Insights Static Quiz -332, 2019–Polity

Solution: d)

The first session after each general election and the first session of every fiscal year is addressed by the president. In this address, the president outlines the policies and programmes of the government in the preceding year and ensuing year. This address of the president is called the ‘Motion of Thanks’. At the end of the discussion, the motion is put to vote.

This motion must be passed in both the House. Otherwise, it amounts to the defeat of the government.

This inaugural speech of the president is an occasion available to the members of Parliament to raise discussions and debates to examine and criticise the government and administration for its lapses and failures.

Solution: b)

Notices of amendments to Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address can be tabled after the President has delivered his Address. Amendments may refer to matters contained in the Address as well as to matters, in the opinion of the member, the Address has failed to mention. Amendments can be moved to the Motion of Thanks in such form as may be considered appropriate by the Speaker in Lok Sabha and Chairman in Rajya Sabha.

Members of Parliament vote on this motion of thanks. This motion must be passed in both the houses. A failure to get motion of thanks passed amounts to defeat of government and leads to collapse of government. This is why, the Motion of Thanks is deemed to be a no-confidence motion.

Solution: a)

A parliamentary committee means a committee that:

1. Is appointed or elected by the House or nominated by the Speaker / Chairman1
2. Works under the direction of the Speaker / Chairman
3. Presents its report to the House or to the Speaker / Chairman
4. Has a secretariat provided by the Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha

Solution: c)

• The constitution establishes three types of funds – Consolidated Fund of India; Public Account; Contingency Fund.
• Prior authorization is required for withdrawing from Consolidated Fund of India. For Contingency fund of India, withdrawal can be authorized by the Parliament afterwards too. For Public Account, no such authorization is needed.
• Assessing the revenues from different central taxes is the primary function of the Department of Revenue and the expenditure estimates for the current and the next year for various expenditure heads are assessed by the Department of Expenditure. The Department of Expenditure also assesses the resources of the public sector undertakings (PSUs).
• The Budget division is a part of the Department of Economic Affairs.

Solution: c)

Eighth Schedule: Languages recognized by the Constitution. Originally, it had 14 languages but presently there are 22 languages. They are: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri (Dongri), Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Mathili (Maithili), Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.