Static GK Quiz: Important Commissions and Committees of India

The correct answer is D, 1979. The Second Backward Classes Commission, known as the Mandal Commission after its chairman Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal, was appointed on the first of January 1979 by the Janata Party government of Morarji Desai under Article 340 of the Constitution. It submitted its report in December 1980, identified a long list of socially and educationally backward communities and recommended twenty-seven per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in central government services and in central educational institutions. Option A is wrong because 1990 is the year the recommendation was implemented, when the V. P. Singh government issued the office memorandum on OBC reservation, not the year of appointment. Option B is wrong because no backward classes commission was appointed in 1972. Option C is wrong because 1967 relates to the first Administrative Reforms Commission period and to the general elections of that year, not to this commission. The First Backward Classes Commission under Kaka Kalelkar had been appointed in 1953.

The correct answer is D, Mother Tongue. Every major Indian education commission has held that a child learns best in the language spoken at home. The Secondary Education Commission of 1952 under Dr A. Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar and the Education Commission of 1964 to 1966 under Dr D. S. Kothari both said the mother tongue should be the medium at the primary stage, and the Kothari Commission built its three-language formula on that base. The National Policy on Education and later policy documents repeat the same position. Option A is wrong because the regional language of a state may not be the language a particular child speaks, as with a tribal or migrant child, so it is a weaker rule than the mother tongue. Option B is wrong because introducing English as the medium at the primary stage works against comprehension, though it is taught as a language. Option C is wrong because the official language, Hindi or English for Union purposes, is chosen for administration and not for the comprehension of young learners.

The correct answer is A, Kaka Kalelkar. The First Backward Classes Commission was appointed in January 1953 under Article 340 with Dattatreya Balkrishna Kalelkar, known as Kaka Kalelkar, as chairman, and it submitted its report in 1955. It listed more than two thousand communities as backward but the government rejected the report, in part because the chairman added a note of dissent doubting whether caste should be the test of backwardness. Option B is wrong because B. P. Mandal chaired the Second Backward Classes Commission of 1979. Option C is wrong because Justice Rajinder Sachar chaired the committee of 2005 on the status of Muslims in India. Option D is wrong because Justice R. S. Sarkaria chaired the commission of 1983 on Centre-State relations. Keeping the two backward classes commissions apart by chairman and year is the quickest way to answer this family of questions.

The correct answer is B, the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee. Appointed in 1957 to examine the working of the community development programme, it reported that development could not succeed without democratic decentralisation and recommended a three-tier structure: the gram panchayat at the village level, the panchayat samiti at the block level and the zila parishad at the district level, with elected bodies at the base. Rajasthan was the first state to adopt the system, inaugurated at Nagaur in October 1959, followed by Andhra Pradesh. Option A is wrong because the Ashok Mehta Committee of 1977 recommended a two-tier system with the mandal panchayat and the zila parishad. Option C is wrong because the L. M. Singhvi Committee of 1986 recommended constitutional status for panchayats and the creation of nyaya panchayats. Option D is wrong because the G. V. K. Rao Committee of 1985 recommended that the district be the unit of planning with a district development commissioner.

The correct answer is B, Centre-State relations. The commission was appointed in 1983 under Justice Ranjit Singh Sarkaria, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, to review the working arrangements between the Union and the states. It reported in 1988 with recommendations that included the creation of the Inter-State Council, sparing use of Article 356, consultation with states before legislating on subjects in the Concurrent List, and appointment of Governors who are detached from local politics. Option A is wrong because banking reform was the work of the Narasimham Committees of 1991 and 1998. Option C is wrong because linguistic reorganisation was examined by the Dhar Commission of 1948, the JVP Committee of 1949 and the States Reorganisation Commission of 1953. Option D is wrong because poverty measurement was studied by the Lakdawala, Tendulkar and Rangarajan committees.

The correct answer is C, the Kothari Commission. The Education Commission of 1964 to 1966, chaired by the physicist Dr Daulat Singh Kothari, was the first body to study education at every stage from the primary school to the university. It proposed a uniform national structure of ten years of general education, two years of higher secondary education and three years for the first degree, along with the three-language formula, work experience in school and public spending of six per cent of national income on education. Its report shaped the National Policy on Education of 1968. Option A is wrong because the Radhakrishnan Commission of 1948 dealt only with university education. Option B is wrong because the Mudaliar Commission of 1952 dealt with secondary education and suggested multipurpose schools. Option D is wrong because the Hunter Commission of 1882 was a colonial body on primary and secondary education.

The correct answer is A, Justice Fazl Ali. After the death of Potti Sriramulu and the creation of Andhra State in 1953, the government appointed the States Reorganisation Commission under Justice Saiyid Fazl Ali, with the historian K. M. Panikkar and the educationist Hriday Nath Kunzru as its other two members. It reported in 1955, accepted language as a basis for reorganisation while rejecting the principle of one language one state, and its work led to the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, which created fourteen states and six union territories. Option B is wrong because Panikkar was a member, not the chairman. Option C is wrong because Kunzru was likewise a member. Option D is wrong because Justice S. K. Dhar chaired the earlier Linguistic Provinces Commission of 1948, which advised that administrative convenience rather than language should guide reorganisation.

The correct answer is B, banking. The Committee on the Financial System of 1991 and the Committee on Banking Sector Reforms of 1998, both chaired by M. Narasimham, a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, set the agenda for liberalising Indian banking. Their recommendations included reducing the statutory liquidity ratio and the cash reserve ratio, introducing prudential norms for capital adequacy and income recognition, allowing new private banks, giving public sector banks operational autonomy, setting up debt recovery tribunals and asset reconstruction, and moving towards stronger and fewer banks through mergers. Option A is wrong because insurance reform was recommended by the Malhotra Committee of 1993, which led to the insurance regulator and private entry. Option C is wrong because railway restructuring was examined by the Bibek Debroy Committee. Option D is wrong because farming was the subject of the Swaminathan Commission of 2004.

The correct answer is A, M. S. Swaminathan. The National Commission on Farmers was set up in 2004 and from its second term was chaired by the agricultural scientist Professor M. S. Swaminathan, the geneticist associated with the Green Revolution in India. The commission submitted five reports between 2004 and 2006 and is remembered for recommending that the minimum support price be fixed at least fifty per cent above the weighted average cost of production, along with land reform, better irrigation, cheaper credit and a national food security system. Option B is wrong because Verghese Kurien led the dairy cooperative movement and Operation Flood. Option C is wrong because Norman Borlaug was the American scientist who bred the high-yielding wheat varieties used in the Green Revolution, not the head of an Indian commission. Option D is wrong because Ashok Gulati is an agricultural economist who chaired the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, a different body.

The correct answer is A, the Santhanam Committee. The Committee on Prevention of Corruption, appointed in 1962 under K. Santhanam, reported in 1964 and recommended a central body to oversee vigilance work in the government. The Central Vigilance Commission was created that year by an executive resolution and was given statutory status by the Central Vigilance Commission Act of 2003, after the Supreme Court judgment in the Vineet Narain case. Option B is wrong because A. D. Gorwala reported in 1951 on public administration generally and on the need for an honest and efficient civil service. Option C is wrong because Paul Appleby, an American expert, reported in 1953 and 1956 on Indian public administration and proposed an institute of public administration. Option D is wrong because the Kelkar committees dealt with tax reform and the fiscal responsibility roadmap, not vigilance.

The correct answer is B, the Finance Commission. It is created by Article 280 of the Constitution, which requires the President to constitute it every fifth year or earlier to recommend the distribution of the net proceeds of taxes between the Union and the states, the principles governing grants-in-aid and other matters referred to it. Because it is named in the Constitution, it can be changed only by amendment. Option A is wrong because the National Human Rights Commission is a statutory body under the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993. Option C is wrong because NITI Aayog was created in 2015 by a resolution of the Union Cabinet, which makes it an executive or non-statutory body, exactly as the Planning Commission of 1950 was. Option D is wrong because the National Commission for Women is statutory, created by the National Commission for Women Act of 1990.

The correct answer is A, the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952. Under this Act the central or a state government may appoint a commission to inquire into any definite matter of public importance, and must do so if Parliament or the state legislature passes a resolution to that effect. Such a commission has the powers of a civil court to summon witnesses, examine them on oath and require the production of documents, but its report is recommendatory and the government must place it before the legislature with a memorandum of action taken. The Shah Commission of 1977 on the Emergency and the Liberhan Commission of 1992, which reported in 2009, were both appointed under it. Option B is wrong because the Code of Criminal Procedure governs criminal investigation and trial, not public inquiries. Option C is wrong because that Act protects judicial officers from suits for acts done in good faith. Option D is wrong because the Public Servants Inquiries Act of 1850 provides for inquiry into charges of misconduct against individual public servants.