State Finance Commission

The State Finance Commissions are required to recommend financial support from the state and principles for determination of taxes, tolls and fees that could be assigned to or appropriated by the local bodies Article 243I of the Indian Constitution prescribes that the Governor of a State shall, as soon as may be within one year … Read more

Buddhism : An introduction

Buddhism is a world religion and is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who is known as the Buddha (literally the Enlightened One or Awakened One). Siddhārtha Gautama was the historical founder of Buddhism. After asceticism and meditation, he discovered the Buddhist Middle Way—a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and … Read more

Lok Adalats and Legal Awareness Campaign

LOK ADALATS Lok stands for People and the word Adalat means Court. Lok Adalat is a special kind of people’s court in which disputes solved by direct talks between the litigants. The members of legal profession, college students, social organisations, charitable and philanthropic institutions and other similar organisations may be associated with Lok Adalat. Salient … Read more

Union Parliament and State Legislatures.

Parliament is the central institution through which the will of the people is expressed, laws are passed and government is held to account. It plays a vital role in a democracy, and endeavours to be truly representative, transparent, accessible, accountable and effective in its many functions. The Parliament has two Houses–Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. … Read more

Local Governance: 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments.Types of Urban local bodies and Panchayati Raj institutions in India.Sources of Finance in Urban Local Bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions.

The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, 1992, which gave Constitutional status to panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) and urban local bodies (ULBs) respectively, in both letter and spirit in order to bring about greater decentralisation and increase the involvement of the community in planning and implementing schemes and, thus, increase accountability. The Amendments left important … Read more

Federal Structure: Union-State relations.

The Indian constitution provides for a federal framework with powers (legislative ,executive and financial) divided between the center and the states. However, there is no division of judicial power as the constitution has established an integrated judicial system to enforce both the central laws as well as state law. The Indian federation is not the … Read more

Decentralized planning

Decentralized Planning is a type of planning where local organisations and institutions formulate, adopt, execute actions and supervise the plan without interference by the central body. Decentralized planning in the State operated mainly through the following institutions and instruments; Grama Sabha (GS): People’s participation in decentralization was sought to be ensured mainly through meetings of … Read more

Finance Commission

Under the Constitution the financial resources of the State are very limited though they have to do many works of social uplift under directive principles. In order to cope with their ever-expanding needs, the Central Government makes grants-in-aid to the States. Grant- in-aid to States , through it Central Government exercises a strict control over … Read more