Myarticleis designed to serve GS as well as optional History. So detailing is done.
MUGHAL ARCHITECTURE
Mughal rulers were men of acute aesthetic awareness who revitalised Indo-Islamic architecture. Thirteenth century had already introduced of the arcuate technique where spaces were covered with domes and entrances were made with the help of arches. The new rulers effected an amalgam of the prevalent architectural forms and techniques with those brought from Central Asia and Persia. The Mughals carried this tradition and created a synthesis of the pre-Turkish indigenous technique, viz., trabeate with the arcuate.
Marble replaced red sandstone as the principal building material, and the decorative art of inlaying achieved distinction with the introduction of semiprecious stones as inlay material, called pietra dura (prachin kari). Shah Jahan also introduced the bulbous domes and convoluted arches in his buildings.
BABUR took considerable interest in building secular works.Babur's secular works mainly comprise the laying of gardens and pavilions. Ruins of a couple of mosques built by Babur & Humayun survive but lack any architectural distinctiveness.
HUMANYUS TOMB: This building is in fact a landmark in the development of the Mughal style of architecture. The architect of the building was Mirak Mitza Ghiyas, a native of Persia. He brought many Persian craftsmen to Delhi to work on the structure and their skills and techniques were liberally employed.
SUR ARCHITECTURE
The architectural heritage produced under diverse conditions and in two separate localities of the Surs may be divided into two separate and distinct periods.
The first phase is represented by a group of tombs. These buildings reflect the ambition of Sher Shah to create monuments grander than anything around in Delhi. This was to create an elevated genealogy for himself.
The first project of this scheme was the construction of the tomb of Hasan Khan, Sher Shah's father, in 1525. But this was a conventional exercise in Lodi design. The first architectural masterpiece was the tomb of Sher Shah in Sasaram. Here the architect considerably enlarged the normal proportions of the earlier building and set it in a beautiful artificial lake approached by a causeway. In addition to this, he increased the number of stories thus producing a beautiful pyramid structure in five distinct stages. This monument was constructed of the finest Chunar sandstone.
The main building comprises of octagonal chamber surrounded by an arcade. There are domed canopies in each corner of the platform.
The second phase of development took place in Delhi. Sher Shah built the Purana Qila intended to be the sixth city of Delhi. Far more important, however, was the Qilsi Kuhna Masjid , built about 1542 inside the Purana Qila citadel. Its facade of the prayer hall is divided into five arched bays, the central one larger than the others.
One notable feature in this building is the shape of the arches - there is a slight drop, or flatness, in the curve towards the crown. It is indicative of the last stage before the development of the four-centred "Tudor" arch of the Mughals.
AKBAR
Akbar's reign can be taken as the formative period of Mughal architecture. It represents the finest example of the fusion of Indo-Islamic architecture.
STRUCTURAL FORM: The architecture of the reign of Akbar represents encouragement of the indigenous techniques and a selective use of the experiences of other countries.
The chief elements of the style of architecture that evolved under Akbar's patronage are listed thus:
a) The buildings mainly used red sandstone as the building material
b) A widespread use of the trabeated construction
c) The arches used mainly in decorative form rather than in structural form
d) The dome was of the 'Lodi' type, sometimes built hollow but never technically of the true double order.
e) The shafts of the pillars were multifaceted and the capitals of these pillars invariably took the form of bracket supports;
f) The decoration comprised of boldly carved or inlaid patterns complemented by brightly coloured patterns on the interiors.
Akbar's building projects can be divided into two main groups, each representing a different phase. The first group comprised buildings of forts and a few palaces mainly at Agra, Allahabad , Ajmer and Lahore. The second group related basically to the construction of his new capital at Fateh-pur Sikri
In its design and layout Fathpur Sikri is a city where the public areas like the courtyards, Diwan-i Am and Jami Masjid form a coherent group around the private palace apartments.
All the buildings are in characteristic rich red sandstone, using traditional trabeate construction. The pillars, lintels, brackets, tiles and posts were cut from local rocks & assembled without mortar.
The buildings in Fathpur Sikri may be resolved into two categories: religious and secular character. The religious buildings comprise
(a) the Jami Masjid;
(b) the Buland Darwaza;
(c) the tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti. (Akbars spiritual mentor)
The buildings of secular nature are more varied and thus numerous. These can be grouped under:
(a)Palaces;
(b) Administrative buildings; and
(c) Structures of miscellaneous order.
It is a curious fact that the religious buildings are invariably built in the arcuate style while in secular buildings dominates the trabeate order.
The Jami Masjid uses the typical plan of a mosque - a central courtyard, arcades on three sides and domed skyline.
The Buland Darwaza. It is constructed in red and yellow sandstone with white marble inlay outlining the span of the arches. The loftiness of the structure is enhanced by a flight of steps on the outside. The entrance has been formed by a piercing huge central arch which is crowned by an array of domed kiosks. The Buland-Darwaza was built to commemorate Akbar's conquest of Gujarat in 1573.
The tomb of Salim Chishti stands in the courtyard of the Jami Masjid in the north-western quarter. It is all architectural masterpiece as it exhibits one of the finest specimens of marble work in India. The structure was completed in 1581 and was originally faced only partly in marble. The serpentine brackets supporting the eaves and the carved lattice screens are remarkable features of structure.
A unique building of the palace complex is the Panch Mahal, a five storeys structure. The size of the five storeys successively diminishes as one goes upwards. At the top is a small domed kiosk.
The palace complex in Fathpur Sikri comprises a number of apartments and chambers. The largest of these buildings is known as the Jodh Bai palace. The palace is massive and austere in character.
Diwani-e- Khas. The plan of this building is in the form of a rectangle and is in two stories from outsides
The city of Sikri has a few public structures like Diwani Am, two caravansarais, Hathi pol, Karkhana building, water works or baolis near caravansarais.
ARCTECTURE OF SHAH JAHAN & JAHANGIR
A secure Empire and enormous wealth in legacy permitted both Jahangir and Shah Jahan to pursue interest in the visual arts.
In the sphere of the building art, Jahangir and Shah Jahan's reigns were an age of marble. The place of red sandstones was soon taken over by marble in its most refined form. It is evident that Akbar's buildings were characterised by robustness while that of Jahangir & Shah Jahan had touch of sensuousness & sophistication.
This dictated significant stylistic changes which have been listed below:
1. The arch adopted a distinctive form with foliated curves, usually with nine cusps.
2. The dome developed a bulbous form with stifled neck. Double domes became very common.
3. Inlaid patterns in coloured stones became the dominant decorative form.
4. A new device of inlay decoration called pietra dura was adopted.
In the buildings, from the latter half of the Jahangir's reign, a new device of inlay decoration called pietra dura was adopted. In this method, semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli, onyx, jasper, topaz and cornelian were embedded in the marble in graceful foliations.
A double dome is built of two layers. There is one layer inside which provides ceiling to the interior of the building. The other layer is the outer one which crowns the buildings. The devices of double dome enable the ceiling inside to be placed lower and in better relation to the interior space it covers. This is done without disturbing the proportions and the effect of elevation of the exterior. The method of making double dome was practised in east Asia for quite sometime before it was imported into India. It was a problem for the early Muslim builders to place a dome over an edifice effectively. If they erected it high, it left a deep void of darkness in the ceiling of the building it cover-ed. In case they kept it low, in proportion with the dimensions of the room, it diminished the monumental effect of the structure. The solution was invented as double dome. In this innovation, the dome, instead of consisting of one thickness of masonry, was composed of two separate shellsone Outer and the other inner-with ample space between them. The attempts in the direction of Double Dome started with tomb of Taj Khan (1501 ) and the tomb of Sikandar Lodi (1518), both in Delhi. However, the fully mature form of the double dome is seen, for the first time in India in the tomb of Humayun.
The first remarkable structure was the tomb of Akbar near Agra. It was designed by Akbar himself and begun in his own lifetime but was completed by Jahangir after Akbars death with modifications in the original design. It is curious mix of the architectural schemes of both Akbar and Jahangir.
The scheme of this complex envisages the location of tomb in the midst of an enclosed garden with gateway in the centre of each side of the enclosing wall. The tomb building in the centre is a square structure built up in three stories. The first storey is an arcaded platform making the basement. The middle portion is in three tiers of red sandstone pavilions trabeated throughout.
The third storey, of white marble in contrast to the red sandstone
The tomb is linked by causeways and canals to the gateways in the enclosure wall. But it is the one in the south which provides the only entrance, the other three being false gateways added for symmetry.
The southern gateway is a two-storey structure with circular minarets of white marble rising above the corners. The entire structure of the gateway is ornamented with painted coloured stone and marble inlay. Interestingly, the decorative motifs include, besides the traditional floral designs, arabesques and calligraphy, gaja (the elephant) hamsa (the swan) padma (the lotus), swastika and chakra.
Thus along with resembling a mix of Akbar and post Akbar style, it also has indigenous Indian inputs in form of decorative motifs.
Jahangir was a much greater patron of the art of painting. His love for flowers and animals as reflected in the miniature painting of his period made him a great lover of the art of laying out gardens rather than building huge monuments. Some of the famous Mughal gardens of Kashmir such as the Shalimar Bagh and the Nishat Bagh stand as testimony to Jahangir's passion.
In contrast to Jahangir, his son and successor Shah Jahan, was a prolific builder. His reign was marked by extensive architectural works in his favourite building material- the marble. Some of these were:
a) the palace-forts, e.g, the La1 Qila at Delhi
b) the mosques, e.g. the Moti Masjid in the Agra Fort and the Jami Masjid at Delhi
c) the garden-tombs, e.g., the Taj Mahal.
His obsession with marble could be seen in Lal Quila in which arcaded pavilions of Diwani Am & Rang Mahal have sandstone pillars but are plastered with powdered marble.
In the Moti Masjid in the Agra Fort, Shah Jahan made experiment with an alternative scheme-an open arcaded prayer hall. Moreover, this mosque has been dispensed with the minarets. In their place, chhatris (Kiosks) have been used on all four comers of the prayer hall. There are three bulbous domes rising over cusped arcades. The entire building has been built in white marble with blackmarble calligraphy, heightening the elegance of the structure.
Jami Masjid (Jama Masjid)at Delhi is an extended and larger version of the Jami Masjid at Fatehpur Sikri and thus becomes the largest building of its kind in India. It is built on a raised platform surrounded by arcades that have been left open on both sides. The main entrance is on the eastern side with an ascending flight of steps increasing the effect of loftiness. Three bulbous domes in white marble rise above the sanctuary. The building material used here is red sandstone with white marble for revetments and for inlaying the frames of panels.
Taj Mahal: Too much clichd to be covered, architecturally similar to Humnyus tomb only difference is that it is made of marble and the unique style of pietra dura is extensively used for inlaying.
AURANGZEB AND LATER
Aurangzeb had none of his father's passion for architecture. Under him, the generous encouragement given by his predecessors to the arts was almost withdrawn. The architectural works during the reign of Aurangzeb were less numerous and of a lower standard than those executed under any previous Mughal ruler. One highlight during Aurangzeb's period architecture was resurgence of red sand stone as prominent building material and marble used only as relief to the former. This could be attributed to the severe financial constraints faced by later Mughals, Aurangzeb onwards.
The major buildings include the mausoleum of his wife Rabla ud Daurani in Aurangabad, the Badshahi Masjid in Lahore and the Moti Masjid at Lal Qila, Delhi.
The Badshahi Masjid is comparable to the Delhi one in size and architectural composition.
In the Moti Masjid in the Lal Qila Complex, Delhi, marble used in its construction is of a very fine quality. The plan is similar to the Moti Masjid built by Shah Jahan in Agra fort; only the curves are more prominent.
The mausoleum of his wife at Aurangabad, popularly known as Bibi ka maqbara is an attempt at emulating the Taj Mahal.
After Aurangzeb's death in 1707, the collapse of the Empire was only a matter of time. The few buildings that were built during the first half of the eighteenth century amply testify the decadent conditions that ensued.
The Safdar Jang's tomb at Delhi is the most important building of this period. It is located amidst a large garden and copies the plan of the Taj Mahal in the same manner as was done in the Rabia ud Daurani's tomb. The building is in red sandstone with marble panelling.
Name: Aadhar Sharmaa
Sources:
1. IGNOU booklets
2. NCERT
3. Wikipedia (used only for images) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_architecture
Showing posts with label GS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GS. Show all posts
Monday, January 13, 2014
Investment Models for Civil Services Main GS 3.
In civil services main syllabus, we have four papers of GS. In GS 3, Economy section there is a topic titledInvestment models.
So, here is an attempt from my side to collect info. related to the same and arrange this in a manner which will suit the aspirants' study.
As this is my first such attempt, if there are some mistakes, then try to ignore them and make maximum possible use of the write-up.
Ok, now end of formalities and all unnecessary stuff and start of the article.
Investment models.
Here is an image which gives us a fair idea about the prevailing investment models.
DEFINITION OF'BOTTOM-UP INVESTING'An investment approach that de-emphasizes the significance of economic and market cycles. This approach focuses on the analysis of individual stocks. In bottom-up investing, therefore, the investor focuses his or her attention on a specific company rather than on the industry in which that company operates or on the economy as a whole.
The bottom-up approach assumes that individual companies can do well even in an industry that is not performing very well. This is the opposite of "top-down investing". Making sound decisions based on a bottom-up investing strategy entails a thorough review of the company in question. This includes becoming familiar with the company's products and services, its financial stability and its research reports.
Bottom-up approachTop-down approach
Summary
* High deployment coverage in early phases
* Earlier return on investment
* High visibility of organizational changes
* Higher impact to organization
* Tactical, limited coverage
* Delayed return on investment
* Lower impact to overall organization
* Higher deployment costs
Advantages
* User and business awareness of the product. Benefits are realized in the early phases.
* You can replace many manual processes with early automation.
* You can implement password management for a large number of users.
* You do not have to develop custom adapters in the early phases.
* Your organization broadens identity management skills and understanding during the first phase.
* Tivoli Identity Manager is introduced to your business with less intrusion to your operations.
* Your organization realizes a focused use of resources from the individual managed application.
* The first implementation becomes a showcase for the identity management solution.
* When the phases are completed for the managed application, you have implemented a deeper, more mature implementation of the identity management solution.
* Operation and maintenance resources are not initially impacted as severely as with the bottom-up approach.
Disadvantages
* The organizational structure you establish might have to be changed in a later roll-out phase.
* Because of the immediate changes to repository owners and the user population, the roll-out will have a higher impact earlier and require greater cooperation.
* This strategy is driven by the existing infrastructure instead of the business processes.
* The solution provides limited coverage in the first phases.
* A minimal percentage of user accounts are managed in the first phases.
* You might have to develop custom adapters at an early stage.
* The support and overall business will not realize the benefit of the solution as rapidly.
* The implementation cost is likely to be higher.
BOT (Build Operate Transfer)
The Build--Operate--Transfer (BOT) was first coined by Ex--Prime Minister of Turkey, Turgut Ozal in 1984. Essentially in a BOT project delivery method, a private entity, usually a consortium is responsible for financing, construction,operation and maintenance of the facility for agreed duration known as Concession period and at the end of the period, transfers the ownership of the facility to the government.A BOT mechanism is a complex structure comprising multiple, inter-dependent agreements among various participants. Theconcession agreementis between the government and the concessionaire. The concession agreement is regarded as the heartof a BOT project.
BOT Basic Forms
BOT is a general term and has 3 basic forms
and dozen of variant forms
The 3 basic forms:
BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer): no ownership
BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer): the Project
Company has the ownership & BOT right -> lower
price/tariff & longer concession period
BOO (Build-Own-Operate): no transfer, lowest
price/tariff & longest concession period
BOT/PFI/PPP Nature
BOT is with a kind of Concessionary (authorization):
Best applicable to infrastructure/resource projects
Government authorizes the private/foreign developers
Government owns the ultimate ownership
Concession period 10 to 30 years after which the facility
transferred to government usually free of charge
BOT is typical Project Financing (finance through a
project instead of finance for a project)
Financing a project based on the projects future income
Limited/little recourse or even no recourse to developers
Projects income is the only source for debt (P+I) payment
BOT is a kind of Privatization
BOT/PFI/PPP Nature
Financing based on projects financial viability
instead of the developers credit & asset
Higher debt/equity ratio (usually debt>70%)
Middle to long term debt
Complex project/contract structure
Huge investment (equity and debt)
Higher financing cost
Project Company instead of the developer is the direct
borrower separate the proj. company from developer
Many risks involved
Many insurances/guarantees needed
Comparison of Traditional & BOT
Traditional Financing
Contract awarded based
on cost
Contractors main risks
include completion,
political and
performance risks
Financing risk and
revenue risk are
allocated to government
Financing is eventually
covered by government
bonds
Project Financing (BOT)
Contract is awarded base on lowest
cost & shortest time of transfer to
government
Contractor/developers main risks
includes financing, revenue and
political risks + operational cost
Contractor would gain benefit of an
additional project that would have
not been forthcoming under
traditional financing
It is user-based fee that is more
equitable
Helps government undertake more
projects
Privatization: Pros
Argument for Privatization (Pros):
Rationalization of limited financial resources of
government
User-based fee makes it more equitable from social
point of view
Profit-motive makes it more efficient in construction
and operation
Facilitate (hard/soft) technology transfer
Privatization: Cons
Draw Backs (Cons):
Issue of role of government in providing social over
head capital
Maintenance and up-keep during operational level
may not be adequate
Since investment in infrastructure projects are
lumpy, they may require concessions. That in turn
may lead to development of monopoly
Need for Government Oversight:
Price and fees (tariff)
Quality of service
Adequacy of service
Outsourcing: Pros and Cons
Unlike the popular belief that outsourcing is a recent phenomenon, it actually has been in existence as long time. To understand the growing debate on outsourcing, it is pertinent to understand the pros and cons of outsourcing.
Outsourcing refers to the process wherein a business contracts with a third party service provider to provide services that might otherwise be performed by in-house employees of the business.
Unlike the popular belief that outsourcing is a recent phenomenon, it actually has been in existence as long as work specialization has existed. In fact, companies have been known to have used outsourcing in some form or the other since a long long time. Typically, companies have been known to outsource those functions that are considered non-core to the business or such functions which needed specialized skills unavailable in the open market.
Of late, outsourcing has been attracting a lot of debates. And the main reason for the ongoing debate is the emergence of service providers from various countries trying to provide services in foreign locations. To understand the growing debate on outsourcing, it is pertinent to understand the pros and cons of outsourcing.
The main advantages for business to opt for outsourcing are:
1. Cost Savings:- The costs associated with an in-house employee is always higher than the cost of an outside service provider and this is the primary reason for most of businesses to opt for outsourcing non-core functions.
2. Quality services:- Since most of the third party service providers excel at the services they provide, businesses are guaranteed of better quality than an in-house employee would give. Additionally, any service provider will always look to give the best of services since their reputation is at stake.
3. Access to specialized skills:- Any third party service provider will be expert at the service that it provides. In fact, to beat competition, it would have to keep honing the skills of its employees. Also, the service provider would build up specialized skills in it's niche area of operation. By outsourcing to such a service provider, business gets access to such specialized skills, which may be of use in some other field of operation of the business.
4. Contractual Obligation:- The liability of a service provider is higher than that of an in-house employee. This makes working with them a safer bet for businesses.
5. Staffing issues:- By outsourcing a non-core function, a business avoids all the headache associated with recruiting and hiring staff for such non-core function.
6. Risk Mitigation:- Many a times, non-core functions may become critical and would need skilled intervention, which the business may be lacking. At such times, if the same function is outsourced and becomes critical in the hands of the service provider, because of the talent pool available at the service provider's end and because of all the experiences it would have gained by way of servicing other clients, it would be in a much better position to counter any kind of risks.
7. Capacity Management:- There may be times when the non-core function may need additional hands to meet deadline. In such times, it would become difficult for an in-house employee to tackle the pressure. However, if the function is outsourced, the headache of meeting the deadline is of the service provider. Besides, since the service provider would have a significantly large talent pool at it's disposal, it can easily tide over such issues.
Those are some of the benefits associated with outsourcing. Let's now examine the flip side of outsourcing.
1. Linguistic barriers:- When a function that needs handling of calls is outsourced to a foreign location and the first language of that nation is different from the nation which outsources the function, it may lead to low quality call handling. This concern is evidently higher in call centre functions that are off shored. People find the the linguistic features such as accent, word use and phrases that might be very different and hence in-understandable.
2. Social Responsibility:-When off shoring is resorted to, which means outsourcing of a process to a foreign location, it results in reduction of employment avenues in the nation from where the function is outsourced. This goes against the social behavior of the business outsourcing the process.
3. Company knowledge:- An in-house employee will always have a better understanding of the nuances of a function since he/she would always have a better knowledge of the company and its business as compared to a third party.
4. Staff Turnover:- Many people debate that quality of a service provider is as good as its people and as and when there is a staff turnover, the quality of services will definitely suffer. In outsourcing processes, the jobs are highly monotonous and this makes people loathe the job after a while. This is a big factor contributing to higher turnover.
So, what do businesses do? Do they outsource or not? Is there anything that contradicts the negative points raised against outsourcing?The answer is "YES".
Let's go by the negative points one by one.
1. Linguistic barriers:- It is correct to say that linguistic barriers do pose a threat. However, there are number of countries which actually promote their people to learn foreign languages which help outsourcing processes a lot. One of these countries is India, where, there are numerous institutions that excel in teaching foreign languages. In fact, all the call centres in India have compulsory accent training for the agents before they go "live".
2. Social Responsibility:-It is true that off shoring of processes result in growth of unemployment in the country from where the processes are being outsourced. However, that's only one part of the story! Outsourcing results in a higher profitability for the businesses which are then ploughed back into the economy. This definitely has far better impact than the negative impact of growth in unemployment. In fact the negative aspect is broadly nullified by the positive impact of profit getting ploughed inside the economy.
3.Company Knowledge:- It's true that an employee would have a better knowledge of the business. However, that knowledge is not built overtime. Any service provider can build the same kind of knowledge provided there is a structured knowledge transfer from the business to the service provider.
4. Staff Turnover:- Staff turnover is something that even a business has to handle with in-house employee. This is something which is a common problem and hence cannot be used against outsourcing
Pros and Cons of Joint Venture
A joint venture is a type of business arrangement.
A joint venture is an organization in which two or more individuals or companies join together in a limited, temporary partnership. These groups will then combine their resources in the hopes of accomplishing a specific, profitable goal. For example, two oil companies might form a joint venture to drill a new well. Because of their many benefits, joint ventures are very common. However, there are also a number of drawbacks.
Pro: Different Skill Sets
Joint ventures allow different parties to bring different skills to the table. Many companies enter into joint partnerships to gain access to new technology, capital and skills, as well as critical business knowledge. For example, a clothing company may want to sell shoes to a new market. While the company may be well-capitalized, they may be inexperienced in the needs of the new market's consumers. By launching a joint-venture with a knowledgeable local show company, the clothing company gains the experience necessary to penetrate the market.
1. PRO: ACCESS TO NEW MARKETS
* Often national governments will forbid foreign companies from selling products to its citizens so as not to take away sales from local industry. However, some countries, such as China, will allow foreign companies to enter local markets by making joint ventures with local businesses. This allows the country to provide new products and services to its citizens and for the foreign companies to reach new markets.
PRO: DIVERSIFICATION OF RISK
1. As companies are combining their resources in a joint venture, they also share risk. This makes joint ventures a wise move for particularly risky transactions, allowing companies to essentially hedge their bet.
CON: SLOWER DECISION-MAKING
1. Joint ventures are often structured so that all members of the venture have a hand in making decisions. This ensures that no action is taken contrary to the wishes of any of the partners. However, this requirement for consensus can mean that decision making takes far longer than in other instances, as each issue must be negotiated until all parties are in agreement.
CON: SHARED REWARDS
1. The flip side to sharing risks is that rewards must also be divided. In a joint venture in which two parties have equal stakes, each party can take home only half of the venture's profits. This presents a severe downside to forming joint ventures for companies that believe they can conduct a successful transaction on their own.
CON: POTENTIAL FOR DISAGREEMENT
1. Each company has its own culture, philosophy and management style. Unless all parties in a joint venture agree about the venture's objectives and its leadership structure, the partnership can become mired in poor cooperation and integration, defeating its chances for success.
by Rakesh Singh Rajput
So, here is an attempt from my side to collect info. related to the same and arrange this in a manner which will suit the aspirants' study.
As this is my first such attempt, if there are some mistakes, then try to ignore them and make maximum possible use of the write-up.
Ok, now end of formalities and all unnecessary stuff and start of the article.
Investment models.
Here is an image which gives us a fair idea about the prevailing investment models.
DEFINITION OF'BOTTOM-UP INVESTING'An investment approach that de-emphasizes the significance of economic and market cycles. This approach focuses on the analysis of individual stocks. In bottom-up investing, therefore, the investor focuses his or her attention on a specific company rather than on the industry in which that company operates or on the economy as a whole.
The bottom-up approach assumes that individual companies can do well even in an industry that is not performing very well. This is the opposite of "top-down investing". Making sound decisions based on a bottom-up investing strategy entails a thorough review of the company in question. This includes becoming familiar with the company's products and services, its financial stability and its research reports.
Bottom-up approachTop-down approach
Summary
* High deployment coverage in early phases
* Earlier return on investment
* High visibility of organizational changes
* Higher impact to organization
* Tactical, limited coverage
* Delayed return on investment
* Lower impact to overall organization
* Higher deployment costs
Advantages
* User and business awareness of the product. Benefits are realized in the early phases.
* You can replace many manual processes with early automation.
* You can implement password management for a large number of users.
* You do not have to develop custom adapters in the early phases.
* Your organization broadens identity management skills and understanding during the first phase.
* Tivoli Identity Manager is introduced to your business with less intrusion to your operations.
* Your organization realizes a focused use of resources from the individual managed application.
* The first implementation becomes a showcase for the identity management solution.
* When the phases are completed for the managed application, you have implemented a deeper, more mature implementation of the identity management solution.
* Operation and maintenance resources are not initially impacted as severely as with the bottom-up approach.
Disadvantages
* The organizational structure you establish might have to be changed in a later roll-out phase.
* Because of the immediate changes to repository owners and the user population, the roll-out will have a higher impact earlier and require greater cooperation.
* This strategy is driven by the existing infrastructure instead of the business processes.
* The solution provides limited coverage in the first phases.
* A minimal percentage of user accounts are managed in the first phases.
* You might have to develop custom adapters at an early stage.
* The support and overall business will not realize the benefit of the solution as rapidly.
* The implementation cost is likely to be higher.
BOT (Build Operate Transfer)
The Build--Operate--Transfer (BOT) was first coined by Ex--Prime Minister of Turkey, Turgut Ozal in 1984. Essentially in a BOT project delivery method, a private entity, usually a consortium is responsible for financing, construction,operation and maintenance of the facility for agreed duration known as Concession period and at the end of the period, transfers the ownership of the facility to the government.A BOT mechanism is a complex structure comprising multiple, inter-dependent agreements among various participants. Theconcession agreementis between the government and the concessionaire. The concession agreement is regarded as the heartof a BOT project.
BOT Basic Forms
BOT is a general term and has 3 basic forms
and dozen of variant forms
The 3 basic forms:
BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer): no ownership
BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer): the Project
Company has the ownership & BOT right -> lower
price/tariff & longer concession period
BOO (Build-Own-Operate): no transfer, lowest
price/tariff & longest concession period
BOT/PFI/PPP Nature
BOT is with a kind of Concessionary (authorization):
Best applicable to infrastructure/resource projects
Government authorizes the private/foreign developers
Government owns the ultimate ownership
Concession period 10 to 30 years after which the facility
transferred to government usually free of charge
BOT is typical Project Financing (finance through a
project instead of finance for a project)
Financing a project based on the projects future income
Limited/little recourse or even no recourse to developers
Projects income is the only source for debt (P+I) payment
BOT is a kind of Privatization
BOT/PFI/PPP Nature
Financing based on projects financial viability
instead of the developers credit & asset
Higher debt/equity ratio (usually debt>70%)
Middle to long term debt
Complex project/contract structure
Huge investment (equity and debt)
Higher financing cost
Project Company instead of the developer is the direct
borrower separate the proj. company from developer
Many risks involved
Many insurances/guarantees needed
Comparison of Traditional & BOT
Traditional Financing
Contract awarded based
on cost
Contractors main risks
include completion,
political and
performance risks
Financing risk and
revenue risk are
allocated to government
Financing is eventually
covered by government
bonds
Project Financing (BOT)
Contract is awarded base on lowest
cost & shortest time of transfer to
government
Contractor/developers main risks
includes financing, revenue and
political risks + operational cost
Contractor would gain benefit of an
additional project that would have
not been forthcoming under
traditional financing
It is user-based fee that is more
equitable
Helps government undertake more
projects
Privatization: Pros
Argument for Privatization (Pros):
Rationalization of limited financial resources of
government
User-based fee makes it more equitable from social
point of view
Profit-motive makes it more efficient in construction
and operation
Facilitate (hard/soft) technology transfer
Privatization: Cons
Draw Backs (Cons):
Issue of role of government in providing social over
head capital
Maintenance and up-keep during operational level
may not be adequate
Since investment in infrastructure projects are
lumpy, they may require concessions. That in turn
may lead to development of monopoly
Need for Government Oversight:
Price and fees (tariff)
Quality of service
Adequacy of service
Outsourcing: Pros and Cons
Unlike the popular belief that outsourcing is a recent phenomenon, it actually has been in existence as long time. To understand the growing debate on outsourcing, it is pertinent to understand the pros and cons of outsourcing.
Outsourcing refers to the process wherein a business contracts with a third party service provider to provide services that might otherwise be performed by in-house employees of the business.
Unlike the popular belief that outsourcing is a recent phenomenon, it actually has been in existence as long as work specialization has existed. In fact, companies have been known to have used outsourcing in some form or the other since a long long time. Typically, companies have been known to outsource those functions that are considered non-core to the business or such functions which needed specialized skills unavailable in the open market.
Of late, outsourcing has been attracting a lot of debates. And the main reason for the ongoing debate is the emergence of service providers from various countries trying to provide services in foreign locations. To understand the growing debate on outsourcing, it is pertinent to understand the pros and cons of outsourcing.
The main advantages for business to opt for outsourcing are:
1. Cost Savings:- The costs associated with an in-house employee is always higher than the cost of an outside service provider and this is the primary reason for most of businesses to opt for outsourcing non-core functions.
2. Quality services:- Since most of the third party service providers excel at the services they provide, businesses are guaranteed of better quality than an in-house employee would give. Additionally, any service provider will always look to give the best of services since their reputation is at stake.
3. Access to specialized skills:- Any third party service provider will be expert at the service that it provides. In fact, to beat competition, it would have to keep honing the skills of its employees. Also, the service provider would build up specialized skills in it's niche area of operation. By outsourcing to such a service provider, business gets access to such specialized skills, which may be of use in some other field of operation of the business.
4. Contractual Obligation:- The liability of a service provider is higher than that of an in-house employee. This makes working with them a safer bet for businesses.
5. Staffing issues:- By outsourcing a non-core function, a business avoids all the headache associated with recruiting and hiring staff for such non-core function.
6. Risk Mitigation:- Many a times, non-core functions may become critical and would need skilled intervention, which the business may be lacking. At such times, if the same function is outsourced and becomes critical in the hands of the service provider, because of the talent pool available at the service provider's end and because of all the experiences it would have gained by way of servicing other clients, it would be in a much better position to counter any kind of risks.
7. Capacity Management:- There may be times when the non-core function may need additional hands to meet deadline. In such times, it would become difficult for an in-house employee to tackle the pressure. However, if the function is outsourced, the headache of meeting the deadline is of the service provider. Besides, since the service provider would have a significantly large talent pool at it's disposal, it can easily tide over such issues.
Those are some of the benefits associated with outsourcing. Let's now examine the flip side of outsourcing.
1. Linguistic barriers:- When a function that needs handling of calls is outsourced to a foreign location and the first language of that nation is different from the nation which outsources the function, it may lead to low quality call handling. This concern is evidently higher in call centre functions that are off shored. People find the the linguistic features such as accent, word use and phrases that might be very different and hence in-understandable.
2. Social Responsibility:-When off shoring is resorted to, which means outsourcing of a process to a foreign location, it results in reduction of employment avenues in the nation from where the function is outsourced. This goes against the social behavior of the business outsourcing the process.
3. Company knowledge:- An in-house employee will always have a better understanding of the nuances of a function since he/she would always have a better knowledge of the company and its business as compared to a third party.
4. Staff Turnover:- Many people debate that quality of a service provider is as good as its people and as and when there is a staff turnover, the quality of services will definitely suffer. In outsourcing processes, the jobs are highly monotonous and this makes people loathe the job after a while. This is a big factor contributing to higher turnover.
So, what do businesses do? Do they outsource or not? Is there anything that contradicts the negative points raised against outsourcing?The answer is "YES".
Let's go by the negative points one by one.
1. Linguistic barriers:- It is correct to say that linguistic barriers do pose a threat. However, there are number of countries which actually promote their people to learn foreign languages which help outsourcing processes a lot. One of these countries is India, where, there are numerous institutions that excel in teaching foreign languages. In fact, all the call centres in India have compulsory accent training for the agents before they go "live".
2. Social Responsibility:-It is true that off shoring of processes result in growth of unemployment in the country from where the processes are being outsourced. However, that's only one part of the story! Outsourcing results in a higher profitability for the businesses which are then ploughed back into the economy. This definitely has far better impact than the negative impact of growth in unemployment. In fact the negative aspect is broadly nullified by the positive impact of profit getting ploughed inside the economy.
3.Company Knowledge:- It's true that an employee would have a better knowledge of the business. However, that knowledge is not built overtime. Any service provider can build the same kind of knowledge provided there is a structured knowledge transfer from the business to the service provider.
4. Staff Turnover:- Staff turnover is something that even a business has to handle with in-house employee. This is something which is a common problem and hence cannot be used against outsourcing
Pros and Cons of Joint Venture
A joint venture is a type of business arrangement.
A joint venture is an organization in which two or more individuals or companies join together in a limited, temporary partnership. These groups will then combine their resources in the hopes of accomplishing a specific, profitable goal. For example, two oil companies might form a joint venture to drill a new well. Because of their many benefits, joint ventures are very common. However, there are also a number of drawbacks.
Pro: Different Skill Sets
Joint ventures allow different parties to bring different skills to the table. Many companies enter into joint partnerships to gain access to new technology, capital and skills, as well as critical business knowledge. For example, a clothing company may want to sell shoes to a new market. While the company may be well-capitalized, they may be inexperienced in the needs of the new market's consumers. By launching a joint-venture with a knowledgeable local show company, the clothing company gains the experience necessary to penetrate the market.
1. PRO: ACCESS TO NEW MARKETS
* Often national governments will forbid foreign companies from selling products to its citizens so as not to take away sales from local industry. However, some countries, such as China, will allow foreign companies to enter local markets by making joint ventures with local businesses. This allows the country to provide new products and services to its citizens and for the foreign companies to reach new markets.
PRO: DIVERSIFICATION OF RISK
1. As companies are combining their resources in a joint venture, they also share risk. This makes joint ventures a wise move for particularly risky transactions, allowing companies to essentially hedge their bet.
CON: SLOWER DECISION-MAKING
1. Joint ventures are often structured so that all members of the venture have a hand in making decisions. This ensures that no action is taken contrary to the wishes of any of the partners. However, this requirement for consensus can mean that decision making takes far longer than in other instances, as each issue must be negotiated until all parties are in agreement.
CON: SHARED REWARDS
1. The flip side to sharing risks is that rewards must also be divided. In a joint venture in which two parties have equal stakes, each party can take home only half of the venture's profits. This presents a severe downside to forming joint ventures for companies that believe they can conduct a successful transaction on their own.
CON: POTENTIAL FOR DISAGREEMENT
1. Each company has its own culture, philosophy and management style. Unless all parties in a joint venture agree about the venture's objectives and its leadership structure, the partnership can become mired in poor cooperation and integration, defeating its chances for success.
by Rakesh Singh Rajput
GOVERNMENT BUDGETING GS PAPER 3
GOVERNMENT BUDGETING GS PAPER 3
The budget process in India, like in most other countries, comprises four distinct phases:
i) Budget formulation- preparation of estimates of expenditure and receipts for the ensuing financial year;
ii) Budget enactment- approval of the proposed Budget by the Legislature through the enactment of Finance Bill and Appropriation Bill;
iii) Budget execution- enforcement of the provisions in the Finance Act and Appropriation Act by the governmentcollection of receipts and making disbursements for various services as approved by the Legislature;
iv) Legislative review of budget implementation- audits of governments financial operations on behalf of the Legislature.(CAG)
Process commences in August- September
* By convention, the Union Budget for next financial year is presented in Lok Sabha by the finance minister on the last working day of February.
* However, the process of budget formulation starts in the last week of August or the first fortnight of September.
* To get the process started, the Budget Division in the Department of Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance issues the annual budget circular to all the Union government ministries/departments around August- September.
* The Circular contains detailed instructions for these ministries/ departments on the form and content of the statement of budget estimates to be prepared by them.
Three kinds of figures in a Budget
1. Budget Estimates,
2. Revised Estimates
3. Actuals.
* Lets understand this in the context of Union budget 2013-14, which was presented, as usual, on 28th of February 2013 by the Finance Minister, on the floor of LokSabha.
* The process of its formulation would have got started in August 2012 through issuance of budget circular of the Budget Division and this process would have continued till February 2013
* The approval of Parliament is sought for the estimated receipts/expenditures for 2013-14, which would be called budget estimates.
* At the same time, the Union government, in its budget for 2013-14, would also present revised estimates for the ongoing financial year 2012-13.
* The government would not seek approval from Parliament of revised estimates of 2012-13; but, these revised estimates allow the government to reallocate its funds among various ministries based on the implementation of the budget for 2012-13 during the first six months of financial year 2012-13.
* Finally, ministries also report their actual receipts and expenditures for the previous financial year 2011-12. Hence, the Union budget for 2013-14 consists of budget estimates for 2013-14, revised estimates for 2012-13, and actual expenditures and receipts of 2011-12.
Planning Commission comes in
* The ministries would provide budget estimates for plan expenditure for budget estimates for the next financial year, only after they have discussed their respective plan schemes with the Central Planning Commission.
* The Planning Commission depends on the finance ministry to first arrive at the size of the gross budgetary support, which would be provided in the budget for the next annual plan of the Union government.
* In principle, the size of each annual plan should be derived from the approved size of the overall Five-Year Plan (12th Five-Year Plan, 2012-13 to 2016-17, in the present instance).
* However, in practice, the size of the gross budgetary support for an annual plan also depends on the expected availability of funds with the finance ministry for the next financial year.
Reducing deficit, a priority
(Please Read the concept of deficit budgeting and related prolems, and FRBMA, have been asked in pre and mains already, since the new syllabus specifically mentions Government Budgeting these are now hot topics.)
* In the past few years, the finance ministry has been vociferously arguing for reduction of fiscal deficit and revenue deficit of the Union government, citing the targets set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act and its rules.
* Hence, presently, the aspirations of the Planning Commission and Union government ministries with regard to spending face the legal hurdle of this Act, which has made it mandatory for the Union government to show the revenue deficit as nil and the fiscal deficit as less than 3 per cent of GDP.
* This means new borrowing of the government in a financial year cannot exceed 3 per cent of the countrys GDP for that year.
Final stages of budget preparation
* During the final stage of budget preparation, the revenue-earning ministries of the Union government provide the estimates for their revenue receipts in the current fiscal year (revised estimates) and next fiscal year (budget estimates) to the finance ministry.
* Subsequently, usually in the month of January, more attention is paid to finalisation of the estimated receipts.
* With an idea about the total requirement of resources to meet expenditures in the next fiscal year, the finance ministry focuses on the revenue receipts for the next fiscal.
* At this stage of budget preparation, the finance minister examines the budget proposals prepared by the ministry and makes changes in them, if required.
* The finance minister consults the prime minister, and also briefs the Union Cabinet, about the budget at this stage.
* If there is any conflict between any ministry and the finance ministry with regard to the budget, the matter is supposed to be resolved by the Cabinet.
Consultations with various stakeholders crucial
* In the run-up to Union Budget each year, the Finance Minister holds pre-budget consultations with relevant stakeholders.
* The FM also holds consultations with Finance Ministers of States/Union Territories as well as Trade and Industry representatives.
* This has great significance for the process of budget formulation as it helps the FM take decisions on suitable fiscal policy changes to be announced during the budget.
* For this years budget, representatives from the agriculture sector, various trade unions, economists, banking and financial institutions and also social sector groups participated in these consultations in January 2013.
* Among others, a delegation of Peoples Budget Initiative also met Finance Ministry officials and shared the Peoples Charter of Demands in the month of January 2013. But this year too, like in previous years, the process started late.
* Desired changes in expenditure programmes and policies can be influenced only if the consultations are begun earlier, preferably in October.
Consolidation of budget data
* As the last steps, the budget division in the finance ministry consolidates all figures to be presented in the budget and prepares the final budget documents.
* The National Informatics Centre (NIC) helps the budget division in the process of consolidation of the budget data, which has been fully computerised.
* At the end of this process, the finance minister takes the permission of the president of India for presenting the Union budget to Parliament.
* It would be useful to point out that while the second and the third stage in the budget cycle of our country are reasonably transparent, the first stage of actual budget preparation cannot be said to be open. The process is rather carried out behind closed doors.
BUDGET IN PARLIAMENT
With the emergence of Welfare State, Governments have come to look after virtually everysphere of human life. They have to perform manifold functions from maintaining law and order, protecting their territories to implementation of plans for economic and social betterment. Besides, they provide a variety of social services like education, health, employment and housing to the people. Needless to say, Government require adequate resources to discharge these functions effectively. Where is this money to come from and who is to sanction the funds? The necessary funds are mobilised from the countrys resources by way of taxes both direct and indirect, loans both long-term and short-term, to meet the Governmental expenditure. In India, the principal sources of revenue are customs and excise duties and Income-tax on individuals and companies.
Need for Budget
It is not as if the Government can tax, borrow and spend money the way it likes. Since there is a limit to the resources, the need for proper budgeting arises to allocate scarce resources to various Governmental activities. Every item of expenditure has to be well thought out and total outlay worked out for a specific period. Prudent spending is essential for the stability of a Government and proper earnings are a pre-requisite to wise spending. Hence, planned expenditure and accurate foresight of earnings are sine-qua-non of sound Governmental finance.
Parliamentary Control over Finance
Ours is a Parliamentary system of Government based on Westminster model. The Constitution has, therefore, vested the power over the purse in the hands of chosen representatives of the people thus sanctifying the principle no taxation without representation. Preparation of Budget for the approval of the Legislature is a Constitutional obligation of the Government both at the Centre and the State levels. Legislative prerogative over taxation, legislative control over expenditure and executive initiative in financial matters are some of the fundamental principles of the system of Parliamentary financial control.
There are specific provisions in the Constitution of India incorporating these tenets. For example, article 265 provides that no tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law; no expenditure can be incurred except with the authorisation of the Legislature (article 266); and President shall, in respect of every financial year, cause to be laid before Parliament, Annual Financial Statement (article 112). These provisions of our Constitution make the Government accountable to Parliament.
The Budget
The Annual Financial Statement, laid before both the Houses of Parliament constitutes the Budget of the Union Government. This statement takes into account a period of one financial year. The financial year commences in India on 1st April each year. The statement embodies the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India for the financial year.
Demands for Grants
The estimates of expenditure included in the Budget and required to be voted by Lok Sabha are in the form of Demands for Grants. These Demands are arranged Ministry-wise and a separate Demand for each of the major services is presented. Each Demand contains first a statement of the total grant and then a statement of the detailed estimate divided into items.
Railway Budget
The Budget of the Indian Railways is presented separately to Parliament and dealt with separately, although the receipts and expenditure of the Railways form part of the Consolidated Fund of India and the figures relating to them are included in the Annual Financial Statement.
Presentation
* In India, the Budget is presented to Parliament on such date as is fixed by the President.
* The Budget speech of the Finance Minister is usually in two parts.
* Part A deals with general economic survey of the country while
* Part B relates to taxation proposals.
* General Budget was earlier being presented at 5 P.M. on the last working day of February, but since 1999 the General Budget is being presented at 11 A.M. on the last working day of February, i.e. about a month before the commencement of the Financial year except in the year when General Elections to Lok Sabha are held.
* In an election year, Budget may be presented twicefirst to secure Vote on Account for a few months and later in full.
* The General Budget is presented in Lok Sabha by the Minister of Finance. He makes a speech introducing the Budget and it is only in the concluding part of his speech that the proposals for fresh taxation or for variations in the existing taxes are disclosed by him.
* The Annual Financial Statement is laid on the Table of Rajya Sabha at the conclusion of the speech of the Finance Minister in Lok Sabha.
Budget Documents
* Alongwith the Annual Financial Statement Government presents the following documents:
* an Explanatory Memorandum briefly explaining the nature of receipts and expenditure during the current year and the next year and the reasons for variations in the estimates for the two years,
* the Books of Demands showing the provisions Ministry-wise and a separate Demand for each Department and service of the Ministry.
* The Finance Bill which deals with the taxation measures proposed by Government is introduced immediately after the presentation of Budget. It is accompanied by a memorandum explaining the provisions of the Bill and their effect on the finances of the country.
Vote on Account
* The discussion on the Budget begins a few days after its presentation. In a democratic set-up, Government is anxious to give Parliament full opportunity to discuss the budgetary provisions and the various proposals for taxation.
* Since Parliament is not able to vote the entire budget before the commencement of the new financial year, the necessity to keep enough finance at the disposal of Government in order to allow it to run the administration of the country remains.
* A special provision is, therefore, made for "Vote on Account" by which Government obtains the Vote of Parliament for a sum sufficient to incur expenditure on various items for a part of the year.
* Normally, the Vote on Account is taken for two months only. But during election year or when it is anticipated that the main Demands and Appropriation Bill will take longer time than two months, the Vote on Account may be for a period exceeding two months.
Discussion
* The Budget is discussed in two stages in Lok Sabha. First, there is the General Discussion on the Budget as a whole. This lasts for about 4 to 5 days. Only the broad outlines of the Budget and the principles and policies underlying it are discussed at this stage.
* Consideration of the Demands by Standing Committees of Parliament: After the first stage of General Discussion on both Railway as well as General Budget is over, the House is adjourned for a fixed period.
* During this period, the Demands for Grants of various Ministries/Departments including Railways are considered by concerned Standing Committees (Rule 331G).
* These Committees are required to make their reports to the House within specified period without asking for more time.
* The system of consideration of Demands for Grants by the Standing Committees was introduced from the Budget for the year 1993-94.
* The Standing Committee consists of 45 Members, 30 from Lok Sabha and 15 from Rajya Sabha. The reports of the Standing Committees are of persuasive nature (Rule 331N).
* The report shall not suggest anything of the nature of cut motions.
* After the reports of the Standing Committees are presented to the House, the House proceeds to the discussion and Voting on Demands for Grants, Ministry-wise.
* The time for discussion and Voting of Demands for Grants is allocated by the Speaker in consultation with the Leader of the House. On the last day of the allotted days, the Speaker puts all the outstanding Demands to the Vote of the House. This device is popularly known as guillotine.
* Lok Sabha has the power to assent to or refuse to give assent to any Demand or even to reduce the amount of Grant sought by Government.
* In Rajya Sabha there is only a General Discussion on the Budget. It does not vote on the Demands for Grants.
* Only so much of the amount is subject to the vote of Lok Sabha as is not a "charged" expenditure on the Consolidated Fund of India.
* The "charged" expenditure includes the emoluments of the President and the salaries and allowances of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha and the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, Judges of Supreme Court, Comptroller and Auditor General of India and certain other items specified in the Constitution of India.
* Discussion in Lok Sabha on charged expenditure is permissible but such expenditure is not voted by the House. Members have full opportunity to criticise the budgetary provisions during the course of discussion as also to make suggestions for improving the financial position of the country.
Cut Motions
* Motions for reduction to various Demands for Grants are made in the form of Cut Motions seeking to reduce the sums sought by Government on grounds of economy or difference of opinion on matters of policy or just in order to voice a grievance.
Appropriation Bill
* After the General Discussion on the Budget proposals and Voting on Demands for Grants have been completed, Government introduces the Appropriation Bill. The Appropriation Bill is intended to give authority to Government to incur expenditure from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India. The procedure for passing this Bill is the same as in the case of other money Bills.
Finance Bill
* The Finance Bill seeking to give effect to the Governments taxation proposals which is introduced in Lok Sabha immediately after the presentation of the General Budget, is taken up for consideration and passing after the Appropriation Bill is passed. However, certain provisions in the Bill relating to levy and collection of fresh duties or variations in the existing duties come into effect immediately on the expiry of the day on which the Bill is introduced by virtue of a declaration under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act.
* Parliament has to pass the Finance Bill within 75 days of its introduction.
Supplementary/Excess Grants
* No expenditure in excess of the sums authorised by Parliament can be incurred without the sanction of Parliament. Whenever a need arises to incur extra expenditure, a Supplementary estimate is laid before Parliament.
* If any money has been spent on any service during a financial year in excess of the amounts granted for that service and for that year, the Minister of Finance/ Railways presents a Demand for Excess Grant. The procedure followed in Parliament in regard to Supplementary/Excess Grants is more or less the same as is adopted in the case of estimates included in the General Budget.
Budget of a State/Union Territory under Presidents Rule
* Budget of a State under Presidents rule is presented to Lok Sabha. The procedure followed in regard to the Budget of the Union Government is followed in the case of State Budget also with such variations or modifications, as the Speaker may make.
Budget : Concepts and Terminologies
Budget of a government is a comprehensive statement of government finances relating to a particular year. Every Budget broadly consists of two parts-
1. Expenditure Budget
The amounts of intended expenditure by the Government in the next financial year are expressed in the Expenditure Budget. The entire Expenditure Budget can be divided into two distinctcategories, viz.
1. Capital Expenditure - those expenditures by the government that lead to an increase in the assets or a reduction in the liabilities of the government. It is however not necessary that the assets created should be productive or they should even be revenue generating. Only the charges towards the construction of the asset are counted as Capital expenditure, while the subsequent charges for its maintenance are considered as Revenue expenditure. Most capital expenditure is nonrecurring.- Examples of Capital Expenditure causing increase in assets: construction of a new Flyover, Union Govt. giving a Loan to a State Govt. - Examples o f Ca pital Expenditure causing reduction of a liability: Union Govt. repays the principal amountof a loan it had taken in the past
.ii) Revenue Expenditure those expenditures by the government that do not affect its asset-liability position. Most kinds of revenue expenditures are seen as recurring expenditures. The entire amount of Grants given by the Union Government to States is reported in the Union Budget as Revenue Expenditure, even though a part of those Grants get utilized by States for building Schools, Hospitals etc. This is so because the ownership of the schools or hospitals built from the Central grants would not be with the Union Government.- Examples of Revenue Expenditure are: expenditure on Food Subsidy, Salary of staff, procurement of medicines, procurement of text books, payment of interest, etc
Total government expenditure can also be divided into another set of categories, viz
1. Plan Expenditure Plan expenditure refers to government expenditure, which is meant for financing the programmes/schemes formulated under the ongoing/previous five year Plan
2. Non-Plan Expenditure Expenditures of the government, which are not included under the Plan Expenditure are called Non Plan Expenditure. It includes some of the important types of government expenditure, eg:interest payments, pension, defence expenditure, spending on law and order, spending on legislature, subsidies, and salary of regular cadre teachers, doctors and other government officials.
1. Receipts Budget.
The Receipts Budget presents the information on how much the Government intends to collect as its financial resources for meeting its expenditure requirements and from which sources, in the next fiscal year. This can also be divided into two categories
:i) Capital Receipts- those receipts that lead to a reduction in the assets or an increase in the liabilities of the government.- Capital Receipts that lead to a reduction in assets: Recoveries of Loans given by the government and Earnings from Disinvestment;- Capital Receipts that lead toan increase in liabilities :Debt
.ii) Revenue Receipts- those receipts that dont affect the asset-liability position of the government. Revenue Receipts comprise proceeds of Taxes (like, Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Customs, Excise, Service Tax, etc.)and Non-tax revenue of the government (like, Interest receipts, Fees/ User Charges, and Dividend & Profits from PSUs).
Government revenue through taxation can be divided into Direct Taxes and Indirect Taxes.
Direct Taxes: Those taxes for which the tax-burden cannot be shifted are called Direct Taxes. Examples of Direct Taxes are:
1. Corporation Tax This is a tax levied on the income of registered companies in the country, whether national or foreign, under the Income TaxAct, 1961.
2. Personal Income tax- This is a tax on the income ofindividuals, firms etc. other than Companies, under the Income Tax Act, 1961. This head also includes other Taxes, mainly the Securities Transaction Tax, which is levied on transaction in list securities undertaken on stock exchanges and in units of mutual funds
3. Wealth Tax- This is a tax levied on the benefits derived from the ownership of property, under the Wealth Tax Act,1957. Wealth tax has virtually been abolished in India.
Indirect Taxes: Those taxes for which the tax-burden can be shifted are called Indirect Taxes. Any person, who directly pays this kind of a tax to the Government, need not bear the burden of that particular tax; he/she can ultimately shift the tax burden to other persons later through business transactions of goods/ services. Indirect tax on any good or service affects the rich and the poor alike!
Unlike indirect taxes, direct taxes are linked to the tax-payees ability to pay and hence are considered to be progressive. Examples of Indirect Taxes are:
i) Customs Duties-In this,the taxable component is import into or export from the country.
ii) Excise Duties: It is a typeof tax levied on those goods,which are manufactured inthe country and are meant fordomestic consumption. It is atax on manufacturing, whichis paid by the manufacturer,but he passes this burden onto the consumers.
iii) Sales Tax: It is levied onthe sale of a commodity,which is produced/importedand being sold for the firsttime. If the product is soldsubsequently without beingprocessed further, it is exemptfrom sales tax. Before theintroduction of VAT, salestax used to be levied underthe authority of both CentralLegislation (Central SalesTax) and State GovernmentsLegislation (Sales Tax)
iv) Service Tax: It is a tax leviedon services provided by aperson and the responsibilityof payment of the tax iscast on the service provider.However this tax can berecovered by the serviceprovider from the servicereceiver in course of his/herbusiness transactions
.v) Value Added Tax (VAT): VAT is a multi-stage tax, intended to tax every stage of sale of a good where some value has been added to the raw materials; but taxpayers do receive credit for tax already paid on the raw materials in earlier stages.
Debt and Deficit A Debt is a kind of receipt that necessarily leads to an increase of the governments liabilities. The government incurs a Debt only for meeting the gap created by excess of its expenditure over its receipts for that year, which is called Deficit.
Fiscal Deficit It is the gap between the governments total Expenditure (including loans net of repayments) and its Total Receipts (excluding new debt to be taken). Thus Fiscal Deficit for a year indicates the borrowing to be made by the government that year.
Revenue Deficit The gap between Total RevenueExpenditure of the Governmentand its Total Revenue Receipts iscalled the Revenue Deficit
Distriution of financial resources between the Centre and the States A Finance Commission is setup every five years to recommend measures for sharing o resources between the Centre and the States, mainly pertaining to the Tax Revenue collected by the Central Government. Presently the recommendations made by the 13th Finance Commission are in effect (from 2010-11 to 2014-15), whereby 32 percent of the shareable /divisible pool of Central tax revenue is transferred to States every year and the Centre retains the remaining amount for the Union Budget.
Tax-GDP Ratio Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an indicator of the size of a countrys economy. In order to assess the extent of governments policy interventions in the economy, some of the important fiscal parameters, like, total expenditure by the government, tax revenue, deficit etc. are expressed as a proportion of the GDP. Accordingly, a countrys tax-GDP ratio helps us understand how much tax revenue is being collected by the government as compared to the overall size of the economy. A higher tax to GDP ratio in a country is a positive sign meaning that the government is collecting a decent amount of tax revenue as compared to the size of its economy.
What is Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act ?
* The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act was enacted by the Parliament in 2003.
* Its objective is to institutionalize fiscal discipline, reduce fiscal deficit and improve macro economic management.
* This law aims at promoting fiscal stability for the country on a long-term basis.
* It emphasizes a transparent fiscal management system and a more equitable distribution of debts over the years.
* This law also gives flexibility to the Reserve Bank of India to undertake monetary policy to control inflation.
* Government needs resources for funding various kinds of developmental schemes and routine expenditures.
* Resources are raised through taxes and borrowing.
* The government can raise funds by borrowing from the Reserve Bank of India, financial institutions or from the public by floating bonds.
* Fiscal deficit is the total expenditure minus the revenue receipt, loan recoveries and receipts from disinvestment etc.
* It is a measure of the government borrowing in a year.
* However, uncontrolled fiscal deficit is considered harmful for the health of economy.
* FRBM Act was notified in 2004 in response to the need felt to curb large fiscal deficit.
* The FRBM rules specify annual reduction targets for fiscal indicators.
* Originally, the act envisaged revenue deficit to be reduced to nil in five years beginning 2004-05.
* Fiscal deficit was required to be reduced to3 percent of GDP by 2008-09.
* The Act also provides exception to the government in case of natural calamity and for national security.
* The implantation of the act was put on hold in 2007-08 due to global financial crisis and the need for fiscal stimulus.
* There was a need for increased government expenditure to create demand to fight off the financial downturn and hence the government moved away from the path of fiscal consolidation for this period.
* This law also prohibits borrowing by government from the Reserve Bank of India and purchase of primary issues of central government securities after 2006.
* The act asked the Central government to lay in Parliament three statements in one financial year about the fiscal policy.
* To enforce fiscal discipline at the state level, the Twelfth finance commission provided for incentives to states through conditional debt restructuring and interest rate relief.
* In 2012, the FRBM was amended and it was decided that the FRBM would target effective revenue deficit in place of revenue deficit. Effective revenue deficit excludes capital expenditure from revenue deficit and thus gives space to the government to spend on creation of capital assets. The critics of this law feel, it would curb the governments social sector spending but there is no denying the fact that the need for fiscal sustainability cannot be ignored.
* The original document of FRBM Act can be seen on: http://finmin.nic.in/law/frbmact2003.pdf.
What is GST?
* The Goods & Services Tax (GST) is an indirect tax reform measure which will replace all of the indirect taxes such as Central Sales Tax, Octroi, excise duty, Service Tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) at the central and state levels.
* India will have a 'dual GST' system where states and the centre both would have power to levy taxes on goods and services.
* Exports would be an exception and GST will not be imposed on them.
* Under the GST, no distinction is made between goods and services for purpose of levying tax.
* GST is a value added tax where the person paying tax on his output is also entitled to get input tax credit on the tax paid on its inputs.
* The idea of GST was first proposed in the budget speech of 2006-07 which had set out the deadline of 2010 for its introduction in the country.
* To implement such a tax regime a constitutional amendment would be needed as the Centre as well the States are involved in this issue.
* The government expects that the legislative process for the enactment of the GST would be started in the next few months.
* The Finance Minister has expressed the hope that the two tax reforms the GST and Direct Tax Code (DTC) will be implemented soon.
* The objective of GST is to make the taxation simple and to broaden the tax base.
* It will also help create a common market throughout the length and breadth of the country.
* The GST has the advantage of redistributing the burden of taxation equitably between manufacturing and services.
* The rate of taxation is also likely to come down with the introduction of GST.
* Goods of basic importance will have lower tax rates.
* Better compliance and increased tax collection will boost the tax to GDP ratio.
* Economic growth is also likely to get an impetus through GST.
* A report of National Council of Applied Economic Research has estimated an increase of 0.9 percent to 1.7 percent in the economic growth with the implementation of GST.
* Exports will also increase according to this study.
The Direct Taxes Code (DTC)
The Direct Taxes Code (DTC) is said to replace the existing Indian Income Tax Act, 1961. However this bill has never been considered.
Highlights of the Direct Taxes Code bill
* Common threshold Income Tax limits and women proposed at 200,000 Rupees per annum (proposed), up from 180,000
* 10 per cent tax on annual income between 200,000-500,000; 20 per cent up to 1 million, 30 per cent above 1 million rupees
* Tax burden at highest level will come down by Rs. 41,040 annually
* Proposal to raise tax exemption for senior citizens to Rs. 250,000 from 240,000 lakh currently.(NOTE:- Union budget 2011-12 already has proposed it.)
* Corporate Tax to remain at 30 per cent but without surcharge and cess.
* MAT to be 20 per cent of book profit, up from 18.5 per cent.
* Proposal to levy dividend distribution tax at 15 per cent.
* Exemption for investment in approved funds and insurance schemes proposed at Rs. 150,000 annually, against 120,000 currently
* Proposed bill has 319 sections and 22 schedules against 298 sections and 14 schedules in existing IT Act.
* Once enacted, DTC will replace archaic Income Tax Act.
* However, many provisions in Income Tax Act will be a part of DTC as well.
* Mutual Funds/ULIP dropped from 80C deductions: Income from equity-oriented mutual funds or ULIP shall be subject to tax @ 5%
* Fringe benefits tax will be charged to the employee rather than the employer.
Submitted By : Neeraj Gaur
References
1. Yojna March 2013
2. Our Parliament by Subhash Kashyap
3. Direct Tax Codes Copied From Wikipedia and image from EconomicTimes.com
The budget process in India, like in most other countries, comprises four distinct phases:
i) Budget formulation- preparation of estimates of expenditure and receipts for the ensuing financial year;
ii) Budget enactment- approval of the proposed Budget by the Legislature through the enactment of Finance Bill and Appropriation Bill;
iii) Budget execution- enforcement of the provisions in the Finance Act and Appropriation Act by the governmentcollection of receipts and making disbursements for various services as approved by the Legislature;
iv) Legislative review of budget implementation- audits of governments financial operations on behalf of the Legislature.(CAG)
Process commences in August- September
* By convention, the Union Budget for next financial year is presented in Lok Sabha by the finance minister on the last working day of February.
* However, the process of budget formulation starts in the last week of August or the first fortnight of September.
* To get the process started, the Budget Division in the Department of Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance issues the annual budget circular to all the Union government ministries/departments around August- September.
* The Circular contains detailed instructions for these ministries/ departments on the form and content of the statement of budget estimates to be prepared by them.
Three kinds of figures in a Budget
1. Budget Estimates,
2. Revised Estimates
3. Actuals.
* Lets understand this in the context of Union budget 2013-14, which was presented, as usual, on 28th of February 2013 by the Finance Minister, on the floor of LokSabha.
* The process of its formulation would have got started in August 2012 through issuance of budget circular of the Budget Division and this process would have continued till February 2013
* The approval of Parliament is sought for the estimated receipts/expenditures for 2013-14, which would be called budget estimates.
* At the same time, the Union government, in its budget for 2013-14, would also present revised estimates for the ongoing financial year 2012-13.
* The government would not seek approval from Parliament of revised estimates of 2012-13; but, these revised estimates allow the government to reallocate its funds among various ministries based on the implementation of the budget for 2012-13 during the first six months of financial year 2012-13.
* Finally, ministries also report their actual receipts and expenditures for the previous financial year 2011-12. Hence, the Union budget for 2013-14 consists of budget estimates for 2013-14, revised estimates for 2012-13, and actual expenditures and receipts of 2011-12.
Planning Commission comes in
* The ministries would provide budget estimates for plan expenditure for budget estimates for the next financial year, only after they have discussed their respective plan schemes with the Central Planning Commission.
* The Planning Commission depends on the finance ministry to first arrive at the size of the gross budgetary support, which would be provided in the budget for the next annual plan of the Union government.
* In principle, the size of each annual plan should be derived from the approved size of the overall Five-Year Plan (12th Five-Year Plan, 2012-13 to 2016-17, in the present instance).
* However, in practice, the size of the gross budgetary support for an annual plan also depends on the expected availability of funds with the finance ministry for the next financial year.
Reducing deficit, a priority
(Please Read the concept of deficit budgeting and related prolems, and FRBMA, have been asked in pre and mains already, since the new syllabus specifically mentions Government Budgeting these are now hot topics.)
* In the past few years, the finance ministry has been vociferously arguing for reduction of fiscal deficit and revenue deficit of the Union government, citing the targets set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act and its rules.
* Hence, presently, the aspirations of the Planning Commission and Union government ministries with regard to spending face the legal hurdle of this Act, which has made it mandatory for the Union government to show the revenue deficit as nil and the fiscal deficit as less than 3 per cent of GDP.
* This means new borrowing of the government in a financial year cannot exceed 3 per cent of the countrys GDP for that year.
Final stages of budget preparation
* During the final stage of budget preparation, the revenue-earning ministries of the Union government provide the estimates for their revenue receipts in the current fiscal year (revised estimates) and next fiscal year (budget estimates) to the finance ministry.
* Subsequently, usually in the month of January, more attention is paid to finalisation of the estimated receipts.
* With an idea about the total requirement of resources to meet expenditures in the next fiscal year, the finance ministry focuses on the revenue receipts for the next fiscal.
* At this stage of budget preparation, the finance minister examines the budget proposals prepared by the ministry and makes changes in them, if required.
* The finance minister consults the prime minister, and also briefs the Union Cabinet, about the budget at this stage.
* If there is any conflict between any ministry and the finance ministry with regard to the budget, the matter is supposed to be resolved by the Cabinet.
Consultations with various stakeholders crucial
* In the run-up to Union Budget each year, the Finance Minister holds pre-budget consultations with relevant stakeholders.
* The FM also holds consultations with Finance Ministers of States/Union Territories as well as Trade and Industry representatives.
* This has great significance for the process of budget formulation as it helps the FM take decisions on suitable fiscal policy changes to be announced during the budget.
* For this years budget, representatives from the agriculture sector, various trade unions, economists, banking and financial institutions and also social sector groups participated in these consultations in January 2013.
* Among others, a delegation of Peoples Budget Initiative also met Finance Ministry officials and shared the Peoples Charter of Demands in the month of January 2013. But this year too, like in previous years, the process started late.
* Desired changes in expenditure programmes and policies can be influenced only if the consultations are begun earlier, preferably in October.
Consolidation of budget data
* As the last steps, the budget division in the finance ministry consolidates all figures to be presented in the budget and prepares the final budget documents.
* The National Informatics Centre (NIC) helps the budget division in the process of consolidation of the budget data, which has been fully computerised.
* At the end of this process, the finance minister takes the permission of the president of India for presenting the Union budget to Parliament.
* It would be useful to point out that while the second and the third stage in the budget cycle of our country are reasonably transparent, the first stage of actual budget preparation cannot be said to be open. The process is rather carried out behind closed doors.
BUDGET IN PARLIAMENT
With the emergence of Welfare State, Governments have come to look after virtually everysphere of human life. They have to perform manifold functions from maintaining law and order, protecting their territories to implementation of plans for economic and social betterment. Besides, they provide a variety of social services like education, health, employment and housing to the people. Needless to say, Government require adequate resources to discharge these functions effectively. Where is this money to come from and who is to sanction the funds? The necessary funds are mobilised from the countrys resources by way of taxes both direct and indirect, loans both long-term and short-term, to meet the Governmental expenditure. In India, the principal sources of revenue are customs and excise duties and Income-tax on individuals and companies.
Need for Budget
It is not as if the Government can tax, borrow and spend money the way it likes. Since there is a limit to the resources, the need for proper budgeting arises to allocate scarce resources to various Governmental activities. Every item of expenditure has to be well thought out and total outlay worked out for a specific period. Prudent spending is essential for the stability of a Government and proper earnings are a pre-requisite to wise spending. Hence, planned expenditure and accurate foresight of earnings are sine-qua-non of sound Governmental finance.
Parliamentary Control over Finance
Ours is a Parliamentary system of Government based on Westminster model. The Constitution has, therefore, vested the power over the purse in the hands of chosen representatives of the people thus sanctifying the principle no taxation without representation. Preparation of Budget for the approval of the Legislature is a Constitutional obligation of the Government both at the Centre and the State levels. Legislative prerogative over taxation, legislative control over expenditure and executive initiative in financial matters are some of the fundamental principles of the system of Parliamentary financial control.
There are specific provisions in the Constitution of India incorporating these tenets. For example, article 265 provides that no tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law; no expenditure can be incurred except with the authorisation of the Legislature (article 266); and President shall, in respect of every financial year, cause to be laid before Parliament, Annual Financial Statement (article 112). These provisions of our Constitution make the Government accountable to Parliament.
The Budget
The Annual Financial Statement, laid before both the Houses of Parliament constitutes the Budget of the Union Government. This statement takes into account a period of one financial year. The financial year commences in India on 1st April each year. The statement embodies the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India for the financial year.
Demands for Grants
The estimates of expenditure included in the Budget and required to be voted by Lok Sabha are in the form of Demands for Grants. These Demands are arranged Ministry-wise and a separate Demand for each of the major services is presented. Each Demand contains first a statement of the total grant and then a statement of the detailed estimate divided into items.
Railway Budget
The Budget of the Indian Railways is presented separately to Parliament and dealt with separately, although the receipts and expenditure of the Railways form part of the Consolidated Fund of India and the figures relating to them are included in the Annual Financial Statement.
Presentation
* In India, the Budget is presented to Parliament on such date as is fixed by the President.
* The Budget speech of the Finance Minister is usually in two parts.
* Part A deals with general economic survey of the country while
* Part B relates to taxation proposals.
* General Budget was earlier being presented at 5 P.M. on the last working day of February, but since 1999 the General Budget is being presented at 11 A.M. on the last working day of February, i.e. about a month before the commencement of the Financial year except in the year when General Elections to Lok Sabha are held.
* In an election year, Budget may be presented twicefirst to secure Vote on Account for a few months and later in full.
* The General Budget is presented in Lok Sabha by the Minister of Finance. He makes a speech introducing the Budget and it is only in the concluding part of his speech that the proposals for fresh taxation or for variations in the existing taxes are disclosed by him.
* The Annual Financial Statement is laid on the Table of Rajya Sabha at the conclusion of the speech of the Finance Minister in Lok Sabha.
Budget Documents
* Alongwith the Annual Financial Statement Government presents the following documents:
* an Explanatory Memorandum briefly explaining the nature of receipts and expenditure during the current year and the next year and the reasons for variations in the estimates for the two years,
* the Books of Demands showing the provisions Ministry-wise and a separate Demand for each Department and service of the Ministry.
* The Finance Bill which deals with the taxation measures proposed by Government is introduced immediately after the presentation of Budget. It is accompanied by a memorandum explaining the provisions of the Bill and their effect on the finances of the country.
Vote on Account
* The discussion on the Budget begins a few days after its presentation. In a democratic set-up, Government is anxious to give Parliament full opportunity to discuss the budgetary provisions and the various proposals for taxation.
* Since Parliament is not able to vote the entire budget before the commencement of the new financial year, the necessity to keep enough finance at the disposal of Government in order to allow it to run the administration of the country remains.
* A special provision is, therefore, made for "Vote on Account" by which Government obtains the Vote of Parliament for a sum sufficient to incur expenditure on various items for a part of the year.
* Normally, the Vote on Account is taken for two months only. But during election year or when it is anticipated that the main Demands and Appropriation Bill will take longer time than two months, the Vote on Account may be for a period exceeding two months.
Discussion
* The Budget is discussed in two stages in Lok Sabha. First, there is the General Discussion on the Budget as a whole. This lasts for about 4 to 5 days. Only the broad outlines of the Budget and the principles and policies underlying it are discussed at this stage.
* Consideration of the Demands by Standing Committees of Parliament: After the first stage of General Discussion on both Railway as well as General Budget is over, the House is adjourned for a fixed period.
* During this period, the Demands for Grants of various Ministries/Departments including Railways are considered by concerned Standing Committees (Rule 331G).
* These Committees are required to make their reports to the House within specified period without asking for more time.
* The system of consideration of Demands for Grants by the Standing Committees was introduced from the Budget for the year 1993-94.
* The Standing Committee consists of 45 Members, 30 from Lok Sabha and 15 from Rajya Sabha. The reports of the Standing Committees are of persuasive nature (Rule 331N).
* The report shall not suggest anything of the nature of cut motions.
* After the reports of the Standing Committees are presented to the House, the House proceeds to the discussion and Voting on Demands for Grants, Ministry-wise.
* The time for discussion and Voting of Demands for Grants is allocated by the Speaker in consultation with the Leader of the House. On the last day of the allotted days, the Speaker puts all the outstanding Demands to the Vote of the House. This device is popularly known as guillotine.
* Lok Sabha has the power to assent to or refuse to give assent to any Demand or even to reduce the amount of Grant sought by Government.
* In Rajya Sabha there is only a General Discussion on the Budget. It does not vote on the Demands for Grants.
* Only so much of the amount is subject to the vote of Lok Sabha as is not a "charged" expenditure on the Consolidated Fund of India.
* The "charged" expenditure includes the emoluments of the President and the salaries and allowances of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha and the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, Judges of Supreme Court, Comptroller and Auditor General of India and certain other items specified in the Constitution of India.
* Discussion in Lok Sabha on charged expenditure is permissible but such expenditure is not voted by the House. Members have full opportunity to criticise the budgetary provisions during the course of discussion as also to make suggestions for improving the financial position of the country.
Cut Motions
* Motions for reduction to various Demands for Grants are made in the form of Cut Motions seeking to reduce the sums sought by Government on grounds of economy or difference of opinion on matters of policy or just in order to voice a grievance.
Appropriation Bill
* After the General Discussion on the Budget proposals and Voting on Demands for Grants have been completed, Government introduces the Appropriation Bill. The Appropriation Bill is intended to give authority to Government to incur expenditure from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India. The procedure for passing this Bill is the same as in the case of other money Bills.
Finance Bill
* The Finance Bill seeking to give effect to the Governments taxation proposals which is introduced in Lok Sabha immediately after the presentation of the General Budget, is taken up for consideration and passing after the Appropriation Bill is passed. However, certain provisions in the Bill relating to levy and collection of fresh duties or variations in the existing duties come into effect immediately on the expiry of the day on which the Bill is introduced by virtue of a declaration under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act.
* Parliament has to pass the Finance Bill within 75 days of its introduction.
Supplementary/Excess Grants
* No expenditure in excess of the sums authorised by Parliament can be incurred without the sanction of Parliament. Whenever a need arises to incur extra expenditure, a Supplementary estimate is laid before Parliament.
* If any money has been spent on any service during a financial year in excess of the amounts granted for that service and for that year, the Minister of Finance/ Railways presents a Demand for Excess Grant. The procedure followed in Parliament in regard to Supplementary/Excess Grants is more or less the same as is adopted in the case of estimates included in the General Budget.
Budget of a State/Union Territory under Presidents Rule
* Budget of a State under Presidents rule is presented to Lok Sabha. The procedure followed in regard to the Budget of the Union Government is followed in the case of State Budget also with such variations or modifications, as the Speaker may make.
Budget : Concepts and Terminologies
Budget of a government is a comprehensive statement of government finances relating to a particular year. Every Budget broadly consists of two parts-
1. Expenditure Budget
The amounts of intended expenditure by the Government in the next financial year are expressed in the Expenditure Budget. The entire Expenditure Budget can be divided into two distinctcategories, viz.
1. Capital Expenditure - those expenditures by the government that lead to an increase in the assets or a reduction in the liabilities of the government. It is however not necessary that the assets created should be productive or they should even be revenue generating. Only the charges towards the construction of the asset are counted as Capital expenditure, while the subsequent charges for its maintenance are considered as Revenue expenditure. Most capital expenditure is nonrecurring.- Examples of Capital Expenditure causing increase in assets: construction of a new Flyover, Union Govt. giving a Loan to a State Govt. - Examples o f Ca pital Expenditure causing reduction of a liability: Union Govt. repays the principal amountof a loan it had taken in the past
.ii) Revenue Expenditure those expenditures by the government that do not affect its asset-liability position. Most kinds of revenue expenditures are seen as recurring expenditures. The entire amount of Grants given by the Union Government to States is reported in the Union Budget as Revenue Expenditure, even though a part of those Grants get utilized by States for building Schools, Hospitals etc. This is so because the ownership of the schools or hospitals built from the Central grants would not be with the Union Government.- Examples of Revenue Expenditure are: expenditure on Food Subsidy, Salary of staff, procurement of medicines, procurement of text books, payment of interest, etc
Total government expenditure can also be divided into another set of categories, viz
1. Plan Expenditure Plan expenditure refers to government expenditure, which is meant for financing the programmes/schemes formulated under the ongoing/previous five year Plan
2. Non-Plan Expenditure Expenditures of the government, which are not included under the Plan Expenditure are called Non Plan Expenditure. It includes some of the important types of government expenditure, eg:interest payments, pension, defence expenditure, spending on law and order, spending on legislature, subsidies, and salary of regular cadre teachers, doctors and other government officials.
1. Receipts Budget.
The Receipts Budget presents the information on how much the Government intends to collect as its financial resources for meeting its expenditure requirements and from which sources, in the next fiscal year. This can also be divided into two categories
:i) Capital Receipts- those receipts that lead to a reduction in the assets or an increase in the liabilities of the government.- Capital Receipts that lead to a reduction in assets: Recoveries of Loans given by the government and Earnings from Disinvestment;- Capital Receipts that lead toan increase in liabilities :Debt
.ii) Revenue Receipts- those receipts that dont affect the asset-liability position of the government. Revenue Receipts comprise proceeds of Taxes (like, Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Customs, Excise, Service Tax, etc.)and Non-tax revenue of the government (like, Interest receipts, Fees/ User Charges, and Dividend & Profits from PSUs).
Government revenue through taxation can be divided into Direct Taxes and Indirect Taxes.
Direct Taxes: Those taxes for which the tax-burden cannot be shifted are called Direct Taxes. Examples of Direct Taxes are:
1. Corporation Tax This is a tax levied on the income of registered companies in the country, whether national or foreign, under the Income TaxAct, 1961.
2. Personal Income tax- This is a tax on the income ofindividuals, firms etc. other than Companies, under the Income Tax Act, 1961. This head also includes other Taxes, mainly the Securities Transaction Tax, which is levied on transaction in list securities undertaken on stock exchanges and in units of mutual funds
3. Wealth Tax- This is a tax levied on the benefits derived from the ownership of property, under the Wealth Tax Act,1957. Wealth tax has virtually been abolished in India.
Indirect Taxes: Those taxes for which the tax-burden can be shifted are called Indirect Taxes. Any person, who directly pays this kind of a tax to the Government, need not bear the burden of that particular tax; he/she can ultimately shift the tax burden to other persons later through business transactions of goods/ services. Indirect tax on any good or service affects the rich and the poor alike!
Unlike indirect taxes, direct taxes are linked to the tax-payees ability to pay and hence are considered to be progressive. Examples of Indirect Taxes are:
i) Customs Duties-In this,the taxable component is import into or export from the country.
ii) Excise Duties: It is a typeof tax levied on those goods,which are manufactured inthe country and are meant fordomestic consumption. It is atax on manufacturing, whichis paid by the manufacturer,but he passes this burden onto the consumers.
iii) Sales Tax: It is levied onthe sale of a commodity,which is produced/importedand being sold for the firsttime. If the product is soldsubsequently without beingprocessed further, it is exemptfrom sales tax. Before theintroduction of VAT, salestax used to be levied underthe authority of both CentralLegislation (Central SalesTax) and State GovernmentsLegislation (Sales Tax)
iv) Service Tax: It is a tax leviedon services provided by aperson and the responsibilityof payment of the tax iscast on the service provider.However this tax can berecovered by the serviceprovider from the servicereceiver in course of his/herbusiness transactions
.v) Value Added Tax (VAT): VAT is a multi-stage tax, intended to tax every stage of sale of a good where some value has been added to the raw materials; but taxpayers do receive credit for tax already paid on the raw materials in earlier stages.
Debt and Deficit A Debt is a kind of receipt that necessarily leads to an increase of the governments liabilities. The government incurs a Debt only for meeting the gap created by excess of its expenditure over its receipts for that year, which is called Deficit.
Fiscal Deficit It is the gap between the governments total Expenditure (including loans net of repayments) and its Total Receipts (excluding new debt to be taken). Thus Fiscal Deficit for a year indicates the borrowing to be made by the government that year.
Revenue Deficit The gap between Total RevenueExpenditure of the Governmentand its Total Revenue Receipts iscalled the Revenue Deficit
Distriution of financial resources between the Centre and the States A Finance Commission is setup every five years to recommend measures for sharing o resources between the Centre and the States, mainly pertaining to the Tax Revenue collected by the Central Government. Presently the recommendations made by the 13th Finance Commission are in effect (from 2010-11 to 2014-15), whereby 32 percent of the shareable /divisible pool of Central tax revenue is transferred to States every year and the Centre retains the remaining amount for the Union Budget.
Tax-GDP Ratio Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an indicator of the size of a countrys economy. In order to assess the extent of governments policy interventions in the economy, some of the important fiscal parameters, like, total expenditure by the government, tax revenue, deficit etc. are expressed as a proportion of the GDP. Accordingly, a countrys tax-GDP ratio helps us understand how much tax revenue is being collected by the government as compared to the overall size of the economy. A higher tax to GDP ratio in a country is a positive sign meaning that the government is collecting a decent amount of tax revenue as compared to the size of its economy.
What is Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act ?
* The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act was enacted by the Parliament in 2003.
* Its objective is to institutionalize fiscal discipline, reduce fiscal deficit and improve macro economic management.
* This law aims at promoting fiscal stability for the country on a long-term basis.
* It emphasizes a transparent fiscal management system and a more equitable distribution of debts over the years.
* This law also gives flexibility to the Reserve Bank of India to undertake monetary policy to control inflation.
* Government needs resources for funding various kinds of developmental schemes and routine expenditures.
* Resources are raised through taxes and borrowing.
* The government can raise funds by borrowing from the Reserve Bank of India, financial institutions or from the public by floating bonds.
* Fiscal deficit is the total expenditure minus the revenue receipt, loan recoveries and receipts from disinvestment etc.
* It is a measure of the government borrowing in a year.
* However, uncontrolled fiscal deficit is considered harmful for the health of economy.
* FRBM Act was notified in 2004 in response to the need felt to curb large fiscal deficit.
* The FRBM rules specify annual reduction targets for fiscal indicators.
* Originally, the act envisaged revenue deficit to be reduced to nil in five years beginning 2004-05.
* Fiscal deficit was required to be reduced to3 percent of GDP by 2008-09.
* The Act also provides exception to the government in case of natural calamity and for national security.
* The implantation of the act was put on hold in 2007-08 due to global financial crisis and the need for fiscal stimulus.
* There was a need for increased government expenditure to create demand to fight off the financial downturn and hence the government moved away from the path of fiscal consolidation for this period.
* This law also prohibits borrowing by government from the Reserve Bank of India and purchase of primary issues of central government securities after 2006.
* The act asked the Central government to lay in Parliament three statements in one financial year about the fiscal policy.
* To enforce fiscal discipline at the state level, the Twelfth finance commission provided for incentives to states through conditional debt restructuring and interest rate relief.
* In 2012, the FRBM was amended and it was decided that the FRBM would target effective revenue deficit in place of revenue deficit. Effective revenue deficit excludes capital expenditure from revenue deficit and thus gives space to the government to spend on creation of capital assets. The critics of this law feel, it would curb the governments social sector spending but there is no denying the fact that the need for fiscal sustainability cannot be ignored.
* The original document of FRBM Act can be seen on: http://finmin.nic.in/law/frbmact2003.pdf.
What is GST?
* The Goods & Services Tax (GST) is an indirect tax reform measure which will replace all of the indirect taxes such as Central Sales Tax, Octroi, excise duty, Service Tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) at the central and state levels.
* India will have a 'dual GST' system where states and the centre both would have power to levy taxes on goods and services.
* Exports would be an exception and GST will not be imposed on them.
* Under the GST, no distinction is made between goods and services for purpose of levying tax.
* GST is a value added tax where the person paying tax on his output is also entitled to get input tax credit on the tax paid on its inputs.
* The idea of GST was first proposed in the budget speech of 2006-07 which had set out the deadline of 2010 for its introduction in the country.
* To implement such a tax regime a constitutional amendment would be needed as the Centre as well the States are involved in this issue.
* The government expects that the legislative process for the enactment of the GST would be started in the next few months.
* The Finance Minister has expressed the hope that the two tax reforms the GST and Direct Tax Code (DTC) will be implemented soon.
* The objective of GST is to make the taxation simple and to broaden the tax base.
* It will also help create a common market throughout the length and breadth of the country.
* The GST has the advantage of redistributing the burden of taxation equitably between manufacturing and services.
* The rate of taxation is also likely to come down with the introduction of GST.
* Goods of basic importance will have lower tax rates.
* Better compliance and increased tax collection will boost the tax to GDP ratio.
* Economic growth is also likely to get an impetus through GST.
* A report of National Council of Applied Economic Research has estimated an increase of 0.9 percent to 1.7 percent in the economic growth with the implementation of GST.
* Exports will also increase according to this study.
The Direct Taxes Code (DTC)
The Direct Taxes Code (DTC) is said to replace the existing Indian Income Tax Act, 1961. However this bill has never been considered.
Highlights of the Direct Taxes Code bill
* Common threshold Income Tax limits and women proposed at 200,000 Rupees per annum (proposed), up from 180,000
* 10 per cent tax on annual income between 200,000-500,000; 20 per cent up to 1 million, 30 per cent above 1 million rupees
* Tax burden at highest level will come down by Rs. 41,040 annually
* Proposal to raise tax exemption for senior citizens to Rs. 250,000 from 240,000 lakh currently.(NOTE:- Union budget 2011-12 already has proposed it.)
* Corporate Tax to remain at 30 per cent but without surcharge and cess.
* MAT to be 20 per cent of book profit, up from 18.5 per cent.
* Proposal to levy dividend distribution tax at 15 per cent.
* Exemption for investment in approved funds and insurance schemes proposed at Rs. 150,000 annually, against 120,000 currently
* Proposed bill has 319 sections and 22 schedules against 298 sections and 14 schedules in existing IT Act.
* Once enacted, DTC will replace archaic Income Tax Act.
* However, many provisions in Income Tax Act will be a part of DTC as well.
* Mutual Funds/ULIP dropped from 80C deductions: Income from equity-oriented mutual funds or ULIP shall be subject to tax @ 5%
* Fringe benefits tax will be charged to the employee rather than the employer.
Submitted By : Neeraj Gaur
References
1. Yojna March 2013
2. Our Parliament by Subhash Kashyap
3. Direct Tax Codes Copied From Wikipedia and image from EconomicTimes.com
GS 2: Distribution of key natural resources across world (including
GS 2: Distribution of key natural resources across world (including South Asia and Indian)
Prologue: Collect information from misc sources, can't mention all of them here. I just collect them in this single article. I am not saying that this information is sufficient, but I hope it will helpful.
Lets start with small introduction :
What are natural resources?
-material and component formed within environment
or. any matter or energy derived from environment, used by living things.
Everthing occur naturally on earth are natural resources i.e. minerals, land, water, soil, wind. which can be used in many ways by human being.
Classification:
On the basis of renewability :
1. Renewable resources : eg - sunlight, air, water
2. Non- Renewable resources. eg- coal , petroleum
On the basis of "stage of development":
1. Potential resources : exist in a region and may be used later . eg - petroleum, water- we have to use water for producing electricity i.e. water is a potential resource to produce electricity.
2. Actual resources: Can be surveyed, their quality and quantity can be determined. eg- wood processing depends on technology available and the cost involved
3. Reserve resources: part of an actual resource which can be developed profitably in the future
4. Stock Resources : that have been surveyed but cannot be used due to lack of technology.
eg- hydrogen
On the basis of origin:
1. Biotic : obtained from biosphere , such as forest, living and organic material. eg- coal, petroleum
2. Abiotic : come from non-living material, such as from land. eg- iron-ore, gold, copper.
Mineral resources:
Classification:
(in this article I will explain only metallic minerals. I'll explain non-metallic minerals and energy resources in separate articles)
A. Ferrous minerals :
-that have iron content
B. Non Ferrous minerals:
- no iron content.
Ferrous Metals
* IRON ORE:
Not found in pure form, it contain lime, magnesium, phosphorus, silica, sulphur and copper. It means if X place have iron ore then some of/or all of these 6 friends should be there.
First let us discuss types of iron ore. There are 4 types :
TypesIron content (in %)Features
1. Haematite(red-ochre)60-70 - also known as "oxide of iron"-massive, hard, compact and lumpy ore.-color : reddish or coral-red
2. Magnetite60-65- also known as "black ore"-color : obvious, black.
3. Limonite 35-50-also known as "hydrated iron-oxide"-color: yellow
4.Siderite 10-40- not economically extracted.
Distribution in world :
Major producers of iron ore and their share (acc to U S geological survey, 2010)
1. China : 34.5%
2. Brazil: 15.4%
3. Australia: 17.5%
4. India: 10.8%
5. Russia : 4.1%
Major iron ore mines are already explained in mrunal sir's article on "factors responsible for industries"
Other countries in which iron ore mines are present, but small amount of iron ore extracted from them : -
-Ukraine, south Africa, US, Canada, Iran, Sweden, Kazakhistan, Venezuela, Mexico, Mauritania, Chile, Peru, North Korea, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Algeria, Egypt, New Zealand, Mongolia, Japan, Malaysia etc.
* MANGANESE:
Features/Uses:
- in manufacturing of iron and steel (used as raw material for smelting of iron), bleaching powder, insecticides, pesticides, paints, dry batteries, photography etc.
-Zimbabwe has the largest reserves of manganese, followed by India.
Major producers:
Country States in which mines are present
BrazilAmapaSerra Do Nario Mine : Largest producer and exporter of Manganese ore since 1957
Minas Gerais Marro Da Mina mine
ParaAzul and Buritirama Deposits In Carajas iron district
Mato Grosso Do SulCorumba District
South AfricaNorthern CapeConcentrated in Kalahari Manganese fields: Black rock mine, Gloria mine, Middleplaats mine, Mamatwan mine
North-West AfricaOnly one mine present here.
Gabon- The high-grade manganese deposits atMoanda, nearFranceville
China -in Liaoning, Hunan and Guangxi
Mexico-before 1960: Autlan deposit in Jalisco was major producer, but depleted in 1960's. -after 1960 : Molango deposits are major producers and put into production in 1968.
Ukraine-in Khersons'ka
Other countries : China, Mexico, Ukraine.
Non-Ferrous metals
* COPPER :
Features/uses:
-Highly ductile, strong and good conductor of electricity.
-Uses: in electrical machinery, automobile, stainless steel.
-Main alloys - Copper+zinc=brass & copper+tin=bronze.
Leading producers:
Countries States in which mines are present
Chile-Antofagasta mines : 5th largest producer of copper in the world.-copper mines are present in almost all states of chile.-Arica & Parinacota, Tarapaca, Antofagasta, Antacama, Blobia.
China- Jiangxi : Leading producer- Jiangxi Copper corp. -In Sinchua, Yunnan, Gansu, Jilin, Taiwan.
Peru-Leading producer : CMA's Antamina mine. -States where mines exists: Cajamarca, Apurimac, Cusco, Arequipa, Moquegua, Tanca.
US-found in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maine., Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Australia-States : Queensland (large no of mines found here), South Australia (Olympic Dam mine), Tasmania, Northern Territory, New South Wales.
Russia- Northwestern :in Murmansk- Volgo: in Kirov-Siberian: in Irkutsk Oblast and Kraenoyarsk
Zambia-North Western Zambia, Copperbelt.
Congo-at boundary of Niari and Kouilou
Canada-British Columbia, Ontario, New Brusnswick
Mexico-Sonora, Zacatecas, Baja, California Sur.
Norway-Nordland ,Oppland.
Other countries which produce copper in small amount are : Bolivia and Norway.
* GOLD
Occurence :
- also foundworld'soceans: Atlantic and Northeast Pacific
Features/uses:
-high density, most malleable.
- ued in making or jewelry, for monetary exchanges, in medicines, food, electronics, in commercial industries (eg :in cynaide process. )
Major producers:
CountryStates in which mines are present
China-in Shandong, Henan, Fujian, Liaoning, Guizhou, Yunan
Australia-Northern Territory, Western Australia
US-Reed farminNorth Carolina, Virginia, California, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Michigan , Montano, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Moraine gold
Russia-Siberain (in Kraenoyarsk), Irkutsk Oblast, Buryatia, Chukotka, Sakha, Magaden, Amur, Chechnya.
South Africa-Western cape, eastern Transvaal
Peru-Ucayali, Madre De Dios, Arequipa, Ayacucho, San Martin
Canada-In British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario (most of the reserves present here), Nova Scotia.
Ghana-Western Ghana(major reserves), Ashanti.
Indonesia-Grasberg: largest mine in world, in Papua.
Uzbekistan-Nawaoiy
Other countries where gold deposits are present : South Korea (in Chungcheong Namdo) , Egypt (in El Bahr El Ahmar), Congo (in Kouilou), Bolivia (in Pando, La Paz, Beni, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba), Brazil (in Ampa, Para, Mato Grosso, Ceara, Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo).
* SILVER
Occurence:
- Silver is found in native form, as an alloy with gold
Features/uses:
- veryductile,malleable(slightly harder thangold),monovalentcoinage metal
-highestelectrical conductivity, has the highestthermal conductivity, one of the highest opticalreflectivities
-used for making currency and jewelry , in manufacturing of chemicals, electroplating, photography, coloring of glasses, also used by dentists, in making or mirrors and optics.
CountryStates in which mines are present
Australia-Queensland
Russia-Kraenoyarsk, Magadan, Sabha, Zabaykalsky Krai.
Peru-La Libertad, Tacna, Ayacucho
Argentina-Jujuy, Chubut, Neuquen
Mexico-Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Zacatecas, Pachuca, Guanauato
Bolivia-La Paz, Qruro, Potosi
Poland
Chile-Antofagasta, Valaparaiso.
US-Alaska, Arizona,California, Colorado,Idaho, Missouri,Montana,Nevada,New Hampshire,New Mexico,North Carolina,Oklahoma,Oregon, Pennsylvania,Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington
Other countries : South Africa (in Northern Cap), South Korea ( Gyeonggi-Do)
* LEAD
Occurence :
-found in thesolar atmosphere, and much more abundantly in the atmospheres of somehot subdwarfs
-Metallic lead is very rare occur in nature. Obtained from galena, which is found in association with limestone, sandstone and calcareous slates.
-usually found inorewithzinc,silverand (most abundantly)copper
Features/Uses :
i. Heavy metal, malleable, soft and bad conductor of heat and electricity, high resistance to corrosion, ability to react with organic chemicals.
ii. used in alloys , cable cover, type-writers, lead-sheeting, ammunition, paints, glass making, paints making, automobiles, aeroplanes, calculating machines, printing and rubber industries.
Leading producers :
CountryStates in which mines are present
Australia-New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland.
US-Idaho, Arizona, Alaska, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma.
China-Yunna.
Canada-New Brunswick, Yukon, Nunavut, Ontario, British Columbia
Mexico-Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa, Zacatecas
Morocco-Nador, Figuig, Khenitra, Marrarech.
Peru-La Libertad, Cusco, Huanc Avelica.
South Africa- Northern Cape
North Korea-South Hamgyong Province, Ryanggang Province
Other countries: South Korea (Busan, Chunhcheong Namdo, Ganguon-Do, Gyeongci-Do), Spain(Castile & leon, Andalusia, Argon, Region DE Murcia), Chile (Los Lagos), Brazil (Bahia), Congo (Kouilou), Kazakhistan(Toldyqorghan, Shyghys Qazaqstan, Kzzylorda, Qaraghandy), Russia (Rostov, Perm, Altai, Primorsky)
* URANIUM
Occurence:
- found in low levels within all rock, soil, and water
- highest-numbered element to be found naturally in significant quantities on Earth and is almost always found combined with other elements
Features/Uses:
i. silvery-white + very highdensity + weakly radioactivemetal, which is harder thanmost elements
ii. Can react with almost all non-metallic elements and produce heat.
iii. Used in nuclear reactors + also used for tinting and shading in early photography
Some major producers :
CountryStates in which mines are present
Kazakhistan-Suzak, Jambyl, Qyzylorda, Aqmola, Pavlodarskaya Oblast, Aqtobe, Qaraghandy
Australia- has 31% world's reserves : Olympic DamMine in South Australia.
Canada-Saskatchewan: Athabasca Basin
Namibia-Arandis,Namib desert in western Nambia, Swakopmund,
Niger-Akokan, Arlit, Agadez
Russia-Stavropol, Buryatia
Some other countries : US, Ukrain, China, Uzbekistan
* CHROMITE
Occurence:
- Chromite is found inperidotitefrom the Earth'smantle
- occurs inlayeredultramaficintrusive rocks
-also found in metamorphic rocks such as someserpentinites.
-Oredeposits of chromite form as early magmatic differentiates.
Feature:
- is an Oxide of iron and manganese.
- Used in metallurgical and chemical industries.
- Alloy ingredient instainlessandtool steels.
Leading Producers:
-South Africa, India, Kazakhistan, Zimbabwe, Finland, Iran and Brazil.
-Biggest user of chromite : China , importing from S.Africa, Pakistan and other countries.
CountryStates in which mines are present
South Africa- World's largest producer.-Bushveld igneous complex: have very large deposites of chromite -in Eastern BIC, in the Steelpoort Valley.
Kazakhistan-2nd largest-Aqtoke
Zimbabwe-Tarastan
Finland-Lapland, Satakunta
Iran-Razavi Khorasan, Kerman
Brazil-Minas Gerais, Bahia
Minor producers: Afghanistan (Khost Province) , Pakistan (khanozai in Balochistan), Australia (Pilbararegion ofWestern Australia).
* ZINC
Occurence :
-found in association with lead and silver.
Features/uses :
i. Hard and brittle, fair conductr of electricity, low melting point and boiling point.
ii. used for alloying and for manufacturing galvanised sheets.
iii. also used for dry-battries, white pigments, electrodes, textiles, die-casting, rubber industry and for making collapsible tubes, containing drugs, and pastes.
Leading Producers:
CountryStates in which mines are present
China-Yunnan, Hunan
US-Colorado, New Jersey, Northern California, Arizona, Alaska, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma,
Bolivia-La Paz, Potosi, Chuquisaca
Mexico- Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa, Zacatecas
Australia-New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland.
Canada-Saskatchewan, Manitora, New Branswick
Russia-Primorsky, Altai, Volgograd, Sverdlovsk
Kazakhistan-Shyghys Qazaqstan, Qaraghandy, Taldyqorghan, Kyzylorda
North Korea-Piyongan Bukto, Hwanghae Namido, Hwanghae-Bukto, Kangwon-Do, Hamgyong-Namdo, Hamgyong Bukto, Kangwon-Do.
Peru-Ayacucho, Cusco, ICA
Other countries : South Africa (Kwazulu-Natal) , Spain (Principado De Asturias, Castile and Leon, Comunidad Valencia), Argentia (Jujuy, Santa Fe)
* TUNGSTEN
Occurence :
-obtained from wolfram ore.
Features/uses:
- self hardening mineral, hence used in steel industries, manufacturing of ammunition, armour plates, heavy guns, hard cutting tools.
Leading producers:
CountryStates in which mines are present
China-leading producer.-Guangdong
Russia-Primorsky, Buryatia, Altai
Canada-Toronto, New Brunswick, Yukon, Northwest territory,
Bolivia-La Paz, Potosi
Austria-Salzburg
Thailand-Chiang Mai, Lampang, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Si Thammarat
Brazil- Currais Novos in Northeastern Brazil
Peru-Puno, Junin
Portugal-Viseu
Other countries : Australia (BassStrait), South Korea (Ganguon-Do, Gyeongsany-Bukdo, Gyeongsang Namdo), North Korea(Kangwan-Do, Hwanghae Bukto, Piyongang Namdo)
* BAUXITE
Occurence:
- The early discovered carbonate bauxites occur predominantly inEuropeandJamaicaabovecarbonate rocks(limestoneanddolomite), where they were formed by lateriticweatheringand residual accumulation of intercalatedclaysor by clay dissolution residues of the limestone.
-mostly found in countries of tropics
-formed bylateritizationof varioussilicate rockssuch asgranite,gneiss,basalt,syenite, andshale
Features/Uses:
- main source of aluminium.
Major producers:
CountryStates in which mines are present
Australia-top producer.-Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland
Russia-Karelia, Perm
Brazil-Para, Maranhao, Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais.
Australia-Western australia, Northern territory, Queensland.
Vietnam-Binh Phuoc, Gia Lai
Jamaica-Trelawny, Saint Ann, Saint Elizabeth, Manchestor, Clarendon, Saint Catherine, Saint Kingston, Saint James, Portland
Guinea- Boke, Kindia
Ghana-Western Ghana
Other country : Kazakhistan (Kostanay)
Distribution in India
(Only Overview, as you can find in detail in Majid and Ncert)
Mineral belts of India:
1. The Chotanagpur Belt:
-stretches over Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and West Bengal
-rich in : coal, mica, manganese, bauxite, iron, uranium phosphate, copper, dolomite, china-clay and limestone.
-Important mineral producing districts:
a. Jharkhand: Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Palamu, Santhal-Pargana, Singhbhum.
b. Odisha: Cuttack, Dhankenal, Kendujhar, Koratput, Mayurbhanj, Sambhalpur, Sundargarh.
c. West Bengal : Bankura, Birbhum, Medinipur, Purulia.
2. Midland Belt:
-Chattisgarh, MP, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
-Rich in: manganese ore, bauxite, mica, copper, graphite, limestone, lignite, marble.
3. The Southern belt:
-Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu.
-rich in : gold, iron ore, chromite, manganese, lignite, mica, bauxite, gypsum, asbestos, dolomite, ilmenite, china-clay, limestone.
4. The Western belt:
-Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra.
-Rich in: copper, lead, zinc, uranium, mica, manganese, salt, asbestos, precious stones, building stones, mineral oil and natural gas.
5. The Southern-Western belt:
-Goa, Karnataka, Kerala.
-Rich in: iron ore, ilmenite, zircon, monazite sands, garnet, china-clay, bauxite, mica, limestone and soapstone.
6. The Himalayan belt:
-poor in metallic minerals
-minerals found in small quantity: copper, lead, zinc, bismuth, bauxite, antimony, nickel, cobalt, tungsten, precious stone, gold, silver, gypsum, limestone and dolomite.
7. The Indian Ocean:
-Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal are rich in mineral oil and natural gas.
-Also contain: manganese, phosphate, barium, aluminum, silicon, iron, titanium, sodium, potassium, chromium, monazite, ilmenite, magnetite, garnet.
Mineral States in which mines are present
Iron-ore -Karnataka, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand
Manganese-Odisha, Maharashtra, MP, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh
Copper-MP, Rajasthan, Jharkhand
Chromite-Odisha, Karnataka, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh
Uranium-Jharkhand
Lead-Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, MP, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, West Bengal
Zinc-Rajasthan, Sikkim, Jammu, Bihar, MP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Kashmir
Tungsten-Rajasthan , West Bengal, Maharashtra, Mysore, Gujarat, Jharkhand
Bauxite-Odisha, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra, Chhatisgarh, Tamil Nadu, MP
Gold- Rajasthan , West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh
Silver- Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh
Name: Nisha Vats
Prologue: Collect information from misc sources, can't mention all of them here. I just collect them in this single article. I am not saying that this information is sufficient, but I hope it will helpful.
Lets start with small introduction :
What are natural resources?
-material and component formed within environment
or. any matter or energy derived from environment, used by living things.
Everthing occur naturally on earth are natural resources i.e. minerals, land, water, soil, wind. which can be used in many ways by human being.
Classification:
On the basis of renewability :
1. Renewable resources : eg - sunlight, air, water
2. Non- Renewable resources. eg- coal , petroleum
On the basis of "stage of development":
1. Potential resources : exist in a region and may be used later . eg - petroleum, water- we have to use water for producing electricity i.e. water is a potential resource to produce electricity.
2. Actual resources: Can be surveyed, their quality and quantity can be determined. eg- wood processing depends on technology available and the cost involved
3. Reserve resources: part of an actual resource which can be developed profitably in the future
4. Stock Resources : that have been surveyed but cannot be used due to lack of technology.
eg- hydrogen
On the basis of origin:
1. Biotic : obtained from biosphere , such as forest, living and organic material. eg- coal, petroleum
2. Abiotic : come from non-living material, such as from land. eg- iron-ore, gold, copper.
Mineral resources:
Classification:
(in this article I will explain only metallic minerals. I'll explain non-metallic minerals and energy resources in separate articles)
A. Ferrous minerals :
-that have iron content
B. Non Ferrous minerals:
- no iron content.
Ferrous Metals
* IRON ORE:
Not found in pure form, it contain lime, magnesium, phosphorus, silica, sulphur and copper. It means if X place have iron ore then some of/or all of these 6 friends should be there.
First let us discuss types of iron ore. There are 4 types :
TypesIron content (in %)Features
1. Haematite(red-ochre)60-70 - also known as "oxide of iron"-massive, hard, compact and lumpy ore.-color : reddish or coral-red
2. Magnetite60-65- also known as "black ore"-color : obvious, black.
3. Limonite 35-50-also known as "hydrated iron-oxide"-color: yellow
4.Siderite 10-40- not economically extracted.
Distribution in world :
Major producers of iron ore and their share (acc to U S geological survey, 2010)
1. China : 34.5%
2. Brazil: 15.4%
3. Australia: 17.5%
4. India: 10.8%
5. Russia : 4.1%
Major iron ore mines are already explained in mrunal sir's article on "factors responsible for industries"
Other countries in which iron ore mines are present, but small amount of iron ore extracted from them : -
-Ukraine, south Africa, US, Canada, Iran, Sweden, Kazakhistan, Venezuela, Mexico, Mauritania, Chile, Peru, North Korea, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Algeria, Egypt, New Zealand, Mongolia, Japan, Malaysia etc.
* MANGANESE:
Features/Uses:
- in manufacturing of iron and steel (used as raw material for smelting of iron), bleaching powder, insecticides, pesticides, paints, dry batteries, photography etc.
-Zimbabwe has the largest reserves of manganese, followed by India.
Major producers:
Country States in which mines are present
BrazilAmapaSerra Do Nario Mine : Largest producer and exporter of Manganese ore since 1957
Minas Gerais Marro Da Mina mine
ParaAzul and Buritirama Deposits In Carajas iron district
Mato Grosso Do SulCorumba District
South AfricaNorthern CapeConcentrated in Kalahari Manganese fields: Black rock mine, Gloria mine, Middleplaats mine, Mamatwan mine
North-West AfricaOnly one mine present here.
Gabon- The high-grade manganese deposits atMoanda, nearFranceville
China -in Liaoning, Hunan and Guangxi
Mexico-before 1960: Autlan deposit in Jalisco was major producer, but depleted in 1960's. -after 1960 : Molango deposits are major producers and put into production in 1968.
Ukraine-in Khersons'ka
Other countries : China, Mexico, Ukraine.
Non-Ferrous metals
* COPPER :
Features/uses:
-Highly ductile, strong and good conductor of electricity.
-Uses: in electrical machinery, automobile, stainless steel.
-Main alloys - Copper+zinc=brass & copper+tin=bronze.
Leading producers:
Countries States in which mines are present
Chile-Antofagasta mines : 5th largest producer of copper in the world.-copper mines are present in almost all states of chile.-Arica & Parinacota, Tarapaca, Antofagasta, Antacama, Blobia.
China- Jiangxi : Leading producer- Jiangxi Copper corp. -In Sinchua, Yunnan, Gansu, Jilin, Taiwan.
Peru-Leading producer : CMA's Antamina mine. -States where mines exists: Cajamarca, Apurimac, Cusco, Arequipa, Moquegua, Tanca.
US-found in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maine., Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Australia-States : Queensland (large no of mines found here), South Australia (Olympic Dam mine), Tasmania, Northern Territory, New South Wales.
Russia- Northwestern :in Murmansk- Volgo: in Kirov-Siberian: in Irkutsk Oblast and Kraenoyarsk
Zambia-North Western Zambia, Copperbelt.
Congo-at boundary of Niari and Kouilou
Canada-British Columbia, Ontario, New Brusnswick
Mexico-Sonora, Zacatecas, Baja, California Sur.
Norway-Nordland ,Oppland.
Other countries which produce copper in small amount are : Bolivia and Norway.
* GOLD
Occurence :
- also foundworld'soceans: Atlantic and Northeast Pacific
Features/uses:
-high density, most malleable.
- ued in making or jewelry, for monetary exchanges, in medicines, food, electronics, in commercial industries (eg :in cynaide process. )
Major producers:
CountryStates in which mines are present
China-in Shandong, Henan, Fujian, Liaoning, Guizhou, Yunan
Australia-Northern Territory, Western Australia
US-Reed farminNorth Carolina, Virginia, California, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Michigan , Montano, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Moraine gold
Russia-Siberain (in Kraenoyarsk), Irkutsk Oblast, Buryatia, Chukotka, Sakha, Magaden, Amur, Chechnya.
South Africa-Western cape, eastern Transvaal
Peru-Ucayali, Madre De Dios, Arequipa, Ayacucho, San Martin
Canada-In British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario (most of the reserves present here), Nova Scotia.
Ghana-Western Ghana(major reserves), Ashanti.
Indonesia-Grasberg: largest mine in world, in Papua.
Uzbekistan-Nawaoiy
Other countries where gold deposits are present : South Korea (in Chungcheong Namdo) , Egypt (in El Bahr El Ahmar), Congo (in Kouilou), Bolivia (in Pando, La Paz, Beni, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba), Brazil (in Ampa, Para, Mato Grosso, Ceara, Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo).
* SILVER
Occurence:
- Silver is found in native form, as an alloy with gold
Features/uses:
- veryductile,malleable(slightly harder thangold),monovalentcoinage metal
-highestelectrical conductivity, has the highestthermal conductivity, one of the highest opticalreflectivities
-used for making currency and jewelry , in manufacturing of chemicals, electroplating, photography, coloring of glasses, also used by dentists, in making or mirrors and optics.
CountryStates in which mines are present
Australia-Queensland
Russia-Kraenoyarsk, Magadan, Sabha, Zabaykalsky Krai.
Peru-La Libertad, Tacna, Ayacucho
Argentina-Jujuy, Chubut, Neuquen
Mexico-Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Zacatecas, Pachuca, Guanauato
Bolivia-La Paz, Qruro, Potosi
Poland
Chile-Antofagasta, Valaparaiso.
US-Alaska, Arizona,California, Colorado,Idaho, Missouri,Montana,Nevada,New Hampshire,New Mexico,North Carolina,Oklahoma,Oregon, Pennsylvania,Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington
Other countries : South Africa (in Northern Cap), South Korea ( Gyeonggi-Do)
* LEAD
Occurence :
-found in thesolar atmosphere, and much more abundantly in the atmospheres of somehot subdwarfs
-Metallic lead is very rare occur in nature. Obtained from galena, which is found in association with limestone, sandstone and calcareous slates.
-usually found inorewithzinc,silverand (most abundantly)copper
Features/Uses :
i. Heavy metal, malleable, soft and bad conductor of heat and electricity, high resistance to corrosion, ability to react with organic chemicals.
ii. used in alloys , cable cover, type-writers, lead-sheeting, ammunition, paints, glass making, paints making, automobiles, aeroplanes, calculating machines, printing and rubber industries.
Leading producers :
CountryStates in which mines are present
Australia-New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland.
US-Idaho, Arizona, Alaska, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma.
China-Yunna.
Canada-New Brunswick, Yukon, Nunavut, Ontario, British Columbia
Mexico-Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa, Zacatecas
Morocco-Nador, Figuig, Khenitra, Marrarech.
Peru-La Libertad, Cusco, Huanc Avelica.
South Africa- Northern Cape
North Korea-South Hamgyong Province, Ryanggang Province
Other countries: South Korea (Busan, Chunhcheong Namdo, Ganguon-Do, Gyeongci-Do), Spain(Castile & leon, Andalusia, Argon, Region DE Murcia), Chile (Los Lagos), Brazil (Bahia), Congo (Kouilou), Kazakhistan(Toldyqorghan, Shyghys Qazaqstan, Kzzylorda, Qaraghandy), Russia (Rostov, Perm, Altai, Primorsky)
* URANIUM
Occurence:
- found in low levels within all rock, soil, and water
- highest-numbered element to be found naturally in significant quantities on Earth and is almost always found combined with other elements
Features/Uses:
i. silvery-white + very highdensity + weakly radioactivemetal, which is harder thanmost elements
ii. Can react with almost all non-metallic elements and produce heat.
iii. Used in nuclear reactors + also used for tinting and shading in early photography
Some major producers :
CountryStates in which mines are present
Kazakhistan-Suzak, Jambyl, Qyzylorda, Aqmola, Pavlodarskaya Oblast, Aqtobe, Qaraghandy
Australia- has 31% world's reserves : Olympic DamMine in South Australia.
Canada-Saskatchewan: Athabasca Basin
Namibia-Arandis,Namib desert in western Nambia, Swakopmund,
Niger-Akokan, Arlit, Agadez
Russia-Stavropol, Buryatia
Some other countries : US, Ukrain, China, Uzbekistan
* CHROMITE
Occurence:
- Chromite is found inperidotitefrom the Earth'smantle
- occurs inlayeredultramaficintrusive rocks
-also found in metamorphic rocks such as someserpentinites.
-Oredeposits of chromite form as early magmatic differentiates.
Feature:
- is an Oxide of iron and manganese.
- Used in metallurgical and chemical industries.
- Alloy ingredient instainlessandtool steels.
Leading Producers:
-South Africa, India, Kazakhistan, Zimbabwe, Finland, Iran and Brazil.
-Biggest user of chromite : China , importing from S.Africa, Pakistan and other countries.
CountryStates in which mines are present
South Africa- World's largest producer.-Bushveld igneous complex: have very large deposites of chromite -in Eastern BIC, in the Steelpoort Valley.
Kazakhistan-2nd largest-Aqtoke
Zimbabwe-Tarastan
Finland-Lapland, Satakunta
Iran-Razavi Khorasan, Kerman
Brazil-Minas Gerais, Bahia
Minor producers: Afghanistan (Khost Province) , Pakistan (khanozai in Balochistan), Australia (Pilbararegion ofWestern Australia).
* ZINC
Occurence :
-found in association with lead and silver.
Features/uses :
i. Hard and brittle, fair conductr of electricity, low melting point and boiling point.
ii. used for alloying and for manufacturing galvanised sheets.
iii. also used for dry-battries, white pigments, electrodes, textiles, die-casting, rubber industry and for making collapsible tubes, containing drugs, and pastes.
Leading Producers:
CountryStates in which mines are present
China-Yunnan, Hunan
US-Colorado, New Jersey, Northern California, Arizona, Alaska, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma,
Bolivia-La Paz, Potosi, Chuquisaca
Mexico- Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa, Zacatecas
Australia-New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland.
Canada-Saskatchewan, Manitora, New Branswick
Russia-Primorsky, Altai, Volgograd, Sverdlovsk
Kazakhistan-Shyghys Qazaqstan, Qaraghandy, Taldyqorghan, Kyzylorda
North Korea-Piyongan Bukto, Hwanghae Namido, Hwanghae-Bukto, Kangwon-Do, Hamgyong-Namdo, Hamgyong Bukto, Kangwon-Do.
Peru-Ayacucho, Cusco, ICA
Other countries : South Africa (Kwazulu-Natal) , Spain (Principado De Asturias, Castile and Leon, Comunidad Valencia), Argentia (Jujuy, Santa Fe)
* TUNGSTEN
Occurence :
-obtained from wolfram ore.
Features/uses:
- self hardening mineral, hence used in steel industries, manufacturing of ammunition, armour plates, heavy guns, hard cutting tools.
Leading producers:
CountryStates in which mines are present
China-leading producer.-Guangdong
Russia-Primorsky, Buryatia, Altai
Canada-Toronto, New Brunswick, Yukon, Northwest territory,
Bolivia-La Paz, Potosi
Austria-Salzburg
Thailand-Chiang Mai, Lampang, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Si Thammarat
Brazil- Currais Novos in Northeastern Brazil
Peru-Puno, Junin
Portugal-Viseu
Other countries : Australia (BassStrait), South Korea (Ganguon-Do, Gyeongsany-Bukdo, Gyeongsang Namdo), North Korea(Kangwan-Do, Hwanghae Bukto, Piyongang Namdo)
* BAUXITE
Occurence:
- The early discovered carbonate bauxites occur predominantly inEuropeandJamaicaabovecarbonate rocks(limestoneanddolomite), where they were formed by lateriticweatheringand residual accumulation of intercalatedclaysor by clay dissolution residues of the limestone.
-mostly found in countries of tropics
-formed bylateritizationof varioussilicate rockssuch asgranite,gneiss,basalt,syenite, andshale
Features/Uses:
- main source of aluminium.
Major producers:
CountryStates in which mines are present
Australia-top producer.-Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland
Russia-Karelia, Perm
Brazil-Para, Maranhao, Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais.
Australia-Western australia, Northern territory, Queensland.
Vietnam-Binh Phuoc, Gia Lai
Jamaica-Trelawny, Saint Ann, Saint Elizabeth, Manchestor, Clarendon, Saint Catherine, Saint Kingston, Saint James, Portland
Guinea- Boke, Kindia
Ghana-Western Ghana
Other country : Kazakhistan (Kostanay)
Distribution in India
(Only Overview, as you can find in detail in Majid and Ncert)
Mineral belts of India:
1. The Chotanagpur Belt:
-stretches over Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and West Bengal
-rich in : coal, mica, manganese, bauxite, iron, uranium phosphate, copper, dolomite, china-clay and limestone.
-Important mineral producing districts:
a. Jharkhand: Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Palamu, Santhal-Pargana, Singhbhum.
b. Odisha: Cuttack, Dhankenal, Kendujhar, Koratput, Mayurbhanj, Sambhalpur, Sundargarh.
c. West Bengal : Bankura, Birbhum, Medinipur, Purulia.
2. Midland Belt:
-Chattisgarh, MP, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
-Rich in: manganese ore, bauxite, mica, copper, graphite, limestone, lignite, marble.
3. The Southern belt:
-Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu.
-rich in : gold, iron ore, chromite, manganese, lignite, mica, bauxite, gypsum, asbestos, dolomite, ilmenite, china-clay, limestone.
4. The Western belt:
-Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra.
-Rich in: copper, lead, zinc, uranium, mica, manganese, salt, asbestos, precious stones, building stones, mineral oil and natural gas.
5. The Southern-Western belt:
-Goa, Karnataka, Kerala.
-Rich in: iron ore, ilmenite, zircon, monazite sands, garnet, china-clay, bauxite, mica, limestone and soapstone.
6. The Himalayan belt:
-poor in metallic minerals
-minerals found in small quantity: copper, lead, zinc, bismuth, bauxite, antimony, nickel, cobalt, tungsten, precious stone, gold, silver, gypsum, limestone and dolomite.
7. The Indian Ocean:
-Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal are rich in mineral oil and natural gas.
-Also contain: manganese, phosphate, barium, aluminum, silicon, iron, titanium, sodium, potassium, chromium, monazite, ilmenite, magnetite, garnet.
Mineral States in which mines are present
Iron-ore -Karnataka, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand
Manganese-Odisha, Maharashtra, MP, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh
Copper-MP, Rajasthan, Jharkhand
Chromite-Odisha, Karnataka, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh
Uranium-Jharkhand
Lead-Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, MP, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, West Bengal
Zinc-Rajasthan, Sikkim, Jammu, Bihar, MP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Kashmir
Tungsten-Rajasthan , West Bengal, Maharashtra, Mysore, Gujarat, Jharkhand
Bauxite-Odisha, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra, Chhatisgarh, Tamil Nadu, MP
Gold- Rajasthan , West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh
Silver- Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh
Name: Nisha Vats
Comparison of Indian Constitutional Scheme with Other Countries for GS
Comparison of Indian Constitutional Scheme with Other Countries for GS 2
PROLOGUE
1. United States of America
1. President of USA
2. Vice President
3. Congress
(a) House of Representatives
(b) Senate
1.4 Supreme Court of USA
1.5 Comparison b/w INDIA-USAs Political Systems.
1. United Kingdom
2.1 Monarchy of UK
2.2 Her Majesty's Government
(a) Prime Minister
2.3 British Parliament
(a) House of Commons
(b) House of Lords
2.4 Supreme Court of UK
2.5 Comparison b/w INDIA-UKs Political Systems.
1. France
3.1 President of the France
3.2 Prime Minister
3. Parliament of France
1. National Assembly
2. Senate
3. Judiciary of France
3. Comparison b/w INDIA-FRANCEs Political Systems.
1. Germany
4.1 President of Germany
4.2 Federal Chancellor
4.3 The Bundestag
4.4 The Bundesrat
4.5 Judiciary of Germany
4.6 Comparison b/w INDIA-GERMANYs Political Systems
1. Switzerland
5.1 The Federal Council
5.2 President of the Confederation
5.3 Federal Assembly
(a) National Council
(b) Council of States
5.4 The Federal Supreme Court
5.5 Comparison b/w INDIA-SWITZERLANDs Political Systems
1. China
6.1 President of China
6.2 Vice- President
6.3 State Council
6.4 Premier
6.5 The National People's Congress
(a) NPC Standing Committee
6.6 Supreme People's Court
6.7 Comparison b/w INDIA-CHINAs Political Systems
{NOTE:
* The best way of reading would be by keeping parallels in mind e.g. when reading US president keep in mind his Indian counterpart or when reading German Chancellor keep in mind Indian PM.
* Wherever comparisons are used e.g. Senate>Rajya Sabha, it doesnt means that Senate can overpower Rajya Sabha, it means that the powers of Senate in US are greater than that are enjoyed by Rajya Sabha in India.
United States of America
American constitution is the oldest among existing written constitutions of the world. It was drafted by the constitutional convention, the Philadelphia Convention (1787).
It is federal presidential democratic republic.
[But what is federal system of government?
In a truly federal state, power is divided b/w federal govt (at the centre) and its constituent units as specified in constitution.
But the most imp feature of federal state is that sovereignty is divided b/w the centre and the states. There is not one but many centre of sovereignty in a federal country.
Other important attributes are-dual citizenship; supremacy of constitution; Supreme Authority for interpreting constitution and deciding conflicts b/w centre and states.]
Provision of Checks and Balance
The principle of checks and balances was applied to provide against a water-tight compartmentalisation and to ensure no despotism.
* Thus law making power of congress is checked by presidents veto and Supreme Courts power of interpreting laws and declaring them ultra vires if they contradict the provisions of the constitution.
* President is checked by the fact that he cannot spend money without the approval of Senate; that he can be impeached by the congress; that he cant make appointments without the approval of senate and treaties negotiated by him cannot become effective until they are ratified by senate.
* The Judiciary is checked by the fact that Congress can determine the no. of judges and fix their salaries; that President and Senate together appoint judges and Congress can impeach judges.
* PRESIDENT
President of USA is head of the state and head of the government. He is commander-in-chief of armed forces, head of national economic programme and spokesman for all Americans.
1. He is the Chief Executive, the official charged with supervising the activities of all Americans in the national administration.
2. He has been commanded by law to prepare the govts annual budget, to set rules for civil service and to encourage efficient administrative practices.
3. With the advice and consent of senate, President appoints ambassadors, other public officials and counsels, judges of Supreme Court.
4. He is also director of American foreign policy; however, treaties and diplomatic appointments must be confirmed by Senate.
5. He is closely associated with work of congress. The constitution requires him to recommend to congress such measures as he judges necessary and expedient and grants him qualified power of veto.
[Qualified power of veto whenever he thinks that the bill passed by congress is unwise or unconstitutional, he may return the bill without his signature or retain it unsigned= pocket veto the bill cannot become law of the land.
But if both chambers of the Congress pass the bill by 2/3 majority then it becomes law without the President's signature.]
ELECTION The President of US is elected from an indirect election i.e. not by voters directly but by an electoral college whose electors are chosen by the voters of the state.
In other words, voters in each state select a slate of electors from a list of several slates designated by different political parties and those electors promise in advance to vote for presidential candidates of those political parties.
VICE-PRESIDENT
The Vice President is the second-highest executive official in rank of the government. The Vice President becomes President upon the death, resignation, or removal of the President. Under the Constitution, the Vice President is ex-officio President of the Senate. By virtue of this role, he or she is the head of the Senate. In that capacity, the Vice President is allowed to vote in the Senate, but only when necessary to break a tie vote. Due to the 12th Amendment, the Vice President presides over the joint session of Congress.
1. CONGRESS
It has two chambers
1. House of Representative
2. Senate
POWERS OF CONGRESS These include
* the powers to levy and collect taxes;
* to coin money and regulate its value;
* provide for punishment for counterfeiting and felony;
* establish post offices and roads;
* create federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court;
* declare war, raise and support armies, provide and maintain a navy, make rules for the regulation of land and naval forces, provide for, arm and discipline the militia;
* Make laws necessary to properly execute these powers.
The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people
IMPEACHMENT OF FEDERAL OFFICERSCongress has the power to impeach the President, federal judges, and other federal officers from office.
Both houses have separate roles in this process. The House of representative must first vote to impeach the official. Then, a trial is held in the Senate to decide whether the official should be removed from office which acts like a court. When an Impeachment process involves a U.S. President, the Chief Justice of the United States is required to preside during the Senate trial. In all other trials, the Vice President would preside in his capacity as President of the Senate.
CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHTthis is near similar to the work done by standing and business committees in India except Congress is more powerful and does wide variety of functions. Congressional oversight is intended to prevent waste of resources and fraud, to protect civil liberties and individual rights and ensure executive compliance with the law. It applies to cabinet departments, executive agencies, regulatory commissions and the presidency.
* HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES It is the lower house of the Congress. The House consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district. The number of representatives each state has in the House is based on each state's population, unlike senate; here proportional representation has been followed.
ELECTION the qualifications for being elected as the member
An individual must be at least 25 years of age, and must have been a U.S. citizen for at least 7 years standing. Each representative is elected for period of 2 years.
In addition to the 435 voting members, there are 6 non-voting members, consisting of 5 delegates and one resident commissioner. There is one delegate each from the District of Columbia, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico.
SPECIAL POWERS All legislative bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives.
B. SENATE It is the upper house of American Congress. Though unlike upper houses of other countries, Senate is co-ordinate and co-equal with House of Representatives and , in addition, vested with imp special powers.
ELECTION The Constitution empowers the Senate to be the judge of the elections, returns and qualification of its members. Senate has 100 members from 50 states (50*2) with 1/3 of members retiring every 2 years. Until the 17th amendment to US constitution in 1913, senators were elected by state legislatures and not by electorate of the states. Each senator is elected for 6 years.
The qualifications for being a senator an individual should be at least 30 years of age, must be a citizen of USA of 9 years standing and must be the inhabitant of the state from which he is elected.
The Senate can by majority vote refuse to allow a duly elected member from taking his seat.
SPECIAL POWERS the Senate must give "advice and consent" to many important Presidential appointments, including cabinet officers, federal judges (including nominees to the Supreme Court), department secretaries (heads of federal executive branch departments), U.S. military and naval officers, and ambassadors to foreign countries
* SUPREME COURT
Supreme Court of US enjoys immense prestige and the people of America take pride in calling it the most august tribunal on earth. Its position as the final interpreter of the constitution has come to be universally accepted and through the exercise of this power, the SC acts as an umpire of constitutional conflicts and as the protector of the
FINAL INTERPRETER OF THE CONSTITUTION SC has assumed the position of final interpreter of constitution and it is on the basis of this position that the SC has built up the Doctrine of Judicial Supremacy. This position of SC has never been successfully challenged.
JUDICIAL REVIEW The practice of judicial review --- is the most important function and distinctive attribute of the SC. Judicial Review is the right of SC and also of subordinate federal courts to examine the laws passed by the federal & state legislatures with a view to determining whether or not they are in consonance with constitution of US. If SC feels that a law under examination contravenes any provision, it declares the law ultra vires and unconstitutional.
Judicial Review, it should be remembered, does not only apply to federal & state statutes. It has a wider scope and covers the constitution of states, treaties made by federal govt and executive orders issued by federal & state executive authorities.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 subdivided the nation jurisdictionally into judicial districts and created federal courts for each district. The three tiered structure of this act established the basic structure of the national judiciary: the Supreme Court, 13 courts of appeals, 94 district courts but Congress retains the power to re-organize and even abolish federal courts lower than the SC under the act.
COMPARISION B/W INDIA-USAs POLITICAL SYSTEMS.
FEATURESINDIAUSAINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal featuresFederal State
PresidentNominal HeadReal HeadWhile in Indian president is a rubber stamp of govt, US president is Chief-executive of govt.
Vice-PresidentYesYes
Prime Minister/OtherReal HeadNoPM in parliamentary democracy with majority in both houses can be more powerful (can do whatever he wants) than US president.
PolityDemocratic RepublicDemocratic Republic
Form of GovernmentParliamentary systemPresidential system
Lower HouseLok SabhaHouse of RepresentativeLok Sabha>House of Representatives, in its functions
Upper HouseRajya SabhaSenateSenate>Rajya Sabha, in its functions.
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionYes, through Constitutional provisions and Civil Rights Act.
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High CourtThe Supreme Court of US is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Supremacy is followed.SC of India subordinates all High Courts but SC of US exercise lesser control over State Supreme Courts. SSC are the final authority on the interpretation of the applicable state's laws and state's Constitution (dual sovereignty).
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.In US, Each state has its own written constitution, and code of laws. The 10th Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits the federal government from exercising any power not delegated to it by the States in the Constitution (fully autonomous).
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallyPolitically neutral institution
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemThough not provided in the Constitution, in practice Two-Party System prevails, with some other parties with relatively minor representation.
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN & NORTHERN IRELAND
UK has a Constitutional Monarchy and unitary democracy. It has no Written Constitution. Its government is known as Her Majestys Government. It functions through Unwritten Constitution which is sum total of Historical Written Laws, Court Judgements, parliamentary constitutional conventions and Treaties.
Under the unwritten British constitution, executive authority lies with the monarch, although this authority is exercised only by, or on the advice of, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.
In UK, Parliament is Supreme law making body and Courts dont exercise Judicial Review over laws passed by the Parliament hence Parliamentary Supremacy.
One consequence of the principle of parliamentary sovereignty is that there is no hierarchy among Acts of Parliament: all parliamentary legislation is, in principle, of equal validity and effectiveness unlike India, where Constitutional law > non-Constitutional law.
* RULE OF LAW The protector of peoples liberties in UK is Rule of Law. As a basic principle of British Constitutional System, the rule of law means that the exercise of powers of govt shall be conditioned by law and that the subject shall not be exposed to arbitrary will of his rule.
That is to say, no man can be punished or made suffer in body or goods (imprisoned or fined) except if it is established in the ordinary legal manner and before the court of law that he is guilty of a breach of law.
* EQUALITY BEFORE LAW It implies that no one is above the law. With the sole exception of Monarch who can do no wrong, everyone in UK, whether the PM or Constable is under same responsibility for every act done without legal justification. This rule is subject to certain exceptions.
* UNITARY STATE The UK includes 4 countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but it is a unitary state and though Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have legislatures and executives, the authority of all these bodies are dependent on Acts of Parliament and that they can be abolished at the will of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. England and Wales share the same legal system, while Scotland and Northern Ireland both has its own distinct legal system.
[But what is unitary state?
In unitary state, the ultimate authority and control over all affairs of the govt and administration rests with the central govt, which may create such provinces & sub-divisions for the sake of administrative convenience and confer upon them such powers as it deems fit.]
* MONARCHY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
The British Sovereign has no effective or real powers. She has that glory that belongs to a hereditary monarch. She wears the crown on great official occasions. But there is no power behind her glory and dignity. She reigns but does not rule.
In all her official functions, she acts on the advice of council of ministers; which means after all, that she has to do what they tell her to do. She may exercise her right to be informed, to encourage and warn. This is known as Royal Prerogative. The Sovereign advices and minister decides. No British Sovereign since Queen Victoria (1892) has made a serious effort to take a direct hand in administration. The Sovereign's role as a constitutional monarch is largely limited to non-partisan functions, such as granting honours, performance of opening ceremonies and holding receptions emissaries.
POWERS She exercises 2 types of powers.
* INTERNAL These include power to-
* dismiss and appoint a Prime Minister & other ministers;
* summon and prorogue Parliament;
* grant or refuse Royal Assent to bills (making them valid and law);
* appoint members to the Queen's Council;
* command the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom;
* grant Prerogative of mercy;
* create corporations via Royal Charter;
* Appoint bishops and archbishops of the Church of England.
* EXTERNAL These include power to-
* ratify and make treaties;
* declare War and Peace;
* deploy the Armed Forces overseas;
As in the case of Indian President, British Sovereign exercises all of this power with the advice of council of ministers
.
* GOVERNMENT of the UK
Her Majesty's Government is the central government of the UK.
As in India, the Government is led by the Prime Minister, who selects all the other Ministers of the Cabinet.
In accordance with constitutional convention, all ministers within the government are either Members of Parliament or peers in the House of Lords. The executive authority lies with the monarch, although this authority is exercised only by, or on the advice of, the PM and the Cabinet. The Government is required by convention to maintain the confidence of the House of Commons.
PRIME MINISTER OF UK
PM is appointed by the Monarch. The most important power still personally exercised by the Monarch is the choice of whom to appoint Prime Minister, this is done, in the case of hung Parliament, after negotiations and usually leader of party with most no. of seats in House of Commons is chosen.
PM is the de facto leader of Her Majesty's Government, and exercises executive functions that are nominally vested in the sovereign.
* PARLIAMENT OF UK OF GREAT BRITAIN & NORTHERN IRELAND
British Parliament is the supreme legislative body in the UK. It has been called the mother of parliaments, its democratic institutions having set the standards for many democracies throughout the world including India.
In theory, supreme legislative power is vested in the Queen-in-Parliament but in practice, real power is vested in the House of Commons since the House of Lords is subordinate to Commons. Royal Assent of the Monarch is required for all Bills to become law.
[As in India, Parliament= President + Lok Sabha + Rajya Sabha.
British Parliament = the Monarch+ the House of Lords + the House of Commons.]
Dissolution of parliament the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, removed the Royal Prerogative to dissolve Parliament. Now Dissolution of parliament occurs only when British PM loses vote of confidence or 2/3 of the members of the House of Commons vote to hold an early election.
After each Parliament dissolves, the Crown issues writs to hold a general election and elect new members of the House of Commons but membership of the House of Lords does not change due to dissolution.
It has two chambers
* House of Commons
* House of Lords
FUNCTIONS OF BRITISH PARLIAMENT
Laws are made by the UK Parliament. A bill can be introduced by any member of either House, but usually a bill is introduced by a Minister of the Crown. The House of Lords neither initiate nor debate financial bill.
A bill introduced by a Minister is known as a "Government Bill"; and one that is introduced by another member is called a "Private Member's Bill".
Parliamentary procedure of passing bills is about similar to India except the institution of Speaker of House of Commons.
* HOUSE OF COMMONSThe British House of Commons is the oldest popular legislative body in the world. The House consists of 650 MPs each of whom represents a parliamentary constituency.
ELECTIONS- The qualifications for being elected as the member
SPECIAL POWERS The House of Commons is legally omnipotent chamber. Financial bills can only be initiated, debated and passed in Commons.
All legislation must be passed by the House of Commons to become law and it controls taxation and the supply of money to the government. Government ministers (including the PM) must regularly answer questions in the House of Commons.
SPEAKER The House of Commons transacts its business with the Speaker on the chair. The Speaker, presiding officer of the house, holds one of the most honourable, dignified and onerous offices in the world. She/he is elected by the House of Commons.
Unlike India, upon his election to the chair, he cuts his party affiliations and becomes embodiment of impartiality. He controls the debate and maintains order in the house. He is the guardian of the rights and liberties of the House of Commons.
He is nominated by the govt of the day but while in office, they act with strict impartiality.
* HOUSE OF LORDS The House of Lords is the chamber that is subordinate to the House of Commons. The Lords currently has around 830 Members. Historically Lords performed judicial functions as highest court of the land but the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 abolished of the judicial functions of the House of Lords with the creation of the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in October 2009.
ELECTIONS The house consists of two very different types of member, the Lords Temporal and Lords Spiritual.
Lords Temporal these includes 2 types -
* appointed members (life peers with no hereditary right for their descendants to sit in the house as oppose to hereditary peers,) appointed by Crown on aid and advice of cabinet, their number is variable and
* 92 remaining hereditary peers, elected from among, and by, the holders of titles which previously gave a seat in the House of Lords.
Lords Spiritual these represents the established Church of England and are 26 in number: the Five Ancient Sees (Canterbury, York, London, Winchester and Durham), and the 21 next-most senior bishops.
POWERS All bills except money bills are debated and voted upon in House of Lords. The House of Lords acts to review legislation passed by the House of Commons, with the power to propose amendments, and can exercise a temporary veto. This allows it to delay legislation if it does not approve it for 12 months (by voting against a bill, the House of Lords can only delay it for a maximum of two parliamentary sessions over a year).
After this time, the House of Commons can force the Bill through, without the Lords' consent under the Parliament Acts. Usually governments accept changes in legislation in order to avoid the time delay.
The House of Lords cannot veto major manifesto promises (Salisbury convention). However the Lords still retain a full veto in acts which would extend the life of Parliament beyond the 5 year term limit.
* JUDICIARY OF UK
The judiciary of UK is not unified. Each of the separate legal systems in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has their own judiciary. However, the judges of the Supreme Court of the UK do have a jurisdiction over whole of the United Kingdom.
SC is headed by the President and Deputy President of the Supreme Court and is composed of a further 10 Justices of the Supreme Court.
Unlike other functional democracies, SC of UK doesnt exercise judicial review over the law passed by parliament.
COMPARISION B/W INDIA-UKs POLITICAL SYSTEMS.
FEATURESINDIAUKINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal featuresUnitary State with Constitutional Monarchy
President/MonarchNominal HeadNominal Head
Vice-PresidentYesNo
Prime Minister/OtherReal HeadReal Head
PolityDemocratic RepublicDemocratic Monarchy
GovernmentParliamentary systemParliamentary systemSpeaker of House of Commons is much more powerful and efficient in maintaining order in the house than Lok Sabha Speaker.
Lower HouseLok SabhaHouse of CommonsUK being a unitary state, House of Commons > Lok Sabha, in its functions.
Upper HouseRajya SabhaHouse of LordsRajya Sabha = House of Lords, regarding financial bills in some respects but Rajya Sabha > House of Lords regarding non-money bills.
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionYes, through Rule of Law
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High Court SC of UK doesnt exercise judicial review over the law passed by parliamentSC of India > SC of UK, in its functions.
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.In UK, devolution of powers has taken place, but Legislation creating devolved parliaments or assemblies can be repealed or amended by central government in the same way as any ordinary statute.
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallya permanent politically neutral organisation
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemTwo-Party System
REPUBLIC OF FRANCE
Fifth Republic of France is a democratic republic, in which the President of France is head of state and the Prime Minister of France is the head of government. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
* PRESIDENT OF REPUBLIC OF FRANCE
The President of the France is the head of state. He is also supreme commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces and the ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He is the guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity and observance of treaties.
He enjoys wide range of power. He has the power to choose the Prime Minister. However, since the National Assembly has the sole power to dismiss the PM's government, the president has to name a prime minister who can command the support of a majority in the assembly. He cannot dismiss PM. The French President wields significant influence especially in the fields of national security and foreign policy.
OTHER POWERS The President may:
* Dissolve the French National Assembly;
* Refer treaties or certain types of laws to popular referendum, within certain conditions.
* Grant pardon to convicted criminals.
He names and dismisses the other ministers, with the agreement of the Prime minister. He presides over the Council of Ministers. He nominates certain members of the Constitutional Council.
All decisions of the president must be countersigned by the Prime minister and, where required, by the appropriate ministers.
ELECTION The President is elected directly through universal suffrage for 5 years. A president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.
To be admitted as an official candidate, potential candidates must receive signed nominations from more than 500 elected officials (from 45,000+ elected officials). These officials must be from at least 30 departments, and no more than 50 officials should be from the same department. Each official may nominate only one candidate.
French presidential elections are conducted through two ballot system or run-off voting which ensures that the elected President always obtains a majority. If no candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round of voting, the two highest-scoring candidates arrive at a run-off and the candidate who gets more than 50% of vote is elected.
He can be impeached by the High Court-a special court convened from both houses of Parliament on the proposal of either House, if the president fails to discharge his duties in a lawful manner.
PRIME MINISTER
The Prime Minister of France is the head of government. The PM directs the actions of the government & conduct the policy of the Nation.
In practice, the PM acts on the advice of the President to whom he is a subordinate, except when there is cohabitation in which case his responsibilities are akin to those of a PM in a parliamentary system.
[COHABITATION When the majority of the Assembly dont agree with the president, this leads to cohabitation. If this happens, the president's power is diminished (only those powers which are to be exercised through PM vis-a-vis National Assembly), as much of the de facto power relies on a supportive PM and National Assembly, and is not directly attributed to the post of president. When the majority of the Assembly sides with him, the President can take a more active role and may, in effect, direct government policy. When the president and the prime minister come from opposing parties, the president is responsible for foreign policy and the prime minister for domestic policy.
When PM + President=same political party President is boss.
Otherwise, cohabitation = sharing of power b/w President and PM.]
ELECTION The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the Republic.
He has no fixed term, remains in office while commanding the confidence of the National Assembly and the President of the Republic.
* PARLIAMENT OF FRANCE
The Parliament of France has a bicameral legislature, consists of two houses:
* National Assembly;
* Senate.
Unlike the President of India, the French President under the Constitution of 1958 is not the component part of Parliament.
The powers of both houses are about same except the National Assembly can cause a government to fall if an absolute majority of the total Assembly membership votes a censure motion.
Parliament meets for one 9 month session every year and under special circumstances, the President can call an additional session. As in India, the cabinet has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament.
LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE Bills may be introduced in either of the houses of Parliament, except for finance bills which must be submitted and read first in National Assembly.
The legislative initiative is exercised concurrently by the government and members of Parliament but private members bill cannot increase the financial load of the state without providing for funding. All bills must undergo compulsory advisory review by the highest administrative court, the Council of State before being submitted to parliament.
If both houses dont choose to adopt the text identically, it is sent before a commission made of equal numbers of members of both houses, which tries to harmonize the text. If it doesnt manage to do so, the National Assembly can vote the text and have the final say on it; however laws related to the composition of the Senate cannot be voted in this manner.
The bill is then sent to the President for signature. At this point,
* The President of France, the speaker of either house or a delegation of 60 deputies or 60 senators can ask for the text to undergo constitutional review before being put into force; it is then sent before the Constitutional Council.
* The President can also, only once per law and with the countersigning of the Prime minister, send the law back to parliament for another review.
* Otherwise, the President must sign the law, after being countersigned by the Prime minister and the concerned ministers.
The power to dissolve Parliament belongs to the President of the republic. He can dissolve the Assembly at any time and for any reason solely at his discretion. There is only one limitation; he cannot dissolve it twice within the same year.
* NATIONAL ASSEMBLY The National Assembly has 577 members, these are known as Deputies.
ELECTION Deputies are directly elected for 5 year term through direct elections (single-member constituency through a two-round system).
[What is a two-round system?
To be elected in the first round of voting, a candidate must obtain at least 50% of the votes polled, with a turn-out of at least 25% of the registered voters. If no candidate is elected in the first round, those who poll in excess of 12.5% of the registered voters in the first-round vote are entered in the second round of voting.
In the second round, the candidate who receives the most no. of votes is elected.]
QUALIFICATIONS one must be
* at least 23 years old;
* of French citizenship, and
* Not subject to a sentence of deprivation of civil rights or to personal bankruptcy.
The leader of majority party is chosen as the PM. the National Assembly may force the resignation of the cabinet by voting a censure motion. However, party discipline +no horse trading ensure that, government completes a parliamentary term of 5 years.
* FRENCH SENATE The Senate has 348 seats. The senators elect a President from among their members.
ELECTIONS Senators are chosen by indirect election through an electoral college of about 145,000 local elected officials for 5 year term, and 1/3 of the Senators retire every three years.
QUALIFICATIONS Same as that of representatives except age must be 35 years.
* JUDICIARY OF FRANCE
Judiciary of France is independent and doesnt control by the other two branches of government. The most significant feature of the French judicial system is that it is divided into judicial and administrative streams.
JUDICIAL COURTS The judicial courts adjudicates civil & criminal cases. The judicial court stream consists of :
* Inferior courts,
* Intermediate appellate courts, and
* The French Supreme Court.
Judges have security of tenure and may not be promoted or demoted without their consent. Their careers are overseen by the Judicial Council of France.
ADMINISTRATIVE COURTS Administrative courts adjudicate on claims and suits against government offices and agencies. The administrative stream is made up of:
* Administrative courts,
* Courts of Administrative Appeal, and
* The Council of State.
The Council of State acts both as legal adviser to the govt and as the Supreme Court for administrative justice. It is the court of last resort, it hears cases against executive decisions and has the power to quash or set aside executive-issued statutory orders and regulations when they violate constitutional law, enacted law.
[Neither judicial nor administrative courts are empowered to rule on the constitutionality of acts passed by Parliament.]
CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL OF FRANCE Constitutional Council of France does the same work of judicial review over Constitutionality of the legislative acts as the SC of India. However, this is done in different manner altogether.
This is done by CCF
prior to their enactment, to all forms of law, but only after referral from the French President, President of the Senate, President of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, or any of the 60 senators or 60 assembly members.
After their enactment, CCF exercise review after referral from French Supreme Court or the Council of State.
COMPARISION B/W INDIA-FRANCEs POLITICAL SYSTEMS.
FEATURESINDIAFRANCEINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal featuresUnitary Republic
PresidentNominal HeadReal Head unless Cohabitation.While in India pres. is a rubber stamp of govt, French pres. is effective head of govt.
Vice-PresidentYesNo
Prime MinisterReal HeadNominal Head unless Cohabitation.Indian PM>French PM, in its functions.
PolityDemocratic RepublicDemocratic Republic
ElectionsParliamentary systemSemi-Presidential system
Lower HouseLok SabhaNational Assembly
Upper HouseRajya SabhaFrench Senate
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionYes, through the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High CourtDivided into 2 streams: judicial and administrative- independent of Executive and legislative interference.Judicial Review is exercised by Constitutional Council of France.
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.Administrative Units are semi-autonomous
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallyFrench civil service are open to citizens of the European Union except police and justice. Politically and religiously neutral.
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemMulti-Party System
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
Germany is a federal parliamentary republic. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Constitution provides for protection of Human rights and dignity, republicanism, Democracy and Federalism. These are Basic Law of the Constitution (eternity clause) and these cannot be removed or repealed by the normal amendment process and require absolute two-thirds majority of the Bundestag along with a simple two-thirds majority of the Bundesrat.
[Absolute two-thirds majority2/3 majority of all elected members
Simple two-thirds majority 2/3 majority of all members present and voting]
The Constitution provides for referendums for delimitation of the existing federal territory.
[The process of referendum is explained in Switzerland]
Federal legislative power is divided between the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The Bundestag is directly elected by the German people, while the Bundesrat represents the regional states (Lander). The federal legislature has powers of exclusive jurisdiction and concurrent jurisdiction with the states in areas specifically enumerated by the constitution.
* PRESIDENT OF GERMANY
The President of Germany is the head of state of Germany. As in India, the President has mainly ceremonial and supervisory duties.
(But he is not the commander-in-chief of the military. In times of peace the Minister of Defence and in times of war Federal Chancellor)
FUNCTIONS the President:
1. Proposes an individual to be the Chancellor and after that individual is subsequently elected by the Bundestag appoints his/her as Federal Chancellor, but Bundestag is free to disregard the president's proposal and elect another individual to the post, whom the president is then obliged to appoint.
2. Appoints and dismisses the remaining members of the Cabinet upon the proposal of the Chancellor.
3. Dismiss the Chancellor, but only after the Bundestag passes a Vote of No Confidence and appoints the successor requested by the Bundestag.
4. Dissolve the Bundestag
5. If the Bundestag elects an individual for the office of chancellor by a plurality of votes and not by majority, the president can, either appoint that individual as chancellor or dissolve the Bundestag and call for a new election(in case of hung parliament).
6. If Vote of Confidence is defeated in the Bundestag, and the incumbent chancellor proposes dissolution, then he may, at his discretion, dissolve the body within 21 days.
7. Appoints federal judges, federal civil servants and military officers, these appointments must be countersigned by the Chancellor or responsible Minister.
8. Must sign all federal laws as to make them come into effect but if he thinks them to be violative of constitution, he can refuse to sign them.
ELECTION the president is elected for a term of 5 years through indirect election by secret ballot (as in India), by the Federal Convention, the convention consists of all Bundestag members as well as an equal number of delegates chosen by the legislatures of the Lander (states). The delegates of each state are elected by the members of the state legislature under a form of proportional representation. The convention must be convened 30 days before the expiration of the term of office of the current president. The convention is convened and chaired by the President of the Bundestag.
The president is elected by an absolute majority of votes cast. If, after two votes, no single candidate has received this level of support, in the third and final vote the candidate endorsed by a plurality of votes cast is elected.
QUALIFICATIONS the president must be
1. A German Citizen;
2. At least 40 years of age;
3. Entitled to vote in Bundestag elections.
IMPEACHMENT The President can be impeached by the Bundestag or Bundesrat for wilfully violating German law.
Once the Bundestag impeaches the president, the Federal Constitutional Court is charged with determining if he or she is guilty of the offence. If the charge is proved, the court has authority to remove the president from office.
1. FEDERAL CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY
The Federal Chancellor is the head of government of Germany. She has the right to set the guidelines for all policy areas including foreign and domestic policy. The role is generally comparable to that of Prime Minister in other parliamentary democracies like India. The Cabinet is the chief executive body of Germany and the Federal Government includes the Chancellor and his or her cabinet ministers.
She is the leader of the party or coalition holding a majority of seats in the Bundestag (federal parliament).
The Chancellor is responsible for guiding the cabinet and deciding its policy direction. The cabinet ministers are free to carry out their duties independently within the boundaries set by the Chancellor's political directives.
SELECTION The Chancellor is elected by the Bundestag after being proposed by the President. If elected, the Chancellor is appointed by the President for 4 years. The ministers are appointed and dismissed by the President upon proposal of the Chancellor.
DISMISSAL the Chancellor can be removed by constructive vote of no confidence, i.e. Unlike India where only vote of no confidence has to be passed, the Bundestag, while passing vote of no confidence must simultaneously agree on a successor.
1. BUNDESTAG
Constitutionally, the Bundestag is the main body of Germany's Parliament, which is not a bicameral parliament. In practice, the country is governed by a bicameral legislature i.e. Bundestag + Bundesrat.
Like other parliamentary democracies, the Bundestag elects the Chancellor and exercises oversight on govt on issues of both policy and routine administration. This can be done through binding legislation, public debates on government policy, investigations, and questioning of the chancellor or cabinet officials.
Like India, most of the legislative work in the Bundestag is the product of standing committees. The meetings of Bundestag are chaired by President of the Bundestag.
ELECTION The Members of Bundestag are elected for a term of 4 years and currently consists of 630 members which are to be chosen through Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system.
[But what is Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system?
MMP is an indigenous electoral system of Germany, half of the Members of the Bundestag are elected directly from 299 constituencies through first-past-the-post system, the other half are elected through the party list system in such a way as to achieve as much possible, proportional representation for the total Bundestag].
Each voter votes twice in the elections to the Bundestag. As per 17th Bundestag elections 2013, 299 were elected through direct vote (this is fixed) and 331 were elected through party list system (this is variable).
PARTY LIST SYSTEM Under party list systems, voters in an electoral constituency choose from among a group of candidates put forward by the various parties contesting an election. When the votes are tallied, each party is entitled to seat the no. of members from its list that corresponds to its share of popular vote; for example, if a given party obtains 30% of the vote, then it would send 3 out of 10 candidates to the legislature and those 3 would be chosen in order in which candidates name appears on the list]
Further, those parties which receive 5% of total national vote or win at least three directly elected seats are eligible for non-constituency seats in the Bundestag. This was done to prevent political fragmentation and strong minor parties.
QUALIFICATION all candidates must be:
1. Citizens of Federal Republic of Germany;
2. 18 years of age.
1. BUNDESRAT
The German Bundesrat is a constitutional body that represents the delegation of 16 Federal States (Lander) of Germany at the national level. Officially, it is not upper house but practically it is.
Like most of other upper houses, the Bundesrat plays second fiddle to the Bundestag; however, it does play a vital legislative role.
ELECTIONthe members of Bundesrat are not elected directly or indirectly, they are sent by respective state govts. Each delegation has a minister-president and other cabinet ministers. The state cabinet may appoint as many delegates as the state has votes. Each state is allocated at least 3 votes, and a maximum of 6. All of a state's votes are cast en bloc i.e. out of 3 member delegation, all 3 votes would be cast by minister-president for or against or in abstention of a proposal.
POWERSThe Bundesrat must approve all legislation affecting policy areas for which the Constitution grants the concurrent powers to the Lander.
The Bundesrat can exercise absolute veto against constitutional amendment, which requires an approval with majority of 2/3 of all votes in Bundesrat and against all other legislations it has a suspensive veto, which can be overridden by Bundestag by passing the law again, but this time with 50% plus one vote of all members and not just by majority of votes cast.
In case of deadlock regarding absolute veto, the Bundestag, the Bundesrat or the government can convene a joint committee to negotiate a compromise, this compromise cannot be amended and both chambers are required to hold a final vote on the compromise as it is.
President of the Bundesrat The post of the President of the Bundesrat rotates annually among the minister-presidents of each of the Lander. He convenes and chairs plenary sessions of the Bundesrat.
If the President of Germany is outside the country, or the position is lying vacant then the President of the Bundesrat temporarily assumes the powers of the President, until a successor is elected. While doing so, he does not continue to exercise the role of chair of the Bundesrat.
1. JUDICIARY OF GERMANY
Judiciary of Germany is independent and doesnt control by the other two branches of government The Constitution provides that the judicial power shall be vested in the judges and it shall be exercised by the Federal Constitutional Court, by the federal courts and by the courts of the Lander.
The judiciary is hierarchically integrated.
[The German judicial system includes 5 types of courts- Ordinary courts, Administrative law courts, Tax law courts, Labour law courts and Social law courts + the Federal Constitutional Court but all of them are not of our concern].
FEDERAL COURT OF JUSTICE the Federal Court of Justice subordinates all of the ordinary courts-local, regional and appellate courts, which adjudicates on civil and criminal law
FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL COURT the Federal Constitutional Court is the supreme constitutional court established by the constitution.
FCC exercises the right of Judicial Review, as like SC of India, and it may declare any federal or state law unconstitutional, if it violates constitution, thus making them ineffective.
The Federal Constitutional Court decides on the constitutionality of laws and executive orders under the following circumstances:
* Individual complaint a suit brought by any individual alleging that a law or any action of government violated his or her constitutional rights. All possible solutions in the regular courts must have been exhausted beforehand.
* Referral by regular court a court can refer the question whether a statute applicable to the case before that court is constitutional.
* Abstract regulation control the federal government, a government of one of the federal states or a quarter of the Bundestag's members can bring suit against a law.
Constitutional amendments passed by the Parliament are subject to its judicial review, since they have to be compatible with eternity clause of the constitution.
COMPARISION B/W INDIA-GERMANYs POLITICAL SYSTEMS.
FEATURESINDIAGERMANYINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal featuresFederal State
PresidentNominal HeadNominal HeadBoth Indian & German presidents are rubber stamp of govt.
Vice-PresidentYesNo
Prime Minister/OtherReal HeadChancellorReal head.
PolityDemocratic RepublicDemocratic Republic
ElectionsParliamentary SystemParliamentary system
Lower HouseLok SabhaBundestag
Upper HouseRajya SabhaBundesratWhile members of Rajya Sabha are elected through Single Transferable Vote System, the deputies of Bundesrat are sent by govts of the states.
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionYes, through Constitutional provisions-eternity clause
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High CourtCourts are independent of Executive & legislative interference. Judicial Review is exercised by the Federal Constitutional Court
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.Lander are fully autonomous within their legislative & executive sphere.
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallyPolitically neutral institution
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemMulti-Party System
SWITZERLAND
The Switzerland is the Federal Parliamentary Democratic Republic. It is very close to become Direct Democracy. Executive power is exercised by the government and the Federal Council of Switzerland is the head of government and the govt is not concentrated in any one person. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
[Direct democracy is a form of democracy in which people decide policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then decide policy initiatives]
INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM Switzerland provides for Initiative- a citizen-proposed law and Referendum- govt-proposed law.
Initiative is a means by which a petition is signed by a no. of registered voters, forcing a public vote on
* A proposed statute,
* Constitutional Amendment.
Initiative in Switzerland is available in Federal Assembly on a question of Constitutional amendment, i.e. the electorate has the right to initiate constitutional legislation, though it is used in Cantons for both legislative as well as amendment proposals.
Referendum is a practice of referring measures passed upon by the legislature for acceptance or rejection.
In Switzerland, if both houses of Federal Assembly agree on a constitutional amendment, it must be submitted to voters and becomes law, if approved by majority of qualified voters but also by a majority of cantons (Double Majority)
In the Swiss Federation the referendum is optional in respect of ordinary law, but if 100000 citizens or 8 cantons make a demand, federal laws are submitted for approval of the people.
* FEDERAL COUNCIL
The Federal Council constitutes the federal government of Switzerland and serves collectively as the Swiss head of state. The Council consists of 7 councillors and each one of them heads one of the 7 federal executive departments. The Council acts like the board of directors of a major corporation.
The Council includes members of many political parties but due to the principle of collegiality, the Councillors are not supposed to publicly criticise one another, and they are expected to publicly support all decisions of the Council, even against their own personal opinion or that of their political party.
ELECTION the Councillors are elected for a term of 4 years by both chambers of the United Federal Assembly. Each Councillor is elected individually through secret ballot by an absolute majority of votes.
Every adult Swiss citizen can become a Councillor, but in practice, only Members of Federal Assembly or sometimes, members of Cantonal governments are nominated by the political parties.
The Councillors can be re-elected for an indefinite number of terms. After being elected, they can neither be voted out of office by a motion of no confidence nor can they be impeached.
PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATION
Every year, one of the 7 Councillors is elected by the Federal Assembly as President of the Confederation. The Federal Assembly also elects a Vice President. By convention, the chair of President rotates among the members in order of seniority and the previous year's Vice President becomes President.
He is not head of state or head of govt, both of these functions are administered by the Federal Council collectively. The President presides over Council meetings and carries out certain functions like those of a head of state but he is not head of state. In urgent situations where a Council decision cannot be made in time, he or she is empowered to act on behalf of the whole Council; however he has no power above and beyond the other 6 Councillors.
The decisions of the Council are formally taken by voice vote by a majority of the Councillors present at a meeting or through Consensus. The President breaks the tie.
* FEDERAL ASSEMBLY
The Federal Assembly is national legislative body of Switzerland. Swiss Constitution vests the supreme authority in the Federal Assembly. It is bicameral and composed of the National Council and the Council of States. The powers of 2 chambers of Federal Assembly are almost absolutely equal. It should be noted that the principle of separation of powers has not been made the basis of the Swiss governmental system. Federal Assembly has been entrusted with all kinds of functions which are not legislative but also executive and judicial in character.
It has been correctly observed that there are few parliaments which exercise more miscellaneous duties than Federal Assembly.
POWERS
* Legislative & Financial powers The Federal Assembly passes all federal laws and legislative ordinances, considers and passes the annual budget of Federation, approves the state accounts and authorise public loans floated by the federal govt. The Federal Assembly also votes on treaties and constitutional amendments.
* Executive powers The Federal Assembly exercises imp executive functions. Sitting together, the two chambers elect members of federal council, federal chancellor, and in case of war or threat of war, the Commander-in-Chief. The Constitution directs the Federal Assembly to take all measures necessary to ensure external safety and preservation of independence and neutrality of Switzerland.
[Switzerland is a neutral state= no ladai jhagda with neighbours +no dilchaspi in international power politics]
* Judicial powers Judges of federal Tribunal are elected by Federal Assembly; it also hears appeals against the decisions of Tribunal on administrative disputes. The Federal Assembly deals with conflicts of jurisdiction b/w different federal authorities. It also exercises the judicial prerogative of granting pardon & amnesty.
The Federal Assembly exercises general supervision over the federal administration and is empowered to issue instructions to the Federal Council in the form of postulates, a sort of directive to the Council to examine a particular question.
* NATIONAL COUNCIL the National Council is the lower house of the Federal Assembly.
ELECTION The National Council has 200 seats and members are chosen for the term of 4 years by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies.
[Multi-Seat Constituency= one Constituency and many deputies]
The deputies are chosen from each of the constituency of 26 cantons.
The no. of deputies a canton can send depends on the population of the canton but at least one deputy should be from every canton.
Each voter elects the deputies of the canton in which she/he lives and each voter has as many votes as there are deputies to elect. A voter cannot give more than two votes to the same candidate. Each citizen can vote for persons of different parties.
The no. of candidates a party can send to the National Council depends on the no. of votes party gets.
* COUNCIL OF STATES the Council of States is the upper house of Federal Assembly.
It has 46 seats which are filled from 26 cantons. The 20 cantons send 2 councillors each and 6 former half cantons send 1 councillor, for 4 year term.
ELECTION Swiss Constitution provides for democratic method and the mode of election is left to individual cantons.
* FEDERAL SUPREME COURT
The Federal Supreme Court is established under the Swiss Federal Constitution as the supreme judicial authority of Switzerland. It is the court of appeal for all decisions of the cantonal courts of last instance.
Because of an emphasis on direct democracy through referendum, the Constitution precludes the court from reviewing acts of the Federal Parliament, unless such review is specifically provided for by statute.
FEATURESINDIASWITZERLANDINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal featuresFederal State
PresidentNominal HeadNominal Head
Vice-PresidentYesYes
Prime Minister/OtherReal HeadFederal Council is Real HeadAdministrative power is exercised by whole of council collectively and not by one person as in India.
PolityDemocratic RepublicDemocratic Republic
ElectionsParliamentary systemParliamentary system
Lower HouseLok SabhaNational CouncilBoth houses National Council and Council of States, have equal powers.
Upper HouseRajya SabhaCouncil of States
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionTitle 2 of the Constitution
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High CourtFederal Supreme Court of Switzerland is independent of Executive interference, but not empowers to judge the constitutionality of a federal law as this right is exercised by common man through referendum.
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.Cantons are sovereign insofar as their sovereignty is not limited by the Federal Constitution, they exercise all rights which are not transferred to the Confederation
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallyPolitically neutral institution
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemMulti-Party System
PEOPLEs REPUBLIC OF CHINA
China is the Unitary Socialist Republic and functions under Constitution of 1982.
It is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship and is led by the Communist Party, the vanguard of the working class. The constitution opposes the separation of powers by executive, legislature and judiciary. National People's Congress is the highest organ of state authority power.
* PRESIDENT OF CHINA
The President of the People's Republic of China is the head of state of China. He holds a ceremonial office.
[He is not Commander-in-Chief of PLA; PLA comes under the Central Military Commission]
POWERSHe promulgates statutes adopted by the National People's Congress. He appoints the Premier of the State Council, Vice-Premiers, other State Council members and all ambassadors to foreign countries, upon the NPC's decision.
[In practice, President exercise much more power by virtue of being the General Secretary of the Communist Party who is generally responsible for establishing general policy and direction of the state which are implemented by the Premier of the People's Republic of China, the head of government]
ELECTION The President is elected by the National People's Congress which also has the power to remove the President from office by a simple majority vote. He is elected by Presidium of NPC which is headed by the general secretary of the Communist Party and in practice and the general secretary is chosen as President (So, he choose himself as president).
He is elected for term of 5 years and limited to two consecutive terms.
QUALIFICATIONS Citizens of the People's Republic of China who have the right to vote and who have reached the age of 45 are eligible for election as President.
VICE-PRESIDENT
The Vice President of the People's Republic of China assists the President in his work.
The Vice President of the People's Republic of China may exercise such functions and powers of the President and the President may entrust to him.
In the event that the office of the President of the People's Republic of China falls vacant, the Vice President of the People's Republic of China succeeds to the office of President.
He is elected by NPC for term of 5 years and limited to two consecutive terms.
Mode of election, dismissal and qualifications are same that of President.
* STATE COUNCIL
The State Council is the chief administrative authority of China.
It is composed of
the Premier; the Vice Premiers; the State Councillors; the Ministers in charge of ministries; the Ministers in charge of commissions; the Auditor General; and the Secretary General.
The State Council is responsible to the National People's Congress, or when the National People's Congress is not in session, to its Standing Committee. The State Council follows the system of premier responsibility in work while various ministries and commissions under the State Council follow the system of ministerial responsibility.
It meets once every 6 months and b/w its meetings, it is guided by a standing committee. The standing committee of State Council includes the premier, one executive vice premier, 3 vice premiers, and 5 other state councillors.
The State Council controls the Ministry for National Defense but doesnt control the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which is instead controlled by the Central Military Commission.
FUNCTIONS
* to formulate administrative measures and regulations and monitor their implementation;
* draft legislations for submission to its Standing Committee or the NPC ;
* Prepare the economic policy and the budget;
* to conduct foreign affairs and conclude treaties and agreements with foreign states;
* to decide on the imposition of martial law in parts of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government;
* To exercise unified leadership over the work of local organs of state administration at various levels throughout the country.
PREMIER
The Premier of the State Council is the head of the State Council of China. He oversees the various ministries, departments, commissions and statutory agencies and announcing their candidacies to the National People's Congress for Vice-Premiers and State Councillors.
ELECTION The Premier is nominated by the President and then formally approved by the National People's Congress for 5 year term. In practice, the candidate is chosen by an informal process within the Communist Party of China. He can be removed by NPC.
* NATIONAL PEOPLEs CONGRESS
The National People's Congress is the highest legislative body of China. It is the largest parliament in the world with 2,987 members. It is the unicameral parliament with no second chamber. The NPC meets for about two weeks each year and the daily power is exercised by the Standing Committee of the NPC which contains about 150 members.
ELECTION Election of deputies to the National People's Congress is conducted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
The ruling Communist Party of China maintains effective control over the composition of National People's Congress. By limiting the number of candidates in proportion to the number of seats available, the Party blocks unacceptable candidates. However, approximately 1/3 of the seats are reserved for non-Communist Party members which includes technical experts and members of the smaller allied parties.
The NPC consists of about 3,000 delegates who are elected for 5 year term by the provincial people's assemblies through indirect election.
Deputies are elected by the people's congresses of the country's 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and the 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government, the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau and the armed forces. The size of each college of delegates is related to the number of electors in the constituency (proportional system)
QUALIFICATION all citizens of China who have reached the age of 18 have the right to stand for election.
PRESIDIUMThe Presidium of the NPC is a 178-member body of the NPC. It nominates the President and Vice President of China, the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Secretary-General of the Standing Committee of the NPC, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and the President of the Supreme People's Court for election by the NPC.
NPC STANDING COMMITTEE
The permanent organ of the National People's Congress is its Standing Committee, which is responsible to the National People's Congress. It functions as the highest body of state power.
The NPC Standing Committee is composed of the Chairman, Vice-Chairmen, the Secretary-General and other members who are elected from among the deputies at the first session of every National People's Congress. The members of the NPC Standing Committee generally include:
(a) Representatives from the Communist Party of China;
(b) Representatives from various democratic parties and patriots and democrats without party affiliation;
(c) Representatives of people's organizations;
(d) Representatives of the People's Liberation Army; and
(e) Representatives of minority ethnic groups with a population of over 1 million each.
[How Standing Committee is chosen is not specified in constitution, if dont believe me then look www.hkhrm.org.hk/english/law/const04.html ]
According to the Constitution and the Organic Law of the National People's Congress, the NPC Standing Committee exercises the following functions and powers:
1. Legislative right According to the Constitution, the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee jointly exercise the legislative right, including enacting and amending statutes, with the exception of those which should be enacted by the National People's Congress. Consequently, except for the Constitution and basic laws, The NPC Standing Committee undertakes a large amount of legislative work.
2. Right to supervise the enforcement of the ConstitutionThe Constitution gives the supervisory right also to the NPC Standing Committee in addition to the National People's Congress. As a permanent body of NPC, this ensures it can carry out regular supervision of the enforcement of the Constitution.
3. Right to supervise the work of other state organsThe NPC Standing Committee supervises the work of the State Council, Central Military Commission, Supreme People's Court; annulling those administrative decisions or orders of the State Council that contravene the Constitution or the statutes of the state.
4. Power of appointment and removalWhen the National People's Congress is not in session, the NPC Standing Committee selects the vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC controls People's Liberation Army) and members of the commission according to the nomination of the chairmen of the Central Military Commission; appoints and removes vice-presidents and judges of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), members of SPC's Judicial Committee and the president of the Military Court.
* SUPREME PEOPLEs COURT
The highest court in the judicial system is the Supreme People's Court and it is directly responsible to the NPC and its Standing Committee and therefore not free of interference.
It supervises the administration of justice by the people's courts at various levels (Basic people's courts at district level < intermediate people's courts at Prefecture-level < higher people's courts at Provincial-level < the Supreme People's Court).
COMPARISION B/W INDIA-CHINAs POLITICAL SYSTEMS.
FEATURESINDIACHINAINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal features Unitary State
PresidentNominal HeadReal Head(in practice)Indian President < Chinese President
Vice-PresidentYesYes
Prime Minister/OtherReal HeadPremierIndian PM > Chinese Premier
PolityDemocratic RepublicSocialist Republic
GovernmentParliamentary systemCommunist system
Lower HouseLok SabhaNational People CongressNPC is the maai-baap in Chinese constitutional structure.
Upper HouseRajya SabhaNo
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionVery Limited, right to life and property are allowed in 1982 Constitution but not freedom of speech and association, even Press is controlled.India won.
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High CourtThe Supreme People's Court is under the NPC..Supreme Court of India > Supreme People's Court, in its functions.
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.Except Special Administrative Regions (SARs) such as Hong Kong and Macau, no autonomy.Indian state govts are more independent than Chinese provincial govts as the latter are appointed by the central government
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallyPolitically controlled institution
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemChinese constitution allows Multi-Party System but in reality Dominant One Party System exists.
SOURCES
1. Comparitive Politics Dr. S.C. Singhal
2. www.electionresources.org
3. www.iuscomp.org/gla/statutes/BWG.htm for Germany.
4. www.vescc.az/constitution/france-constitution-eng.html for France.
5. www.bk.admin.ch/dokumentation/02070/02480/04712/index.html?lang=en for Switzerland.
6. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/constitution/constitution.html for China.
7. http://www.hkhrm.org.hk/english/law/const01.html for China.
8. Google + wiki for statistics.
PERSONAL INFO
Shrey Khanna
PROLOGUE
1. United States of America
1. President of USA
2. Vice President
3. Congress
(a) House of Representatives
(b) Senate
1.4 Supreme Court of USA
1.5 Comparison b/w INDIA-USAs Political Systems.
1. United Kingdom
2.1 Monarchy of UK
2.2 Her Majesty's Government
(a) Prime Minister
2.3 British Parliament
(a) House of Commons
(b) House of Lords
2.4 Supreme Court of UK
2.5 Comparison b/w INDIA-UKs Political Systems.
1. France
3.1 President of the France
3.2 Prime Minister
3. Parliament of France
1. National Assembly
2. Senate
3. Judiciary of France
3. Comparison b/w INDIA-FRANCEs Political Systems.
1. Germany
4.1 President of Germany
4.2 Federal Chancellor
4.3 The Bundestag
4.4 The Bundesrat
4.5 Judiciary of Germany
4.6 Comparison b/w INDIA-GERMANYs Political Systems
1. Switzerland
5.1 The Federal Council
5.2 President of the Confederation
5.3 Federal Assembly
(a) National Council
(b) Council of States
5.4 The Federal Supreme Court
5.5 Comparison b/w INDIA-SWITZERLANDs Political Systems
1. China
6.1 President of China
6.2 Vice- President
6.3 State Council
6.4 Premier
6.5 The National People's Congress
(a) NPC Standing Committee
6.6 Supreme People's Court
6.7 Comparison b/w INDIA-CHINAs Political Systems
{NOTE:
* The best way of reading would be by keeping parallels in mind e.g. when reading US president keep in mind his Indian counterpart or when reading German Chancellor keep in mind Indian PM.
* Wherever comparisons are used e.g. Senate>Rajya Sabha, it doesnt means that Senate can overpower Rajya Sabha, it means that the powers of Senate in US are greater than that are enjoyed by Rajya Sabha in India.
United States of America
American constitution is the oldest among existing written constitutions of the world. It was drafted by the constitutional convention, the Philadelphia Convention (1787).
It is federal presidential democratic republic.
[But what is federal system of government?
In a truly federal state, power is divided b/w federal govt (at the centre) and its constituent units as specified in constitution.
But the most imp feature of federal state is that sovereignty is divided b/w the centre and the states. There is not one but many centre of sovereignty in a federal country.
Other important attributes are-dual citizenship; supremacy of constitution; Supreme Authority for interpreting constitution and deciding conflicts b/w centre and states.]
Provision of Checks and Balance
The principle of checks and balances was applied to provide against a water-tight compartmentalisation and to ensure no despotism.
* Thus law making power of congress is checked by presidents veto and Supreme Courts power of interpreting laws and declaring them ultra vires if they contradict the provisions of the constitution.
* President is checked by the fact that he cannot spend money without the approval of Senate; that he can be impeached by the congress; that he cant make appointments without the approval of senate and treaties negotiated by him cannot become effective until they are ratified by senate.
* The Judiciary is checked by the fact that Congress can determine the no. of judges and fix their salaries; that President and Senate together appoint judges and Congress can impeach judges.
* PRESIDENT
President of USA is head of the state and head of the government. He is commander-in-chief of armed forces, head of national economic programme and spokesman for all Americans.
1. He is the Chief Executive, the official charged with supervising the activities of all Americans in the national administration.
2. He has been commanded by law to prepare the govts annual budget, to set rules for civil service and to encourage efficient administrative practices.
3. With the advice and consent of senate, President appoints ambassadors, other public officials and counsels, judges of Supreme Court.
4. He is also director of American foreign policy; however, treaties and diplomatic appointments must be confirmed by Senate.
5. He is closely associated with work of congress. The constitution requires him to recommend to congress such measures as he judges necessary and expedient and grants him qualified power of veto.
[Qualified power of veto whenever he thinks that the bill passed by congress is unwise or unconstitutional, he may return the bill without his signature or retain it unsigned= pocket veto the bill cannot become law of the land.
But if both chambers of the Congress pass the bill by 2/3 majority then it becomes law without the President's signature.]
ELECTION The President of US is elected from an indirect election i.e. not by voters directly but by an electoral college whose electors are chosen by the voters of the state.
In other words, voters in each state select a slate of electors from a list of several slates designated by different political parties and those electors promise in advance to vote for presidential candidates of those political parties.
VICE-PRESIDENT
The Vice President is the second-highest executive official in rank of the government. The Vice President becomes President upon the death, resignation, or removal of the President. Under the Constitution, the Vice President is ex-officio President of the Senate. By virtue of this role, he or she is the head of the Senate. In that capacity, the Vice President is allowed to vote in the Senate, but only when necessary to break a tie vote. Due to the 12th Amendment, the Vice President presides over the joint session of Congress.
1. CONGRESS
It has two chambers
1. House of Representative
2. Senate
POWERS OF CONGRESS These include
* the powers to levy and collect taxes;
* to coin money and regulate its value;
* provide for punishment for counterfeiting and felony;
* establish post offices and roads;
* create federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court;
* declare war, raise and support armies, provide and maintain a navy, make rules for the regulation of land and naval forces, provide for, arm and discipline the militia;
* Make laws necessary to properly execute these powers.
The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people
IMPEACHMENT OF FEDERAL OFFICERSCongress has the power to impeach the President, federal judges, and other federal officers from office.
Both houses have separate roles in this process. The House of representative must first vote to impeach the official. Then, a trial is held in the Senate to decide whether the official should be removed from office which acts like a court. When an Impeachment process involves a U.S. President, the Chief Justice of the United States is required to preside during the Senate trial. In all other trials, the Vice President would preside in his capacity as President of the Senate.
CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHTthis is near similar to the work done by standing and business committees in India except Congress is more powerful and does wide variety of functions. Congressional oversight is intended to prevent waste of resources and fraud, to protect civil liberties and individual rights and ensure executive compliance with the law. It applies to cabinet departments, executive agencies, regulatory commissions and the presidency.
* HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES It is the lower house of the Congress. The House consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district. The number of representatives each state has in the House is based on each state's population, unlike senate; here proportional representation has been followed.
ELECTION the qualifications for being elected as the member
An individual must be at least 25 years of age, and must have been a U.S. citizen for at least 7 years standing. Each representative is elected for period of 2 years.
In addition to the 435 voting members, there are 6 non-voting members, consisting of 5 delegates and one resident commissioner. There is one delegate each from the District of Columbia, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico.
SPECIAL POWERS All legislative bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives.
B. SENATE It is the upper house of American Congress. Though unlike upper houses of other countries, Senate is co-ordinate and co-equal with House of Representatives and , in addition, vested with imp special powers.
ELECTION The Constitution empowers the Senate to be the judge of the elections, returns and qualification of its members. Senate has 100 members from 50 states (50*2) with 1/3 of members retiring every 2 years. Until the 17th amendment to US constitution in 1913, senators were elected by state legislatures and not by electorate of the states. Each senator is elected for 6 years.
The qualifications for being a senator an individual should be at least 30 years of age, must be a citizen of USA of 9 years standing and must be the inhabitant of the state from which he is elected.
The Senate can by majority vote refuse to allow a duly elected member from taking his seat.
SPECIAL POWERS the Senate must give "advice and consent" to many important Presidential appointments, including cabinet officers, federal judges (including nominees to the Supreme Court), department secretaries (heads of federal executive branch departments), U.S. military and naval officers, and ambassadors to foreign countries
* SUPREME COURT
Supreme Court of US enjoys immense prestige and the people of America take pride in calling it the most august tribunal on earth. Its position as the final interpreter of the constitution has come to be universally accepted and through the exercise of this power, the SC acts as an umpire of constitutional conflicts and as the protector of the
FINAL INTERPRETER OF THE CONSTITUTION SC has assumed the position of final interpreter of constitution and it is on the basis of this position that the SC has built up the Doctrine of Judicial Supremacy. This position of SC has never been successfully challenged.
JUDICIAL REVIEW The practice of judicial review --- is the most important function and distinctive attribute of the SC. Judicial Review is the right of SC and also of subordinate federal courts to examine the laws passed by the federal & state legislatures with a view to determining whether or not they are in consonance with constitution of US. If SC feels that a law under examination contravenes any provision, it declares the law ultra vires and unconstitutional.
Judicial Review, it should be remembered, does not only apply to federal & state statutes. It has a wider scope and covers the constitution of states, treaties made by federal govt and executive orders issued by federal & state executive authorities.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 subdivided the nation jurisdictionally into judicial districts and created federal courts for each district. The three tiered structure of this act established the basic structure of the national judiciary: the Supreme Court, 13 courts of appeals, 94 district courts but Congress retains the power to re-organize and even abolish federal courts lower than the SC under the act.
COMPARISION B/W INDIA-USAs POLITICAL SYSTEMS.
FEATURESINDIAUSAINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal featuresFederal State
PresidentNominal HeadReal HeadWhile in Indian president is a rubber stamp of govt, US president is Chief-executive of govt.
Vice-PresidentYesYes
Prime Minister/OtherReal HeadNoPM in parliamentary democracy with majority in both houses can be more powerful (can do whatever he wants) than US president.
PolityDemocratic RepublicDemocratic Republic
Form of GovernmentParliamentary systemPresidential system
Lower HouseLok SabhaHouse of RepresentativeLok Sabha>House of Representatives, in its functions
Upper HouseRajya SabhaSenateSenate>Rajya Sabha, in its functions.
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionYes, through Constitutional provisions and Civil Rights Act.
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High CourtThe Supreme Court of US is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Supremacy is followed.SC of India subordinates all High Courts but SC of US exercise lesser control over State Supreme Courts. SSC are the final authority on the interpretation of the applicable state's laws and state's Constitution (dual sovereignty).
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.In US, Each state has its own written constitution, and code of laws. The 10th Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits the federal government from exercising any power not delegated to it by the States in the Constitution (fully autonomous).
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallyPolitically neutral institution
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemThough not provided in the Constitution, in practice Two-Party System prevails, with some other parties with relatively minor representation.
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN & NORTHERN IRELAND
UK has a Constitutional Monarchy and unitary democracy. It has no Written Constitution. Its government is known as Her Majestys Government. It functions through Unwritten Constitution which is sum total of Historical Written Laws, Court Judgements, parliamentary constitutional conventions and Treaties.
Under the unwritten British constitution, executive authority lies with the monarch, although this authority is exercised only by, or on the advice of, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.
In UK, Parliament is Supreme law making body and Courts dont exercise Judicial Review over laws passed by the Parliament hence Parliamentary Supremacy.
One consequence of the principle of parliamentary sovereignty is that there is no hierarchy among Acts of Parliament: all parliamentary legislation is, in principle, of equal validity and effectiveness unlike India, where Constitutional law > non-Constitutional law.
* RULE OF LAW The protector of peoples liberties in UK is Rule of Law. As a basic principle of British Constitutional System, the rule of law means that the exercise of powers of govt shall be conditioned by law and that the subject shall not be exposed to arbitrary will of his rule.
That is to say, no man can be punished or made suffer in body or goods (imprisoned or fined) except if it is established in the ordinary legal manner and before the court of law that he is guilty of a breach of law.
* EQUALITY BEFORE LAW It implies that no one is above the law. With the sole exception of Monarch who can do no wrong, everyone in UK, whether the PM or Constable is under same responsibility for every act done without legal justification. This rule is subject to certain exceptions.
* UNITARY STATE The UK includes 4 countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but it is a unitary state and though Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have legislatures and executives, the authority of all these bodies are dependent on Acts of Parliament and that they can be abolished at the will of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. England and Wales share the same legal system, while Scotland and Northern Ireland both has its own distinct legal system.
[But what is unitary state?
In unitary state, the ultimate authority and control over all affairs of the govt and administration rests with the central govt, which may create such provinces & sub-divisions for the sake of administrative convenience and confer upon them such powers as it deems fit.]
* MONARCHY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
The British Sovereign has no effective or real powers. She has that glory that belongs to a hereditary monarch. She wears the crown on great official occasions. But there is no power behind her glory and dignity. She reigns but does not rule.
In all her official functions, she acts on the advice of council of ministers; which means after all, that she has to do what they tell her to do. She may exercise her right to be informed, to encourage and warn. This is known as Royal Prerogative. The Sovereign advices and minister decides. No British Sovereign since Queen Victoria (1892) has made a serious effort to take a direct hand in administration. The Sovereign's role as a constitutional monarch is largely limited to non-partisan functions, such as granting honours, performance of opening ceremonies and holding receptions emissaries.
POWERS She exercises 2 types of powers.
* INTERNAL These include power to-
* dismiss and appoint a Prime Minister & other ministers;
* summon and prorogue Parliament;
* grant or refuse Royal Assent to bills (making them valid and law);
* appoint members to the Queen's Council;
* command the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom;
* grant Prerogative of mercy;
* create corporations via Royal Charter;
* Appoint bishops and archbishops of the Church of England.
* EXTERNAL These include power to-
* ratify and make treaties;
* declare War and Peace;
* deploy the Armed Forces overseas;
As in the case of Indian President, British Sovereign exercises all of this power with the advice of council of ministers
.
* GOVERNMENT of the UK
Her Majesty's Government is the central government of the UK.
As in India, the Government is led by the Prime Minister, who selects all the other Ministers of the Cabinet.
In accordance with constitutional convention, all ministers within the government are either Members of Parliament or peers in the House of Lords. The executive authority lies with the monarch, although this authority is exercised only by, or on the advice of, the PM and the Cabinet. The Government is required by convention to maintain the confidence of the House of Commons.
PRIME MINISTER OF UK
PM is appointed by the Monarch. The most important power still personally exercised by the Monarch is the choice of whom to appoint Prime Minister, this is done, in the case of hung Parliament, after negotiations and usually leader of party with most no. of seats in House of Commons is chosen.
PM is the de facto leader of Her Majesty's Government, and exercises executive functions that are nominally vested in the sovereign.
* PARLIAMENT OF UK OF GREAT BRITAIN & NORTHERN IRELAND
British Parliament is the supreme legislative body in the UK. It has been called the mother of parliaments, its democratic institutions having set the standards for many democracies throughout the world including India.
In theory, supreme legislative power is vested in the Queen-in-Parliament but in practice, real power is vested in the House of Commons since the House of Lords is subordinate to Commons. Royal Assent of the Monarch is required for all Bills to become law.
[As in India, Parliament= President + Lok Sabha + Rajya Sabha.
British Parliament = the Monarch+ the House of Lords + the House of Commons.]
Dissolution of parliament the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, removed the Royal Prerogative to dissolve Parliament. Now Dissolution of parliament occurs only when British PM loses vote of confidence or 2/3 of the members of the House of Commons vote to hold an early election.
After each Parliament dissolves, the Crown issues writs to hold a general election and elect new members of the House of Commons but membership of the House of Lords does not change due to dissolution.
It has two chambers
* House of Commons
* House of Lords
FUNCTIONS OF BRITISH PARLIAMENT
Laws are made by the UK Parliament. A bill can be introduced by any member of either House, but usually a bill is introduced by a Minister of the Crown. The House of Lords neither initiate nor debate financial bill.
A bill introduced by a Minister is known as a "Government Bill"; and one that is introduced by another member is called a "Private Member's Bill".
Parliamentary procedure of passing bills is about similar to India except the institution of Speaker of House of Commons.
* HOUSE OF COMMONSThe British House of Commons is the oldest popular legislative body in the world. The House consists of 650 MPs each of whom represents a parliamentary constituency.
ELECTIONS- The qualifications for being elected as the member
SPECIAL POWERS The House of Commons is legally omnipotent chamber. Financial bills can only be initiated, debated and passed in Commons.
All legislation must be passed by the House of Commons to become law and it controls taxation and the supply of money to the government. Government ministers (including the PM) must regularly answer questions in the House of Commons.
SPEAKER The House of Commons transacts its business with the Speaker on the chair. The Speaker, presiding officer of the house, holds one of the most honourable, dignified and onerous offices in the world. She/he is elected by the House of Commons.
Unlike India, upon his election to the chair, he cuts his party affiliations and becomes embodiment of impartiality. He controls the debate and maintains order in the house. He is the guardian of the rights and liberties of the House of Commons.
He is nominated by the govt of the day but while in office, they act with strict impartiality.
* HOUSE OF LORDS The House of Lords is the chamber that is subordinate to the House of Commons. The Lords currently has around 830 Members. Historically Lords performed judicial functions as highest court of the land but the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 abolished of the judicial functions of the House of Lords with the creation of the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in October 2009.
ELECTIONS The house consists of two very different types of member, the Lords Temporal and Lords Spiritual.
Lords Temporal these includes 2 types -
* appointed members (life peers with no hereditary right for their descendants to sit in the house as oppose to hereditary peers,) appointed by Crown on aid and advice of cabinet, their number is variable and
* 92 remaining hereditary peers, elected from among, and by, the holders of titles which previously gave a seat in the House of Lords.
Lords Spiritual these represents the established Church of England and are 26 in number: the Five Ancient Sees (Canterbury, York, London, Winchester and Durham), and the 21 next-most senior bishops.
POWERS All bills except money bills are debated and voted upon in House of Lords. The House of Lords acts to review legislation passed by the House of Commons, with the power to propose amendments, and can exercise a temporary veto. This allows it to delay legislation if it does not approve it for 12 months (by voting against a bill, the House of Lords can only delay it for a maximum of two parliamentary sessions over a year).
After this time, the House of Commons can force the Bill through, without the Lords' consent under the Parliament Acts. Usually governments accept changes in legislation in order to avoid the time delay.
The House of Lords cannot veto major manifesto promises (Salisbury convention). However the Lords still retain a full veto in acts which would extend the life of Parliament beyond the 5 year term limit.
* JUDICIARY OF UK
The judiciary of UK is not unified. Each of the separate legal systems in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has their own judiciary. However, the judges of the Supreme Court of the UK do have a jurisdiction over whole of the United Kingdom.
SC is headed by the President and Deputy President of the Supreme Court and is composed of a further 10 Justices of the Supreme Court.
Unlike other functional democracies, SC of UK doesnt exercise judicial review over the law passed by parliament.
COMPARISION B/W INDIA-UKs POLITICAL SYSTEMS.
FEATURESINDIAUKINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal featuresUnitary State with Constitutional Monarchy
President/MonarchNominal HeadNominal Head
Vice-PresidentYesNo
Prime Minister/OtherReal HeadReal Head
PolityDemocratic RepublicDemocratic Monarchy
GovernmentParliamentary systemParliamentary systemSpeaker of House of Commons is much more powerful and efficient in maintaining order in the house than Lok Sabha Speaker.
Lower HouseLok SabhaHouse of CommonsUK being a unitary state, House of Commons > Lok Sabha, in its functions.
Upper HouseRajya SabhaHouse of LordsRajya Sabha = House of Lords, regarding financial bills in some respects but Rajya Sabha > House of Lords regarding non-money bills.
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionYes, through Rule of Law
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High Court SC of UK doesnt exercise judicial review over the law passed by parliamentSC of India > SC of UK, in its functions.
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.In UK, devolution of powers has taken place, but Legislation creating devolved parliaments or assemblies can be repealed or amended by central government in the same way as any ordinary statute.
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallya permanent politically neutral organisation
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemTwo-Party System
REPUBLIC OF FRANCE
Fifth Republic of France is a democratic republic, in which the President of France is head of state and the Prime Minister of France is the head of government. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
* PRESIDENT OF REPUBLIC OF FRANCE
The President of the France is the head of state. He is also supreme commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces and the ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He is the guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity and observance of treaties.
He enjoys wide range of power. He has the power to choose the Prime Minister. However, since the National Assembly has the sole power to dismiss the PM's government, the president has to name a prime minister who can command the support of a majority in the assembly. He cannot dismiss PM. The French President wields significant influence especially in the fields of national security and foreign policy.
OTHER POWERS The President may:
* Dissolve the French National Assembly;
* Refer treaties or certain types of laws to popular referendum, within certain conditions.
* Grant pardon to convicted criminals.
He names and dismisses the other ministers, with the agreement of the Prime minister. He presides over the Council of Ministers. He nominates certain members of the Constitutional Council.
All decisions of the president must be countersigned by the Prime minister and, where required, by the appropriate ministers.
ELECTION The President is elected directly through universal suffrage for 5 years. A president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.
To be admitted as an official candidate, potential candidates must receive signed nominations from more than 500 elected officials (from 45,000+ elected officials). These officials must be from at least 30 departments, and no more than 50 officials should be from the same department. Each official may nominate only one candidate.
French presidential elections are conducted through two ballot system or run-off voting which ensures that the elected President always obtains a majority. If no candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round of voting, the two highest-scoring candidates arrive at a run-off and the candidate who gets more than 50% of vote is elected.
He can be impeached by the High Court-a special court convened from both houses of Parliament on the proposal of either House, if the president fails to discharge his duties in a lawful manner.
PRIME MINISTER
The Prime Minister of France is the head of government. The PM directs the actions of the government & conduct the policy of the Nation.
In practice, the PM acts on the advice of the President to whom he is a subordinate, except when there is cohabitation in which case his responsibilities are akin to those of a PM in a parliamentary system.
[COHABITATION When the majority of the Assembly dont agree with the president, this leads to cohabitation. If this happens, the president's power is diminished (only those powers which are to be exercised through PM vis-a-vis National Assembly), as much of the de facto power relies on a supportive PM and National Assembly, and is not directly attributed to the post of president. When the majority of the Assembly sides with him, the President can take a more active role and may, in effect, direct government policy. When the president and the prime minister come from opposing parties, the president is responsible for foreign policy and the prime minister for domestic policy.
When PM + President=same political party President is boss.
Otherwise, cohabitation = sharing of power b/w President and PM.]
ELECTION The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the Republic.
He has no fixed term, remains in office while commanding the confidence of the National Assembly and the President of the Republic.
* PARLIAMENT OF FRANCE
The Parliament of France has a bicameral legislature, consists of two houses:
* National Assembly;
* Senate.
Unlike the President of India, the French President under the Constitution of 1958 is not the component part of Parliament.
The powers of both houses are about same except the National Assembly can cause a government to fall if an absolute majority of the total Assembly membership votes a censure motion.
Parliament meets for one 9 month session every year and under special circumstances, the President can call an additional session. As in India, the cabinet has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament.
LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE Bills may be introduced in either of the houses of Parliament, except for finance bills which must be submitted and read first in National Assembly.
The legislative initiative is exercised concurrently by the government and members of Parliament but private members bill cannot increase the financial load of the state without providing for funding. All bills must undergo compulsory advisory review by the highest administrative court, the Council of State before being submitted to parliament.
If both houses dont choose to adopt the text identically, it is sent before a commission made of equal numbers of members of both houses, which tries to harmonize the text. If it doesnt manage to do so, the National Assembly can vote the text and have the final say on it; however laws related to the composition of the Senate cannot be voted in this manner.
The bill is then sent to the President for signature. At this point,
* The President of France, the speaker of either house or a delegation of 60 deputies or 60 senators can ask for the text to undergo constitutional review before being put into force; it is then sent before the Constitutional Council.
* The President can also, only once per law and with the countersigning of the Prime minister, send the law back to parliament for another review.
* Otherwise, the President must sign the law, after being countersigned by the Prime minister and the concerned ministers.
The power to dissolve Parliament belongs to the President of the republic. He can dissolve the Assembly at any time and for any reason solely at his discretion. There is only one limitation; he cannot dissolve it twice within the same year.
* NATIONAL ASSEMBLY The National Assembly has 577 members, these are known as Deputies.
ELECTION Deputies are directly elected for 5 year term through direct elections (single-member constituency through a two-round system).
[What is a two-round system?
To be elected in the first round of voting, a candidate must obtain at least 50% of the votes polled, with a turn-out of at least 25% of the registered voters. If no candidate is elected in the first round, those who poll in excess of 12.5% of the registered voters in the first-round vote are entered in the second round of voting.
In the second round, the candidate who receives the most no. of votes is elected.]
QUALIFICATIONS one must be
* at least 23 years old;
* of French citizenship, and
* Not subject to a sentence of deprivation of civil rights or to personal bankruptcy.
The leader of majority party is chosen as the PM. the National Assembly may force the resignation of the cabinet by voting a censure motion. However, party discipline +no horse trading ensure that, government completes a parliamentary term of 5 years.
* FRENCH SENATE The Senate has 348 seats. The senators elect a President from among their members.
ELECTIONS Senators are chosen by indirect election through an electoral college of about 145,000 local elected officials for 5 year term, and 1/3 of the Senators retire every three years.
QUALIFICATIONS Same as that of representatives except age must be 35 years.
* JUDICIARY OF FRANCE
Judiciary of France is independent and doesnt control by the other two branches of government. The most significant feature of the French judicial system is that it is divided into judicial and administrative streams.
JUDICIAL COURTS The judicial courts adjudicates civil & criminal cases. The judicial court stream consists of :
* Inferior courts,
* Intermediate appellate courts, and
* The French Supreme Court.
Judges have security of tenure and may not be promoted or demoted without their consent. Their careers are overseen by the Judicial Council of France.
ADMINISTRATIVE COURTS Administrative courts adjudicate on claims and suits against government offices and agencies. The administrative stream is made up of:
* Administrative courts,
* Courts of Administrative Appeal, and
* The Council of State.
The Council of State acts both as legal adviser to the govt and as the Supreme Court for administrative justice. It is the court of last resort, it hears cases against executive decisions and has the power to quash or set aside executive-issued statutory orders and regulations when they violate constitutional law, enacted law.
[Neither judicial nor administrative courts are empowered to rule on the constitutionality of acts passed by Parliament.]
CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL OF FRANCE Constitutional Council of France does the same work of judicial review over Constitutionality of the legislative acts as the SC of India. However, this is done in different manner altogether.
This is done by CCF
prior to their enactment, to all forms of law, but only after referral from the French President, President of the Senate, President of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, or any of the 60 senators or 60 assembly members.
After their enactment, CCF exercise review after referral from French Supreme Court or the Council of State.
COMPARISION B/W INDIA-FRANCEs POLITICAL SYSTEMS.
FEATURESINDIAFRANCEINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal featuresUnitary Republic
PresidentNominal HeadReal Head unless Cohabitation.While in India pres. is a rubber stamp of govt, French pres. is effective head of govt.
Vice-PresidentYesNo
Prime MinisterReal HeadNominal Head unless Cohabitation.Indian PM>French PM, in its functions.
PolityDemocratic RepublicDemocratic Republic
ElectionsParliamentary systemSemi-Presidential system
Lower HouseLok SabhaNational Assembly
Upper HouseRajya SabhaFrench Senate
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionYes, through the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High CourtDivided into 2 streams: judicial and administrative- independent of Executive and legislative interference.Judicial Review is exercised by Constitutional Council of France.
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.Administrative Units are semi-autonomous
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallyFrench civil service are open to citizens of the European Union except police and justice. Politically and religiously neutral.
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemMulti-Party System
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
Germany is a federal parliamentary republic. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Constitution provides for protection of Human rights and dignity, republicanism, Democracy and Federalism. These are Basic Law of the Constitution (eternity clause) and these cannot be removed or repealed by the normal amendment process and require absolute two-thirds majority of the Bundestag along with a simple two-thirds majority of the Bundesrat.
[Absolute two-thirds majority2/3 majority of all elected members
Simple two-thirds majority 2/3 majority of all members present and voting]
The Constitution provides for referendums for delimitation of the existing federal territory.
[The process of referendum is explained in Switzerland]
Federal legislative power is divided between the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The Bundestag is directly elected by the German people, while the Bundesrat represents the regional states (Lander). The federal legislature has powers of exclusive jurisdiction and concurrent jurisdiction with the states in areas specifically enumerated by the constitution.
* PRESIDENT OF GERMANY
The President of Germany is the head of state of Germany. As in India, the President has mainly ceremonial and supervisory duties.
(But he is not the commander-in-chief of the military. In times of peace the Minister of Defence and in times of war Federal Chancellor)
FUNCTIONS the President:
1. Proposes an individual to be the Chancellor and after that individual is subsequently elected by the Bundestag appoints his/her as Federal Chancellor, but Bundestag is free to disregard the president's proposal and elect another individual to the post, whom the president is then obliged to appoint.
2. Appoints and dismisses the remaining members of the Cabinet upon the proposal of the Chancellor.
3. Dismiss the Chancellor, but only after the Bundestag passes a Vote of No Confidence and appoints the successor requested by the Bundestag.
4. Dissolve the Bundestag
5. If the Bundestag elects an individual for the office of chancellor by a plurality of votes and not by majority, the president can, either appoint that individual as chancellor or dissolve the Bundestag and call for a new election(in case of hung parliament).
6. If Vote of Confidence is defeated in the Bundestag, and the incumbent chancellor proposes dissolution, then he may, at his discretion, dissolve the body within 21 days.
7. Appoints federal judges, federal civil servants and military officers, these appointments must be countersigned by the Chancellor or responsible Minister.
8. Must sign all federal laws as to make them come into effect but if he thinks them to be violative of constitution, he can refuse to sign them.
ELECTION the president is elected for a term of 5 years through indirect election by secret ballot (as in India), by the Federal Convention, the convention consists of all Bundestag members as well as an equal number of delegates chosen by the legislatures of the Lander (states). The delegates of each state are elected by the members of the state legislature under a form of proportional representation. The convention must be convened 30 days before the expiration of the term of office of the current president. The convention is convened and chaired by the President of the Bundestag.
The president is elected by an absolute majority of votes cast. If, after two votes, no single candidate has received this level of support, in the third and final vote the candidate endorsed by a plurality of votes cast is elected.
QUALIFICATIONS the president must be
1. A German Citizen;
2. At least 40 years of age;
3. Entitled to vote in Bundestag elections.
IMPEACHMENT The President can be impeached by the Bundestag or Bundesrat for wilfully violating German law.
Once the Bundestag impeaches the president, the Federal Constitutional Court is charged with determining if he or she is guilty of the offence. If the charge is proved, the court has authority to remove the president from office.
1. FEDERAL CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY
The Federal Chancellor is the head of government of Germany. She has the right to set the guidelines for all policy areas including foreign and domestic policy. The role is generally comparable to that of Prime Minister in other parliamentary democracies like India. The Cabinet is the chief executive body of Germany and the Federal Government includes the Chancellor and his or her cabinet ministers.
She is the leader of the party or coalition holding a majority of seats in the Bundestag (federal parliament).
The Chancellor is responsible for guiding the cabinet and deciding its policy direction. The cabinet ministers are free to carry out their duties independently within the boundaries set by the Chancellor's political directives.
SELECTION The Chancellor is elected by the Bundestag after being proposed by the President. If elected, the Chancellor is appointed by the President for 4 years. The ministers are appointed and dismissed by the President upon proposal of the Chancellor.
DISMISSAL the Chancellor can be removed by constructive vote of no confidence, i.e. Unlike India where only vote of no confidence has to be passed, the Bundestag, while passing vote of no confidence must simultaneously agree on a successor.
1. BUNDESTAG
Constitutionally, the Bundestag is the main body of Germany's Parliament, which is not a bicameral parliament. In practice, the country is governed by a bicameral legislature i.e. Bundestag + Bundesrat.
Like other parliamentary democracies, the Bundestag elects the Chancellor and exercises oversight on govt on issues of both policy and routine administration. This can be done through binding legislation, public debates on government policy, investigations, and questioning of the chancellor or cabinet officials.
Like India, most of the legislative work in the Bundestag is the product of standing committees. The meetings of Bundestag are chaired by President of the Bundestag.
ELECTION The Members of Bundestag are elected for a term of 4 years and currently consists of 630 members which are to be chosen through Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system.
[But what is Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system?
MMP is an indigenous electoral system of Germany, half of the Members of the Bundestag are elected directly from 299 constituencies through first-past-the-post system, the other half are elected through the party list system in such a way as to achieve as much possible, proportional representation for the total Bundestag].
Each voter votes twice in the elections to the Bundestag. As per 17th Bundestag elections 2013, 299 were elected through direct vote (this is fixed) and 331 were elected through party list system (this is variable).
PARTY LIST SYSTEM Under party list systems, voters in an electoral constituency choose from among a group of candidates put forward by the various parties contesting an election. When the votes are tallied, each party is entitled to seat the no. of members from its list that corresponds to its share of popular vote; for example, if a given party obtains 30% of the vote, then it would send 3 out of 10 candidates to the legislature and those 3 would be chosen in order in which candidates name appears on the list]
Further, those parties which receive 5% of total national vote or win at least three directly elected seats are eligible for non-constituency seats in the Bundestag. This was done to prevent political fragmentation and strong minor parties.
QUALIFICATION all candidates must be:
1. Citizens of Federal Republic of Germany;
2. 18 years of age.
1. BUNDESRAT
The German Bundesrat is a constitutional body that represents the delegation of 16 Federal States (Lander) of Germany at the national level. Officially, it is not upper house but practically it is.
Like most of other upper houses, the Bundesrat plays second fiddle to the Bundestag; however, it does play a vital legislative role.
ELECTIONthe members of Bundesrat are not elected directly or indirectly, they are sent by respective state govts. Each delegation has a minister-president and other cabinet ministers. The state cabinet may appoint as many delegates as the state has votes. Each state is allocated at least 3 votes, and a maximum of 6. All of a state's votes are cast en bloc i.e. out of 3 member delegation, all 3 votes would be cast by minister-president for or against or in abstention of a proposal.
POWERSThe Bundesrat must approve all legislation affecting policy areas for which the Constitution grants the concurrent powers to the Lander.
The Bundesrat can exercise absolute veto against constitutional amendment, which requires an approval with majority of 2/3 of all votes in Bundesrat and against all other legislations it has a suspensive veto, which can be overridden by Bundestag by passing the law again, but this time with 50% plus one vote of all members and not just by majority of votes cast.
In case of deadlock regarding absolute veto, the Bundestag, the Bundesrat or the government can convene a joint committee to negotiate a compromise, this compromise cannot be amended and both chambers are required to hold a final vote on the compromise as it is.
President of the Bundesrat The post of the President of the Bundesrat rotates annually among the minister-presidents of each of the Lander. He convenes and chairs plenary sessions of the Bundesrat.
If the President of Germany is outside the country, or the position is lying vacant then the President of the Bundesrat temporarily assumes the powers of the President, until a successor is elected. While doing so, he does not continue to exercise the role of chair of the Bundesrat.
1. JUDICIARY OF GERMANY
Judiciary of Germany is independent and doesnt control by the other two branches of government The Constitution provides that the judicial power shall be vested in the judges and it shall be exercised by the Federal Constitutional Court, by the federal courts and by the courts of the Lander.
The judiciary is hierarchically integrated.
[The German judicial system includes 5 types of courts- Ordinary courts, Administrative law courts, Tax law courts, Labour law courts and Social law courts + the Federal Constitutional Court but all of them are not of our concern].
FEDERAL COURT OF JUSTICE the Federal Court of Justice subordinates all of the ordinary courts-local, regional and appellate courts, which adjudicates on civil and criminal law
FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL COURT the Federal Constitutional Court is the supreme constitutional court established by the constitution.
FCC exercises the right of Judicial Review, as like SC of India, and it may declare any federal or state law unconstitutional, if it violates constitution, thus making them ineffective.
The Federal Constitutional Court decides on the constitutionality of laws and executive orders under the following circumstances:
* Individual complaint a suit brought by any individual alleging that a law or any action of government violated his or her constitutional rights. All possible solutions in the regular courts must have been exhausted beforehand.
* Referral by regular court a court can refer the question whether a statute applicable to the case before that court is constitutional.
* Abstract regulation control the federal government, a government of one of the federal states or a quarter of the Bundestag's members can bring suit against a law.
Constitutional amendments passed by the Parliament are subject to its judicial review, since they have to be compatible with eternity clause of the constitution.
COMPARISION B/W INDIA-GERMANYs POLITICAL SYSTEMS.
FEATURESINDIAGERMANYINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal featuresFederal State
PresidentNominal HeadNominal HeadBoth Indian & German presidents are rubber stamp of govt.
Vice-PresidentYesNo
Prime Minister/OtherReal HeadChancellorReal head.
PolityDemocratic RepublicDemocratic Republic
ElectionsParliamentary SystemParliamentary system
Lower HouseLok SabhaBundestag
Upper HouseRajya SabhaBundesratWhile members of Rajya Sabha are elected through Single Transferable Vote System, the deputies of Bundesrat are sent by govts of the states.
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionYes, through Constitutional provisions-eternity clause
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High CourtCourts are independent of Executive & legislative interference. Judicial Review is exercised by the Federal Constitutional Court
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.Lander are fully autonomous within their legislative & executive sphere.
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallyPolitically neutral institution
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemMulti-Party System
SWITZERLAND
The Switzerland is the Federal Parliamentary Democratic Republic. It is very close to become Direct Democracy. Executive power is exercised by the government and the Federal Council of Switzerland is the head of government and the govt is not concentrated in any one person. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
[Direct democracy is a form of democracy in which people decide policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then decide policy initiatives]
INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM Switzerland provides for Initiative- a citizen-proposed law and Referendum- govt-proposed law.
Initiative is a means by which a petition is signed by a no. of registered voters, forcing a public vote on
* A proposed statute,
* Constitutional Amendment.
Initiative in Switzerland is available in Federal Assembly on a question of Constitutional amendment, i.e. the electorate has the right to initiate constitutional legislation, though it is used in Cantons for both legislative as well as amendment proposals.
Referendum is a practice of referring measures passed upon by the legislature for acceptance or rejection.
In Switzerland, if both houses of Federal Assembly agree on a constitutional amendment, it must be submitted to voters and becomes law, if approved by majority of qualified voters but also by a majority of cantons (Double Majority)
In the Swiss Federation the referendum is optional in respect of ordinary law, but if 100000 citizens or 8 cantons make a demand, federal laws are submitted for approval of the people.
* FEDERAL COUNCIL
The Federal Council constitutes the federal government of Switzerland and serves collectively as the Swiss head of state. The Council consists of 7 councillors and each one of them heads one of the 7 federal executive departments. The Council acts like the board of directors of a major corporation.
The Council includes members of many political parties but due to the principle of collegiality, the Councillors are not supposed to publicly criticise one another, and they are expected to publicly support all decisions of the Council, even against their own personal opinion or that of their political party.
ELECTION the Councillors are elected for a term of 4 years by both chambers of the United Federal Assembly. Each Councillor is elected individually through secret ballot by an absolute majority of votes.
Every adult Swiss citizen can become a Councillor, but in practice, only Members of Federal Assembly or sometimes, members of Cantonal governments are nominated by the political parties.
The Councillors can be re-elected for an indefinite number of terms. After being elected, they can neither be voted out of office by a motion of no confidence nor can they be impeached.
PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATION
Every year, one of the 7 Councillors is elected by the Federal Assembly as President of the Confederation. The Federal Assembly also elects a Vice President. By convention, the chair of President rotates among the members in order of seniority and the previous year's Vice President becomes President.
He is not head of state or head of govt, both of these functions are administered by the Federal Council collectively. The President presides over Council meetings and carries out certain functions like those of a head of state but he is not head of state. In urgent situations where a Council decision cannot be made in time, he or she is empowered to act on behalf of the whole Council; however he has no power above and beyond the other 6 Councillors.
The decisions of the Council are formally taken by voice vote by a majority of the Councillors present at a meeting or through Consensus. The President breaks the tie.
* FEDERAL ASSEMBLY
The Federal Assembly is national legislative body of Switzerland. Swiss Constitution vests the supreme authority in the Federal Assembly. It is bicameral and composed of the National Council and the Council of States. The powers of 2 chambers of Federal Assembly are almost absolutely equal. It should be noted that the principle of separation of powers has not been made the basis of the Swiss governmental system. Federal Assembly has been entrusted with all kinds of functions which are not legislative but also executive and judicial in character.
It has been correctly observed that there are few parliaments which exercise more miscellaneous duties than Federal Assembly.
POWERS
* Legislative & Financial powers The Federal Assembly passes all federal laws and legislative ordinances, considers and passes the annual budget of Federation, approves the state accounts and authorise public loans floated by the federal govt. The Federal Assembly also votes on treaties and constitutional amendments.
* Executive powers The Federal Assembly exercises imp executive functions. Sitting together, the two chambers elect members of federal council, federal chancellor, and in case of war or threat of war, the Commander-in-Chief. The Constitution directs the Federal Assembly to take all measures necessary to ensure external safety and preservation of independence and neutrality of Switzerland.
[Switzerland is a neutral state= no ladai jhagda with neighbours +no dilchaspi in international power politics]
* Judicial powers Judges of federal Tribunal are elected by Federal Assembly; it also hears appeals against the decisions of Tribunal on administrative disputes. The Federal Assembly deals with conflicts of jurisdiction b/w different federal authorities. It also exercises the judicial prerogative of granting pardon & amnesty.
The Federal Assembly exercises general supervision over the federal administration and is empowered to issue instructions to the Federal Council in the form of postulates, a sort of directive to the Council to examine a particular question.
* NATIONAL COUNCIL the National Council is the lower house of the Federal Assembly.
ELECTION The National Council has 200 seats and members are chosen for the term of 4 years by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies.
[Multi-Seat Constituency= one Constituency and many deputies]
The deputies are chosen from each of the constituency of 26 cantons.
The no. of deputies a canton can send depends on the population of the canton but at least one deputy should be from every canton.
Each voter elects the deputies of the canton in which she/he lives and each voter has as many votes as there are deputies to elect. A voter cannot give more than two votes to the same candidate. Each citizen can vote for persons of different parties.
The no. of candidates a party can send to the National Council depends on the no. of votes party gets.
* COUNCIL OF STATES the Council of States is the upper house of Federal Assembly.
It has 46 seats which are filled from 26 cantons. The 20 cantons send 2 councillors each and 6 former half cantons send 1 councillor, for 4 year term.
ELECTION Swiss Constitution provides for democratic method and the mode of election is left to individual cantons.
* FEDERAL SUPREME COURT
The Federal Supreme Court is established under the Swiss Federal Constitution as the supreme judicial authority of Switzerland. It is the court of appeal for all decisions of the cantonal courts of last instance.
Because of an emphasis on direct democracy through referendum, the Constitution precludes the court from reviewing acts of the Federal Parliament, unless such review is specifically provided for by statute.
FEATURESINDIASWITZERLANDINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal featuresFederal State
PresidentNominal HeadNominal Head
Vice-PresidentYesYes
Prime Minister/OtherReal HeadFederal Council is Real HeadAdministrative power is exercised by whole of council collectively and not by one person as in India.
PolityDemocratic RepublicDemocratic Republic
ElectionsParliamentary systemParliamentary system
Lower HouseLok SabhaNational CouncilBoth houses National Council and Council of States, have equal powers.
Upper HouseRajya SabhaCouncil of States
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionTitle 2 of the Constitution
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High CourtFederal Supreme Court of Switzerland is independent of Executive interference, but not empowers to judge the constitutionality of a federal law as this right is exercised by common man through referendum.
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.Cantons are sovereign insofar as their sovereignty is not limited by the Federal Constitution, they exercise all rights which are not transferred to the Confederation
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallyPolitically neutral institution
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemMulti-Party System
PEOPLEs REPUBLIC OF CHINA
China is the Unitary Socialist Republic and functions under Constitution of 1982.
It is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship and is led by the Communist Party, the vanguard of the working class. The constitution opposes the separation of powers by executive, legislature and judiciary. National People's Congress is the highest organ of state authority power.
* PRESIDENT OF CHINA
The President of the People's Republic of China is the head of state of China. He holds a ceremonial office.
[He is not Commander-in-Chief of PLA; PLA comes under the Central Military Commission]
POWERSHe promulgates statutes adopted by the National People's Congress. He appoints the Premier of the State Council, Vice-Premiers, other State Council members and all ambassadors to foreign countries, upon the NPC's decision.
[In practice, President exercise much more power by virtue of being the General Secretary of the Communist Party who is generally responsible for establishing general policy and direction of the state which are implemented by the Premier of the People's Republic of China, the head of government]
ELECTION The President is elected by the National People's Congress which also has the power to remove the President from office by a simple majority vote. He is elected by Presidium of NPC which is headed by the general secretary of the Communist Party and in practice and the general secretary is chosen as President (So, he choose himself as president).
He is elected for term of 5 years and limited to two consecutive terms.
QUALIFICATIONS Citizens of the People's Republic of China who have the right to vote and who have reached the age of 45 are eligible for election as President.
VICE-PRESIDENT
The Vice President of the People's Republic of China assists the President in his work.
The Vice President of the People's Republic of China may exercise such functions and powers of the President and the President may entrust to him.
In the event that the office of the President of the People's Republic of China falls vacant, the Vice President of the People's Republic of China succeeds to the office of President.
He is elected by NPC for term of 5 years and limited to two consecutive terms.
Mode of election, dismissal and qualifications are same that of President.
* STATE COUNCIL
The State Council is the chief administrative authority of China.
It is composed of
the Premier; the Vice Premiers; the State Councillors; the Ministers in charge of ministries; the Ministers in charge of commissions; the Auditor General; and the Secretary General.
The State Council is responsible to the National People's Congress, or when the National People's Congress is not in session, to its Standing Committee. The State Council follows the system of premier responsibility in work while various ministries and commissions under the State Council follow the system of ministerial responsibility.
It meets once every 6 months and b/w its meetings, it is guided by a standing committee. The standing committee of State Council includes the premier, one executive vice premier, 3 vice premiers, and 5 other state councillors.
The State Council controls the Ministry for National Defense but doesnt control the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which is instead controlled by the Central Military Commission.
FUNCTIONS
* to formulate administrative measures and regulations and monitor their implementation;
* draft legislations for submission to its Standing Committee or the NPC ;
* Prepare the economic policy and the budget;
* to conduct foreign affairs and conclude treaties and agreements with foreign states;
* to decide on the imposition of martial law in parts of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government;
* To exercise unified leadership over the work of local organs of state administration at various levels throughout the country.
PREMIER
The Premier of the State Council is the head of the State Council of China. He oversees the various ministries, departments, commissions and statutory agencies and announcing their candidacies to the National People's Congress for Vice-Premiers and State Councillors.
ELECTION The Premier is nominated by the President and then formally approved by the National People's Congress for 5 year term. In practice, the candidate is chosen by an informal process within the Communist Party of China. He can be removed by NPC.
* NATIONAL PEOPLEs CONGRESS
The National People's Congress is the highest legislative body of China. It is the largest parliament in the world with 2,987 members. It is the unicameral parliament with no second chamber. The NPC meets for about two weeks each year and the daily power is exercised by the Standing Committee of the NPC which contains about 150 members.
ELECTION Election of deputies to the National People's Congress is conducted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
The ruling Communist Party of China maintains effective control over the composition of National People's Congress. By limiting the number of candidates in proportion to the number of seats available, the Party blocks unacceptable candidates. However, approximately 1/3 of the seats are reserved for non-Communist Party members which includes technical experts and members of the smaller allied parties.
The NPC consists of about 3,000 delegates who are elected for 5 year term by the provincial people's assemblies through indirect election.
Deputies are elected by the people's congresses of the country's 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and the 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government, the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau and the armed forces. The size of each college of delegates is related to the number of electors in the constituency (proportional system)
QUALIFICATION all citizens of China who have reached the age of 18 have the right to stand for election.
PRESIDIUMThe Presidium of the NPC is a 178-member body of the NPC. It nominates the President and Vice President of China, the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Secretary-General of the Standing Committee of the NPC, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and the President of the Supreme People's Court for election by the NPC.
NPC STANDING COMMITTEE
The permanent organ of the National People's Congress is its Standing Committee, which is responsible to the National People's Congress. It functions as the highest body of state power.
The NPC Standing Committee is composed of the Chairman, Vice-Chairmen, the Secretary-General and other members who are elected from among the deputies at the first session of every National People's Congress. The members of the NPC Standing Committee generally include:
(a) Representatives from the Communist Party of China;
(b) Representatives from various democratic parties and patriots and democrats without party affiliation;
(c) Representatives of people's organizations;
(d) Representatives of the People's Liberation Army; and
(e) Representatives of minority ethnic groups with a population of over 1 million each.
[How Standing Committee is chosen is not specified in constitution, if dont believe me then look www.hkhrm.org.hk/english/law/const04.html ]
According to the Constitution and the Organic Law of the National People's Congress, the NPC Standing Committee exercises the following functions and powers:
1. Legislative right According to the Constitution, the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee jointly exercise the legislative right, including enacting and amending statutes, with the exception of those which should be enacted by the National People's Congress. Consequently, except for the Constitution and basic laws, The NPC Standing Committee undertakes a large amount of legislative work.
2. Right to supervise the enforcement of the ConstitutionThe Constitution gives the supervisory right also to the NPC Standing Committee in addition to the National People's Congress. As a permanent body of NPC, this ensures it can carry out regular supervision of the enforcement of the Constitution.
3. Right to supervise the work of other state organsThe NPC Standing Committee supervises the work of the State Council, Central Military Commission, Supreme People's Court; annulling those administrative decisions or orders of the State Council that contravene the Constitution or the statutes of the state.
4. Power of appointment and removalWhen the National People's Congress is not in session, the NPC Standing Committee selects the vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC controls People's Liberation Army) and members of the commission according to the nomination of the chairmen of the Central Military Commission; appoints and removes vice-presidents and judges of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), members of SPC's Judicial Committee and the president of the Military Court.
* SUPREME PEOPLEs COURT
The highest court in the judicial system is the Supreme People's Court and it is directly responsible to the NPC and its Standing Committee and therefore not free of interference.
It supervises the administration of justice by the people's courts at various levels (Basic people's courts at district level < intermediate people's courts at Prefecture-level < higher people's courts at Provincial-level < the Supreme People's Court).
COMPARISION B/W INDIA-CHINAs POLITICAL SYSTEMS.
FEATURESINDIACHINAINFERENCES(if any)
Type of systemQuasi-federal state/Unitary State with Federal features Unitary State
PresidentNominal HeadReal Head(in practice)Indian President < Chinese President
Vice-PresidentYesYes
Prime Minister/OtherReal HeadPremierIndian PM > Chinese Premier
PolityDemocratic RepublicSocialist Republic
GovernmentParliamentary systemCommunist system
Lower HouseLok SabhaNational People CongressNPC is the maai-baap in Chinese constitutional structure.
Upper HouseRajya SabhaNo
Civil & Political RightsYes, through PART III of Indian ConstitutionVery Limited, right to life and property are allowed in 1982 Constitution but not freedom of speech and association, even Press is controlled.India won.
JudiciarySupreme Court is independent of Executive interference. Judicial Review is exercised by Supreme Court & High CourtThe Supreme People's Court is under the NPC..Supreme Court of India > Supreme People's Court, in its functions.
Constituent StatesIndian states are semi-autonomous with ability to make independent laws with regard to state list and concurrent list BUT to limit all this Union govt has Governors, Art.249, 250 & 356.Except Special Administrative Regions (SARs) such as Hong Kong and Macau, no autonomy.Indian state govts are more independent than Chinese provincial govts as the latter are appointed by the central government
Civil ServicePolitically neutral officiallyPolitically controlled institution
Party SystemsMulti-Party SystemChinese constitution allows Multi-Party System but in reality Dominant One Party System exists.
SOURCES
1. Comparitive Politics Dr. S.C. Singhal
2. www.electionresources.org
3. www.iuscomp.org/gla/statutes/BWG.htm for Germany.
4. www.vescc.az/constitution/france-constitution-eng.html for France.
5. www.bk.admin.ch/dokumentation/02070/02480/04712/index.html?lang=en for Switzerland.
6. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/constitution/constitution.html for China.
7. http://www.hkhrm.org.hk/english/law/const01.html for China.
8. Google + wiki for statistics.
PERSONAL INFO
Shrey Khanna
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