Indian Polity GK Questions with Answers – Page 58

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, from 1947 until his death in 1950.

Pakistan conferred its highest civilian award, the Nishan-e-Pakistan, on Morarji Desai in 1990, and India awarded him the Bharat Ratna in 1991.

When Jawaharlal Nehru died on 27 May 1964, Gulzarilal Nanda, the senior-most minister, was sworn in as acting Prime Minister and held office for about two weeks until the Congress party chose Lal Bahadur Shastri.

NITI Aayog, the National Institution for Transforming India, was set up on 1 January 2015 by a resolution of the Union Cabinet to replace the Planning Commission, which had existed since 1950.

A no-confidence motion tests whether the government still has the support of the Lok Sabha, and because the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to that House under Article 75(3), the motion is moved against the Council as a whole, never against a single minister.

Article 75(3) says the Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People, the Lok Sabha.

The word "Cabinet" did not appear anywhere in the original Constitution, which speaks only of the Council of Ministers.

The 91st Amendment Act, 2003 inserted Article 75(1A), which says the total number of ministers, including the Prime Minister, in the Union Council of Ministers shall not exceed 15% of the total number of members of the Lok Sabha, and Article 164(1A), which applies the same limit to the States…

The Council of Ministers has three ranks. Cabinet Ministers head the most important ministries and sit in the Cabinet.

Article 75(4) says that before a minister enters office, the President shall administer to him or her the oaths of office and of secrecy according to the forms set out in the Third Schedule.

Article 75(5) says a minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of either House of Parliament shall, at the end of that period, cease to be a minister.

Article 78 makes it the duty of the Prime Minister to communicate to the President all decisions of the Council of Ministers relating to the administration of the Union and proposals for legislation; to furnish such information about them as the President may call for; and, if the President so…

Article 77 says all executive action of the Government of India shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President, and that the President shall make rules for the more convenient transaction of the government's business and for allocating it among ministers.

Article 75(1) says the Prime Minister shall be appointed by the President and the other ministers shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.

Article 74(1) says there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at its head to aid and advise the President, who shall act in accordance with that advice.

The National Human Rights Commission works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is the nodal ministry for human rights in India.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands come under the Calcutta High Court, which has a permanent circuit bench at Port Blair.

Article 343 says Hindi in Devanagari script is the official language of the Union and that English was to continue for fifteen years from 1950, but it also lets Parliament provide by law for the continued use of English after that period, and such a law needs only a simple…

Article 66 lays down the manner of electing the Vice-President of India. He is chosen by an electoral college made up of the members of both Houses of Parliament, elected and nominated alike, by proportional representation through the single transferable vote and by secret ballot.

Protecting monuments and places of national importance is not a fundamental duty; it is a directive principle under Article 49, which asks the State to protect monuments and objects of artistic or historic interest declared to be of national importance.