Topic: Parliament and State Legislatures – structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.
2) Analyse the mechanism of Parliamentary oversight of the government’s financial activities and examine how to strengthen it. (250 Words)
Why this question?
In the light of series of scams and also misuse/misallocation of funds, financial oversight by both the Parliament and other regulatory bodies is an extremely important topic for Mains-2018.
Key demand of the question:
It’s a factual question with two demands: First, to check your understanding of Parliamentary mechanism (strengths and weaknesses) that keeps a vigil on government’s financial activities and your knowledge; secondly your grasp of concepts based on which you should make suggestions to strengthen parliamentary oversight on finances.
Directive Word:
There are two directives: Analyse and Examine.
In the first of the answer, there should be 2-3 parts (budget process, committees oversights etc) where you need to provide concept and fact. (Analyse)
In the second part, you may not divide your answer into parts – instead write 4-5 points i.e. your suggestions. make sure there are examples. (Examine is basically presenting facts as they are).
Structure of Answer:
In the introduction you should write about one line each on financial oversight and suggestion. Don’t write background etc.
As discussed above, body should have Two Parts and within First part, there should be 2-3 sub-parts. In the second part of the body, 4-5 points with examples should be there.
In the conclusion, write about recent incident of scam that has taken place due to weakness in financial oversight and how important are your suggestions to prevent such scams.
