Revision summary
Committees are the workshop of Parliament: smaller, bipartisan, and off the whip-driven floor. Standing committees read Bills and demands; financial committees close the budget cycle. The Estimates Committee has thirty Lok Sabha members and no minister. It examines organisation and estimates for economy and efficiency, not political policy. It is not the PAC and not COPU; usefulness is scrutiny, not a second vote on the Budget.
Model answer
Introduction
Parliament cannot examine every rupee and every clause on the floor. Committees are the useful workshop of the House: smaller, bipartisan, and off-camera. The Estimates Committee is the Lok Sabha’s economy-and-organisation watcher. Usefulness is real; it is also bounded by policy, majority, and the fact that it cannot audit like the PAC.
Body
Why committees are useful for parliamentary work
- The floor has party whip, limited time, and televised theatre; a committee can hear officials, call papers, and write a reasoned report without a division bell.
- Department-related Standing Committees scrutinise Bills and demands for grants, which is how a 500-member Lok Sabha still reads a ministry.
- Financial committees — Public Accounts, Estimates, and Public Undertakings — complete the budget cycle after the vote: they ask how money was spent, how estimates were drawn, and how PSUs behave.
- Joint and select committees salvage contested Bills; ethics, privileges, and petitions committees police the House itself.
- Usefulness fails when chairs are captured, attendance is thin, or the government ignores reports; the tool is the committee system, not every sitting.
Role of the Estimates Committee
- Constituted in 1950 on a 1921 colonial seed, it has thirty members from the Lok Sabha only; a minister is not a member.
- It examines whether the organisation, staff, and estimates of a ministry can deliver the voted policy at a lower cost or in a better form.
- It suggests alternative policies only insofar as they serve economy and efficiency; it does not rewrite the political policy that Parliament has already approved.
- It works on selected ministries each year, tours, and reports; the government tables action-taken replies, which is the accountability loop.
- Unlike the PAC it does not rest on CAG audit paras; unlike COPU it is not confined to public undertakings.
Critical note
- Committees are useful because they restore deliberation that the whip removes from the well of the House.
- The Estimates Committee is useful as a pre-audit economy shop, not as a substitute for the CAG or for a no-confidence motion.
- A fair discussion therefore answers yes to usefulness, with the Estimates Committee as the example of scrutiny without a second budget vote.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD F[Floor of the House] --> W[Whip and time limit] C[Committees] --> U[Useful scrutiny] E[Estimates Committee 30 LS] --> ECO[Economy and organisation] PAC[PAC on CAG] --> AUD[Post-audit] E --> LIM[Cannot rewrite policy]
Conclusion
Committees are useful because they give Parliament time, papers, and cross-party examination that the floor cannot. The Estimates Committee, a thirty-member Lok Sabha body, tests whether estimates and organisation match economy and efficiency. It does not audit like the PAC and it does not make policy; it makes the voted budget cheaper and clearer to run.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
How is the President of India elected?
Next question in the 2022 paper (Q15). View answer →
-
Can Rajya Sabha members sit on the Estimates Committee?
No. It is drawn only from the Lok Sabha, because estimates and supply are that House’s privilege.
-
Can the Estimates Committee change government policy?
It may suggest an alternative organisation or economy that implies a policy tweak. It cannot substitute its preference for a policy Parliament has voted.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2025 · Q1 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
What role do Joint Parliamentary Committees (JPCs) play in the Indian legislative process? How do they contribute to effective law-making? Analyse. -
2025 · Q11 · UPGS2 · 12 marks
"India's Constituent Assembly was the legal outcome of Parliamentary developments during the Colonial period." Critically examine this statement. -
2024 · Q11 · UPGS2 · 12 marks
Analyze the statement, "State legislatures are often seen as the voice of the states within India's federal structure." -
2021 · Q7 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
Describe the role played by Parliamentary Committees in the functioning of Indian Parliament. -
2021 · Q15 · UPGS2 · 12 marks
Discuss the main methods by which the Parliament of India controls the executive. -
2021 · Q18 · UPGS2 · 12 marks
Write a short note on the structure and functioning of the Arctic Council.
More from this paper
Q1 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
Describe the salient features of “UMANG Scheme” related to e-governance.
Welfare schemes
UMANG is a unified mobile and web app for new-age governance, launched in November 2017 by MeitY and NeGD. One login reaches many central and state services instead of separate department apps. Aadhaar, DigiLocker, and payments sit on the same rail. The catalogue is multilingual and searchable. The platform works only where departments keep their modules live.
Q2 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
What are the fundamental causes of poverty and hunger? What government schemes have been implemented to eliminate poverty and hunger?
Welfare schemes
Poverty and hunger rest on insecure earnings, unequal land and social access, and weak health and education. Climate and delivery leaks turn a shock into chronic hunger. NFSA 2013 and PMGKAY supply a cereal floor; MGNREGA supplies rural wages. NRLM, PMAY-G, PM POSHAN, POSHAN Abhiyaan, and ICDS attack livelihood, housing, and nutrition. Cereal rations do not by themselves end micronutrient hunger.
Q3 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
Discuss the role of non-governmental organisations in the process of policy making.
Indian Constitution
NGOs shape policy by turning field failure into campaigns that later become law. They supply notes, model bills, and pilots that ministries and committees use. NITI Aayog, social audit, standing committees, media, and PIL are the usual doors. FCRA and donor templates can help or distort Indian federal design. NGOs advise and watch; they do not enact statutes.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.