Polity

. India has the third largest military in the world and is the sixth biggest defence spender. India is also one of the largest importers of conventional defence equipment and spends around 30% of its total defense budget on capital acquisitions. 60% of defence related requirements are currently met through imports. The ‘Make in India’ … Read more

The distribution of legislative powers between the Centre and the states is rigid. Consequently, the Centre cannot delegate its legislative powers to the states and a single state cannot request the Parliament to make a law on a state subject. The distribution of executive power in general follows the distribution of legislative powers. But, such … Read more

The Constitution defines the territorial limits of the legislative powers vested in the Centre and the states in the following way: The Parliament can make laws for the whole or any part of the territory of India. The territory of India includes the states, the union territories, and any other area for the time being … Read more

Besides the above federal features, the Indian Constitution also possesses the following unitary or non-federal features: Strong Centre The division of powers is in favour of the Centre and highly inequitable from the federal angle. Firstly, the Union List contains more subjects than the State List. Secondly, the more important subjects have been included in … Read more

The parliamentary system of government in India is largely based on the British parliamentary system. However, it never became a replica of the British system and differs in the following respects: India has a republican system in place of British monarchical system. In other words, the Head of the State in India (that is, President) … Read more

State police forces had 24% vacancies (about 5.5 lakh vacancies) in January 2016. Hence, while the sanctioned police strength was 181 police per lakh persons in 2016, the actual strength was 137 police. Note that the United Nations recommended standard is 222 police per lakh persons.  86% of the state police comprises of constabulary. Constables … Read more

Tax on black money The most important way to view demonetisation is as a tax  administration measure, one designed to tax holdings of black money. Of course,  demonetisation of large denomination notes is not exactly the same as demonetisation  of black money. Some cash holdings were perfectly “white”, the fruit of income upon  which taxes … Read more

. A plea was made in favour of US presidential system of government in the Constituent Assembly4. But, the founding fathers preferred the British parliamentary system due to the following reasons: Familiarity with the System The Constitution-makers were somewhat familiar with the parliamentary system as it had been in operation in India during the British … Read more

The features or principles of parliamentary government in India are: Nominal and Real Executives The President is the nominal executive (de jure executive or titular executive) while the Prime Minister is the real executive (de facto executive). Thus, the President is head of the State, while the Prime Minister is head of the government. Article … Read more

. In 1976, the Congress Party set up the Sardar Swaran Singh Committee to make recommendations about fundamental duties, the need and necessity of which was felt during the operation of the internal emergency (1975–1977). The committee recommended the inclusion of a separate chapter on fundamental duties in the Constitution. It stressed that the citizens … Read more