Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for February 19, 2024. If you missed the February 16, 2024 UPSC CSE exam key from the Indian Express, read it here

FRONT PAGE

Talks positive, focused on crop diversification, aid via NAFED: Govt

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Main Examination: General Studies III: Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Diversification, often called the panacea for Punjab’s agrarian crisis, took centre-stage during the fourth round of talks between farmer leaders, three Union ministers, and Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Sunday. The union ministers presented a proposal for diversification into pulses, cotton, and maize, assuring farmers of minimum support prices with no quantity limitations.

• “Farmers’ leaders raised various concerns in the meeting, prompting some out-of-the-box thinking”-Discuss the issues raised by the farmers

• What is the rate of groundwater depletion in Punjab?

• What is the problem with the water in Punjab?

• What is the key cause for groundwater depletion in Punjab?

• What are the reasons for rising desertification in Punjab?

• What is the role of NAFED?

• First of all, what is National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.(NAFED) ?

• ‘The Govt has proposed a solution involving cooperative societies like NAFED entering into five-year contracts with farmers, ensuring purchases at MSP without quantity limitations’-Know how this will be done?

• What are the different formulae to calculate production cost?

• Do You Know-The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) gives three definitions of production costs: A2, A2+FL and C2. A2 costs basically cover all paid-out expenses, both in cash and in kind, incurred by farmers on seeds, fertilisers, chemicals, hired labour, fuel, irrigation, etc. A2+FL cover actual paid-out costs plus an imputed value of unpaid family labour. C2 costs are more comprehensive, accounting for the rentals and interest forgone on owned land and fixed capital assets respectively, on top of A2+FL.

• Why farmers are protesting now?

• What do they want?

• ‘Legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for all the crops’-Comment

• MSP (minimum support price) and effectiveness of MSP implementation-discuss

• Which are the Crops Covered under MSP?

• How MSP is calculated (paid out costs, labour etc.) and Crops covered under the MSP

• The Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP)-Know in Detail

• The Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) and Minimum support prices (MSP)-Connect the dots

• How Government fix MSPs of crops before every planting season?

• What are the demands by Farmers in the context of MSP in the recent scenario?

• “Right to MSP”-is it possible to implement and if not, then what are the issues and Challenges?

• Kharif, Rabi crops, MSP and Doubling Farmers Income-How they are interconnected?

• Recommendation of Ashok Dalwai Committee and M. S. Swaminathan Committee on MSP-Key highlights

• What do you understand by the term ‘comprehensive cost of production of a crop’?

• Demand for legal guarantee for MSP-Pros and Cons

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????Explained: Two reports, 2 decades apart, predicted Punjab’s desertification in 25 years. Here’s why they are both right

????Explained: What is minimum support price (MSP), and how is it fixed?

????The 360° UPSC Debate | Should Minimum Support Prices Be Made A Legal Right?

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme: ????Which of the following factors/policies were affecting the price of rice in India in the recent past? (UPSC GS1, 2020) (1) Minimum Support Price (2) Government’s trading (3) Government’s stockpiling (4) Consumer subsidies Select the correct answer using the code given below: (a) 1, 2 and 4 only (b) 1, 3 and 4 only (c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4 ????In India, which of the following can be considered as public investment in agriculture? (UPSC GS1, 2020) (1) Fixing Minimum Support Price for agricultural produce of all crops (2) Computerization of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (3) Social Capital development (4) Free electricity supply to farmers (5) Waiver of agricultural loans by the banking system (6) Setting up of cold storage facilities by the governments. In India, which of the following can be considered as public investment in agriculture? Select the correct answer using the code given below: (a) 1, 2 and 5 only (b) 1, 3, 4 and 5 only (c) 2, 3 and 6 only (d) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 ????The Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane is approved by the (UPSC GS1, 2015) (a) Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (b) Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (c) Directorate of Marketing and Inspection, Ministry of Agriculture (d) Agricultural Produce Market Committee

Key aspect in poll bond case still alive: Money Bill route

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies II: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these

• General Studies II: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Even as a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional on Thursday, it saved one aspect of the challenge for another day and a larger bench – the issue of the government using the money Bill route to bring in the laws that introduced the electoral bonds.

• ‘Pleas challenging the use of the money Bill route is pending before a seven-judge bench that is yet to be formed’-Why this is of major concern?

• Article 110 of the Constitution deals with what?

• When can a bill be designated as a Money Bill?

• Who decides if a bill is Money Bill or not?

• There is a key difference between a money Bill and an ordinary Bill-what is that?

• What is Finance bill?

• What is Finance Bill in Indian Constitution?

• Article 110, Article 117 (1) and Article 117 (3)-Compare and Contrast

• Financial bills (I) and Financial bills (II)-Know the difference

• Rajya Sabha and Money Bill-connect the dots

• Electoral Bonds-Key Features

• Why did SC Strike Down the Electoral Bonds Scheme?

• For Your Information-Under Article 110(1) of the Constitution, a Bill is deemed to be a Money Bill if it contains only provisions dealing with all or any of the following matters: (a) the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax; (b) regulation of borrowing by the government; (c) custody of the Consolidated Fund or Contingency Fund of India, and payments into or withdrawals from these Funds; (d) appropriation of moneys out of the Consolidated Fund of India; (e) declaring of any expenditure to be expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India or the increasing of the amount of any such expenditure; (f) receipt of money on account of the Consolidated Fund of India or the public account of India or the custody or issue of such money or the audit of the accounts of the Union or of a State; or (g) any matter incidental to any of the matters specified in sub-clauses (a) to (f). But a Bill shall not be deemed to be a Money Bill by reason only that it provides for the imposition of fines or other pecuniary penalties, or for the demand or payment of fees for licences or fees for services rendered, or by reason that it provides for the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax by any local authority or body for local purposes.

Article 110 (3) lays down that “if any question arises whether a Bill is a Money Bill or not, the decision of the Speaker of the House of the People thereon shall be final”. This means that once the Speaker has certified a Bill as a Money Bill, its nature cannot be questioned in a court of law, in the Houses of Parliament, or even by the President.

Under Article 109 (1), a Money Bill cannot be introduced in Rajya Sabha. Once passed by Lok Sabha, it is sent to Rajya Sabha — along with the Speaker’s certificate that it is a Money Bill — for its recommendations. However, Rajya Sabha can neither reject nor amend the Bill, and must return it within 14 days, after which Lok Sabha may choose to accept or reject all or any of its recommendations. In either case, the Bill is deemed to have been passed by both Houses. Under Article 109(5), if Rajya Sabha fails to return the Bill to Lok Sabha within 14 days, it is deemed to have been passed anyway.

The procedure to pass a Money Bill in Parliament is a key provision limiting the powers of Rajya Sabha compared to Lok Sabha. Any Bill other than a Money Bill cannot become law unless both Houses agree to it — with or without amendments. This is important in the current context of questions being raised over classifying a Bill as a Money Bill allegedly to bypass Rajya Sabha, where the government does not have a majority.

In a general sense, any Bill that relates to revenue or expenditure is a Financial Bill. A Money Bill is a specific kind of Financial Bill, defined very precisely: a Bill is deemed to be a Money Bill if it deals only with matters specified in Article 110 (1) (a) to (g). A Money Bill is certified by the Speaker as such — in other words, only those Financial Bills that carry the Speaker’s certification are Money Bills.

Financial Bills that are not certified by the Speaker are of two kinds: Bills that contain any of the matters specified in Article 110, but do not contain only those matters [Article 117 (1)]; and ordinary Bills that contain provisions involving expenditure from the Consolidated Fund [Article 117 (3)].

A Bill of the first kind, like a Money Bill, can be introduced only in Lok Sabha, and only with the recommendation of the President. But other restrictions that apply to Money Bills do not apply to these Bills. Bills under Article 117 (3)can be introduced in either House, though the President’s recommendation is essential for their consideration, and therefore, passage.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????Explained: Money Bill

????SC draws new red line: burden is on state to be ‘least restrictive’

????Money Bills vs Finance Bills: What are the differences, what the court has rule

THE CITY

Why winter of 2022-23 in Delhi was cleaner than usual, but Mumbai saw poor air quality

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- In the winter of 2022-23, Delhi saw cleaner-than-usual air quality while Mumbai’s air was more polluted than is usual for the coastal city.

• “Triple dip La-Nina, unorthodox circulation and unusual spin in air quality of India”, published in the Elsevier Journal says what?

• A new research paper concludes that this “sudden flip-flop” of the pollution cycle is linked to large-scale wind patterns associated with the ‘triple dip’ La Nina-Know in detail

• What is a triple dip La Niña?

• How triple dip La Niña impacted Delhi and Mumbai?

• What is La Niña in weather?

• What is ‘Triple dip’ La Niña?

• La Niña and ‘Triple dip’ La Niña-Compare

• What are the El Niño and La Niña?

• El Niño and La Niña events are not mirror images of each other. They differ in length and strength-How

• What are the conditions which causes ‘Triple dip’ La Niña?

• How ‘Triple dip’ La Niña Impacts-Know Sector and region wise

• For Your Information-A new research paper concludes that this “sudden flip-flop” of the pollution cycle is linked to large-scale wind patterns associated with the ‘triple dip’ La Nina. This change in wind patterns may have contributed to the intrusion of stubble-burning smoke from Punjab and Haryana into parts of peninsular India and Mumbai in the winter of 2022-23, a phenomenon that is not usually seen, according to Gufran Beig, chair professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies and founder of the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), who is the lead author of the paper.

While the La Nina itself is a cyclical phase in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, involving cooler-than-normal sea surface temperatures, the La Nina event that began in 2020 and extended into early 2023 was a prolonged one that lasted for about three years. The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events – the El Nino and La Nina episodes – impact weather worldwide, usually lasting for around nine to 12 months.

The paper, recently published in the journal ‘Science of the Total Environment’ by scientists from the National Institute of Advanced Studies, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, points out that the impact of this “multi-year” La Nina may have been more potent on account of its duration, and its “unprecedented extended period is linked to changing climate.” What the prolonged La Nina episode may have done to the weather is alter the wind pattern, which in turn was “mainly responsible for befuddling air quality.”

According to the paper, changes in the direction and speed of long-range transport level winds were observed in October and November 2022 compared to 2021. Winds blowing towards Delhi during this period are usually north-westerly, and they dump pollutants generated by stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, in the National Capital Region and the Indo-Gangetic Plain. However, in November 2022, these winds were northerly and “relatively faster,” escaping most of the region in the NCR, including Delhi.

Instead, these winds carried pollutants from stubble-burning towards the west-south part of India, including Mumbai, where they were trapped along with locally produced pollutants by relatively calmer surface-level winds. The PM 2.5 level in Mumbai increased significantly during the stubble-burning period, the paper noted. Under the “normal circulation pattern,” this intrusion from stubble burning would have reached Delhi and the surrounding region of the Indo-Gangetic Plains.

Surface level winds from November 2022 to January 2023 were also “relatively stronger” in the north and slower in the south-west parts of the country compared to 2021-22, and this, along with the absence of ‘cold day’ conditions over northwest India till early January may have prevented parts of the region from experiencing stagnation conditions that can prevent dispersion of pollutants.

Air pollution in Delhi-NCR in the winter is linked to low temperature and low wind speed that keeps pollutants trapped close to the surface. In Mumbai, these surface winds were calmer and may have reduced dispersal of pollutants, that is usually seen with high wind speeds since it is a coastal city, the paper observed.

In the La Nina phase, winds over the equatorial Pacific Ocean are easterlies. Easterlies from the Pacific and northeasterlies from the Bay of Bengal “appear to accelerate and enhance the north westerly flow from north India and converge over the Indian peninsular (region), mainly over northern parts of the west coast of India. Thus, it supports the transport of pollutants from North India towards Peninsular India,” the paper explained.

This resulted in a cleaner winter over some parts of north India and more polluted air over parts of peninsular India. In Ghaziabad, for instance, the PM 2.5 level for the October-January period of 2022-23 was 33% lower than the average for the previous three years, while in Rohtak it was 30% lower. In Noida, it was 28% lower. Delhi saw a 10% fall in PM 2.5 levels in 2022-23 compared to the average of the previous three years, the paper noted.

In contrast, Mumbai registered a 30% increase in PM 2.5 levels followed by other peninsular Indian cities like Coimbatore, which saw a 28% increase, and Bengaluru which recorded a 20% increase. Beig pointed out that with La Nina gone, air quality in the winter of 2023-24 returned to “normal levels” in both Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????The ‘triple dip’ La Niña

????The ‘triple dip’ La Niña, and its likely impact in India

EXPRESS NETWORK

‘It’s time the Indian economy realised its full potential of 10 per cent growth’

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Dr Arvind Panagariya, the Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission, speaks to Harikishan Sharma on the economy and the reform agenda he would like to see implemented by the new government.

• As Chairman of 16th Finance Commission, what is the most pressing economic challenge India is facing today?

• As an economist, what are the top reforms you would like to see in the next five years?

• The government tried to implement agriculture reforms but it could not move forward. Should the next government try to move in that direction? What is the way out?

• One of the big issues which states raise today is that cess and surcharges reduce their divisible pool. How do you look at the issue?

• Looking ahead, what are your top priorities and recommendations for India’s economic policy agenda?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????Explained: In the three new labour codes, what changes for workers & hirers?

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

Income, not MSP

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Main Examination: General Studies III: Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Ashok Gulati writes: Farmers, largely from Punjab, are protesting on Delhi’s borders. The government must deal with them rationally — study their demands and sit down with them to resolve the problem at the earliest.

• “The farmers’ demands include making minimum support prices (MSPs) legally binding and fixing MSPs according to the so-called Swaminathan formula”-What exactly M.S Swaminathan suggested?

• Pay attention on the key words and know their meaning: The paid-out costs of farmers and imputed value of family labour (Cost A2+FL), imputed rent on owned land and imputed interest on owned capital.

• What is the current MSP formula which Govt of India use for MSP?

• “The farmers have some other demands including loan waivers, pension for farmers and agricultural labourers, a minimum wage rate of Rs 700/day and allowing MGNREGA workers to work on farmers’ fields”-How these demands will have significant economic implications?

• “One thing that must be understood by policy makers negotiating with farmers is that the real issue behind these economic demands is that farmers basically want significantly higher incomes”-What is your take?

• What would be the best way to increase farmers’ incomes?

• “The future of Indian agriculture’s potential and farmers’ incomes lies more in livestock, fisheries, and horticulture”-How far you agree with the same?

• Author’s Suggestion-In the 23 crops under the MSP regime, the best way to augment farmers’ incomes is to raise their productivity in a sustainable manner and enable them to access the best markets not only in India but across the world. While augmenting productivity requires a lot of investments in agri-R&D and irrigation — this takes time — the issue of access to best markets can be achieved in a relatively shorter time.

The first and foremost policy action that is needed is to remove all bans on agri-exports, stocking limits on private trade, and stop unloading wheat and rice in the open market at below the economic cost of the Food Corporation of India (FCI). These are all anti-farmer policies designed to favour consumers. The fundamental problem of today’s agri-food policies is that they are highly tilted towards consumers at the cost of farmers. This mindset needs to change, especially when the government claims that just 11 per cent of the population live under poverty.

Take the Central budget. Out of roughly Rs 47 trillion, subsidies in the agri-food space account for about Rs 5 trillion, of which 80 per cent is geared towards consumers to keep food prices low. The food subsidy of Rs 2.12 trillion and even the fertiliser subsidy of Rs 1.88 trillion (RE of FY24) is a pass on to consumers as it keeps the costs and thus MSP prices low. This entire gamut of subsidy policies needs a re-visit and reorientation where 75 per cent could be geared towards producers in the form of a price stabilisation fund or policies like PM-Kisan, and only 25 per cent goes to well targeted vulnerable consumers. It is time to stop revdis, and get on with real rational policy making.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????How to double India’s farmers’ income

EXPLAINED

ISRO latest launch: why GSLV rocket is called ‘naughty boy’

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday (February 17) launched a new-generation meteorological satellite, INSAT-3DS, meant to carry out enhanced monitoring of the Earth’s surface, atmosphere, oceans and environment. INSAT-3DS will augment the capabilities of the existing two meteorological satellites, INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR, and boost India’s weather and climate prediction services, early warnings, and disaster management services.

• What is INSAT-3D?

• What is the use of INSAT-3D?

• What is Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle?

• How Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is different from Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle?

• “But more than the satellite, it was the rocket that was the focus of attention of this launch”-Why

• Why GSLV is known as ‘naughty boy’?

• Do You Know-GSLV had flown 15 times before this, and four of these had been unsuccessful, a very high failure rate for any rocket. PSLV, the rocket that ISRO has used the maximum number of times, has failed only twice in its 60 launches, including the first time it was tried way back in 1993. The LVM3 rocket has flown seven times and never failed.

GSLV’s most recent failure was in August 2021, when it was attempting to carry an earth observation satellite EOS-03 into space. Five minutes into the flight, it deviated from the scheduled trajectory, lost the power to carry on, and fell somewhere in the Andaman Sea. It did have a successful launch after that, in May last year, but the uncertainty over its performance had not dissipated completely. That is the reason why Saturday’s launch was watched more keenly for the rocket than the satellite it was carrying.

• What is the problem with GSLV?

• What is cryogenic engine?

• What about indigenous cryogenic technology?

• Does ISRO have a cryogenic engine technology?

• Who made cryogenic engine for ISRO?

• For Your Information-GSLV is a more powerful rocket than PSLV and can carry much heavier satellites. It can carry more than 2,200 kg to geostationary orbits, and over 6,000 kg to the low earth orbits. Its problems have mainly been with the cryogenic engine that powers the third and final stage of the flight. Cryogenics is the science relating to the behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. Cryogenic engines use liquid hydrogen as the main fuel. Hydrogen, the most efficient rocket fuel, is very difficult to handle in its natural gaseous form, but manageable in liquid state. However, it liquifies only at very low temperatures, nearly 250 degrees Celsius below zero. The oxygen that is needed to burn this fuel also needs to be in liquid form. Oxygen is in liquid state at about 90 degrees Celsius below zero.

The GSLV uses a cryogenic engine that is reverse-engineered on a Russian design. The Russians had won a deal to supply cryogenic engines, and technology, to ISRO in the late 1980s, but that deal had come under pressure from the United States which claimed that it violated provisions of Missile Technology Control Regime, an international legal framework meant to stop the proliferation of missile technology.

The deal had to be thus called off. Russia did supply a few of those cryogenic engines but could not transfer the technology. India used those engines in some of its launches in the 2000s, and for later flights, tried to reverse-engineer that engine on its own. It is this reverse-engineered engine, used in the GSLV rockets, that has caused a few headaches for ISRO.

In the meanwhile, India has managed to develop its own cryogenic engine as well, a result of decades of research and development. This engine has an entirely Indian design, developed within ISRO, and uses a different process to burn the fuel. It is closer to the designs of the Arianne rockets that were used by ISRO till a few years ago to launch its heavier satellites. This indigenously developed cryogenic engine is deployed in LVM3, ISRO’s most powerful rocket so far, which carried the Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 missions, among others. LVM3 has had seven flights till now, without any trouble. ISRO scientists, not surprisingly, have a much better grip on this home-grown technology.

Saturday’s successful launch has put away the question marks on the GSLV rocket for the time being, but a more crucial test awaits it in a few weeks’ time when it gets ready to carry the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite. NISAR, a first of its kind collaboration between ISRO and NASA, would be the most prestigious mission for the GSLV so far.

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)-About the Organisation

• Know about India’s satellite launch vehicles

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????‘Naughty boy’ tamed: ISRO’s GSLV injects weather satellite into orbit

BUBONIC PLAGUE CASE REPORTED IN THE US: SHOULD YOU BE WORRIED?

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The bubonic plague is back. Earlier this week, health officials in Oregon, US confirmed the first case of bubonic plague in the state since 2005. According to various reports, the person probably got the disease from a sick pet cat.

The disease was quickly detected and the person received antibiotics for treatment. The contacts of the person and the cat were tracked down and also given the treatment. The cat was also treated but did not survive. Between 1346 and 1353, the bubonic plague killed as many as 50 million in Europe in what is known as the Black Death.

• What is the bubonic plague?

• What are the disease’s symptoms?

• What was the impact of the Black Death?

• Should you be worried about another Black Death?

• How did researchers pinpoint the bubonic plague’s origin?

• Why was this plague called the Black Death?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????Explained: What was the Black Death, where did it originate?

????Black death: The great plague that killed millions, and feudalism

ECONOMY

After PAC nod, hike in reporting limits for Ministries’ spending proposed

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- After a gap of about 18 years, the government is set to revise its financial limits for ‘New Service’ and ‘New Instruments of Service’ after getting approval from Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The panel has approved the Finance Ministry’s proposal to raise the reporting limit for new policy-related expenditure by ministries/departments to above Rs 50 crore but not exceeding Rs 100 crore along with mandating prior approval of Parliament for spending over Rs 100 crore.

• What is ‘New Service’ and ‘New Instruments of Service’?

• ‘New Service’ and ‘New Instruments of Service’ and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC)- Connect the dots

• What is the contingency fund of India?

• Do You Know-New Service (NS) refers to expenditure arising out of a new policy decision, not brought to the notice of Parliament earlier, including a new activity or a new investment. New Instrument of Service (NIS) refers to relatively large expenditure arising out of important expansion of an existing policy. The financial limits for ‘New Service/New Instrument of Service’ are applied whenever the expenditure is incurred on account of the expansion of an existing policy.

“The proposed amendments intend to encourage the Ministries to meticulously estimate their budgetary requirements. The necessity for the upward revision arises due to a surge in supplementary proposals from the Ministries/Departments seeking prior approval from Parliament, causing delays in execution of projects/schemes/programmes despite availability of savings,” the PAC report said. With an expected growth of GDP in the range of 6-7 per cent year-on-year, the size of the Budget is anticipated to grow substantially in the next decade too and thus, required an upward revision in the financial limits.

The PAC and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) have been pointing to the growing instances of unnecessary supplementary, re-appropriations not adhering to the NS/NIS limits; and re-appropriations without reporting to Parliament or without obtaining prior approval of the Finance Ministry. In a separate report titled ‘Excesses over Voted Grants and Charged Appropriations (2019-20)’, which was also tabled in Parliament earlier this month, the PAC had raised concerns over excess expenditure, ranging between 10.04 per cent to 79.77 per cent, incurred during FY 2019-20 for grants/appropriations even after obtaining high amounts of supplementary grants by the ministries/departments to meet their additional requirements.

While explaining the need for the proposed revision, the Department of Expenditure under the Finance Ministry in its submission to the PAC said that in the last four financial years, the ministry took 2,500 tokens to the notice of the Parliament for reappropriation. “Since the last revision in 2006, on a gross basis, the Union Budget has grown in size by more than 1000 per cent…. several of the Ministries tend to take unnecessary supplementary when none was required and requisite authorisation had been given by the Parliament or the PAC to the Government…. As a result of low NIS limits, we have been providing voluminous reports for its scrutiny. In the years 2019-20, 2020- 21, 2021-22, and 2022-23, we took 2,500 tokens to the notice of the Parliament for reappropriating Rs. 5.45 lakh crore… if we apply those proposals to these years, the number of tokens that we would have taken to Parliament for its consideration would have dropped to 800 approximately with the amount that is being scrutinised by Parliament only coming down marginally by Rs 5.25 lakh crore,” it said.

• Public Accounts Committee and Government of India Act of 1919-Connect the Dots

• Public Accounts Committee-Members and Selection Procedure

• Public Accounts Committee and Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)-Connect the Dots

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????PAC: watchdog for govt spending; panel of consensus, controversy

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