2. Capital Account and 3. Reserve Account. The Current Account covers transactions in goods and services and transfers … Read more
Fiscal policy is that part of Government policy which is concerned with raising revenues through taxation and other means along with deciding on the level and pattern of expenditure it operates through budget. However, generally the expenditure exceeds the revenue income of the Government. In order to meet this situation, the Government imposes new taxes … Read more
Public expenditure is spending made by the government of a country on collective needs and wants such as pension, provision, infrastructure, etc. Until the 19th century, public expenditure was limited as laissez faire philosophies believed that money left in private hands could bring better returns. In democracy, public expenditure is an expression of people’s will, … Read more
India has a well developed taxation structure. The tax system in India is mainly a three tier system which is based between the Central, State Governments and the local government organizations. In most cases, these local bodies include the local councils and the municipalities. According to the Constitution of India, the government has the right … Read more