• 9964432222
  • Mail Us
  • Appointment
  • Locate Us
  • Chat Now
  • Courses
  • Login
  • Register
Manifest IAS
JournalsOfIndia
Manifest Learning Academy
  • Home
  • SNIPPETSfor Prelims
  • ARTICLESfor Mains
  • BROWSEBY SOURCE
  • DOWNLOADS
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • SNIPPETSfor Prelims
  • ARTICLESfor Mains
  • BROWSEBY SOURCE
  • DOWNLOADS
No Result
View All Result
JournalsOfIndia
No Result
View All Result
Home Governance

Rationalisation of Autonomous Bodies

January 20, 2021
in Governance
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Rationalisation of Autonomous Bodies
656
VIEWS
Share on WhatsAppShare on TelegramShare on Facebook
image_pdfMake PDF

Autonomous bodies are crucial to the government’s functioning. But, questions have been raised about the transparency and accountability of autonomous bodies in India. The functioning and governance of such bodies can be the focus of UPSC.

In news: The Union Government is considering rationalizing over 120 autonomous bodies
Placing it in syllabus: Governance

Dimensions:

  • What are autonomous bodies?
  • Relevance of autonomous bodies
  • Funding of autonomous bodies
  • Scheme and need for rationalisation

Content

What are autonomous bodies?

  • An Autonomous Body (AB) is set up by the government for a specific purpose.
  • They are set up whenever certain functions need to be discharged with some amount of independence and flexibility without day-to-day interference of the Governmental machinery.
  • These are set up by the Ministries/Departments concerned with the subject matter.
  • They are either registered as societies under the Societies Registration Act or in certain cases they have been set up as statutory institutions under the provisions contained in various Acts.

Relevance of autonomous bodies: 

  • Autonomous bodies are engaged in diverse activities of the government. 
  • They are involved in formulating frameworks for policies, conducting research, and preserving the cultural heritage, etc.
  • Therefore, they are a major stakeholder in the government’s functioning. 

Funding of Autonomous Bodies

  • Most of the Autonomous Bodies receive money from the Central Government by way of grants-in-aid.
  • The amount of such grants depends on the extent to which such institutes generate internal resources of their own.
  • These grants are regulated by the Ministry of Finance through their instructions as well as the instructions relating to powers for creation of posts and etc.
  • According to the Budget documents, outlays to these bodies is a staggering Rs 72,200 crore.
  • Over 40% of the funds allocated to these bodies are used for payment of salaries.
  • These Autonomous Bodies are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), and the annual report is presented in the Parliament every year.

Scheme and need for rationalisation:

There are many governance issues in Autonomous Bodies that need review. Some of the pressing matters are:

Lax accountability: 

  • There have been complaints that AB’s don’t follow the policies of the government. 
  • As these bodies are funded by taxpayer’s money, demands were raised to make them more accountable similar to the government departments.

Non-transparent Recruitment: 

  • Autonomous Bodies employ a considerable number of people. However, There is no uniformity in rules for recruitment. 
  • Unlike the government and the public sector undertakings, in which the recruitment is done by a centralised body such as the Staff Selection Committee (SSC), the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) there is no such body for AB’s recruitments.

Ineffective Functioning: 

  • The senior ministry officials do not attend the autonomous body meetings due to lack of time. 
  • They instead nominate junior officials who often lack the jurisdiction to take meaningful decisions during the meetings.

Lost Way and Purpose: 

  • Once created, the entities keep on surviving, many of them not serving any meaningful purpose. 
  • Some bodies created during Asian Games in India in 1982, for instance, were shut down only recently. 
  • Also, the boards were merely advisory in nature and failed to impact on influencing policy-making while they became vehicles of “political patronage” with the emergence of a ‘middleman culture’.

Lack monitoring and oversight: 

  • The exact count of these bodies is not known, with estimates ranging from 400 to 650.

Therefore, the main concern of the Government is that ABs are required to be reviewed and rationalised. 

This would improve their outcomes, effectiveness and efficiency, utilisation of financial and human resources, and improve monitoring and oversight.

To address these issues the central government constituted a Committee for Review of Autonomous Bodies (AB’s), chaired by Ratan Watal.

In its draft interim report, the committee recommended setting up umbrella structures of autonomous bodies wherein a group of similar institutions may be brought together under an overarching framework.

In 2018, the Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the proposal for closure of two autonomous bodies, namely the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi and Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh.

The rationalisation of AB’s is in consonance with the government’s vision of minimum government, maximum governance. 

Mould your thought: What are Autonomous Bodies? Is there a need for a comprehensive review and rationalisation of autonomous bodies?

Approach to the answer:

  • Define Autonomous bodies
  • Functions of AB’s
  • Problems with AB’s
  • Conclusion
image_pdfMake PDF
Source: Hindustan Times, Financial Express
Tags: GS-2Mains

Related Posts

What is Minimum Government and Maximum Governance?

What is Minimum Government and Maximum Governance?

January 27, 2023
National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS)

National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS)

December 30, 2022
Revamped e-HRMS 2.0 Portal

Revamped e-HRMS 2.0 Portal

December 26, 2022
Good Governance Day -2022

Good Governance Day -2022

December 26, 2022
QR code tagging of LPG cylinders

QR code tagging of LPG cylinders

December 24, 2022
Operationalising Unified Health Interface (UHI)

Operationalising Unified Health Interface (UHI)

December 19, 2022
GHAR – GO Home and Re-Unite  portal

GHAR – GO Home and Re-Unite portal

December 12, 2022
The Manthan platform

The Manthan platform

December 1, 2022
Online RTI portal

Online RTI portal

November 26, 2022
Amendments to IT Rules, 2021

Amendments to IT Rules, 2021

November 4, 2022
Please login to join discussion
JournalsOfIndia

Our vision is to orient the readers to grasp the facts objectively and analyse critically. In the rush of reaching first to the readers, the websites miss the balanced opinion, which is the need of the hour. We aim to reach the readers with more crispness, preciseness and relevance. We bring the articles in UPSC way for the civil services aspirants and the Wisest Way for general readers.

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Disaster Management
  • Economy
  • Environment
  • Ethics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Geography
  • Governance
  • History
  • Law & Policy
  • Opinion
  • People in News
  • Places in News
  • Science & Tech
  • Security
  • Society
  • Sports
  • Uncategorized

Browse by Tag

AIR All India Radio BBC Business Line Business Standard dow Down to Earth DownToEarth DTE Economic Times ET FAO Financial Express GS-1 GS-2 GS-3 GS-4 Hindustan Times IE India & the world Indian express Indiatoday India today Kurukshetra Livelihoods portal LiveMint Mains News News Paper Newspaper PIB Prelims PRS India RSTV Science Reporter Survey The Hindu The India Express The Indian Express The Print the wire Times of India TOI TOPPERS Yojana

Newsletter

The most important UPSC news and events of the day.

Get Journals daily newsletter on your inbox.

© 2020 JournalsOfIndia - A free initiative by Manifest Team.

  • Login
  • Sign Up
  • Home
  • SNIPPETS
  • ARTICLES
  • BROWSE
  • DOWNLOADS
No Result
View All Result

© 2020 JournalsOfIndia - A free initiative by Manifest Team.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In