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The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also
known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and
is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories,
collectively called the Republic of India. It is seated in New Delhi, the capital of
India.
The government comprises three branches: the executive, the legislative and the
judiciary. The executive branch headed by the President, who is the Head of State and
exercises his or her power directly or through officers subordinate to him.[1] The
Legislative branch or the Parliament consists of the lower house, the Lok Sabha, and
the upper house, the Rajya Sabha, as well as the president. The Judicial branch has the
Supreme Court at its apex, 21 High Courts, and numerous civil, criminal and family
courts at the district level.
The basic civil and criminal laws governing the citizens of India are set down in
major parliamentary legislation, such as the Civil Procedure Code, the Indian Penal
Code, and the Criminal Procedure Code. The union and individual state governments
consist of executive, legislative and judicial branches. The legal system as applicable
to the federal and individual state governments is based on the English Common and
Statutory Law. India accepts International Court of Justice jurisdiction with several
reservations. By the 73rd and 74th amendments to the constitution, the Panchayat Raj
system has been institutionalised for local governance.

Contents
[hide]

1 Parliamentary government
o 1.1 Individual responsibility
o 1.2 Collective responsibility
2 Executive Branch
o 2.1 President
o 2.2 Cabinet Secretary
3 Judicial branch
o 3.1 National judiciary
4 Reform
o 4.1 Corruption

4.2 Inefficiency
4.3 Spending priorities
4.4 Deficits
5 Finance
o 5.1 Taxation
o 5.2 General budget
6 See also
7 Further reading
8 References

9 External links

o
o
o

[edit] Parliamentary government

Sansad Bhavan
India has a parliamentary system of government based largely on that of the United
Kingdom (Westminster system). However, eminent scholars including the first
President Dr Rajendra Prasad have raised the question "how far we are entitled to
invoke and incorporate into our written Constitution by interpretation the conventions
of the British Constitution".[2]
The legislature is the Parliament. It is bicameral, consisting of two houses: the
directly-elected 552-member Lok Sabha ("House of the People"), the lower house,
and the 250-member indirectly-elected and appointed Rajya Sabha ("Council of
States"), the upper house. The parliament enjoys parliamentary supremacy.
All the members of the Council of Ministers as well as the Prime Minister are
members of Parliament. If they are not, they must be elected within a period of six
months from the time they assume their respective office. The Prime Minister and the
Council of Ministers are responsible to the Lok Sabha, individually as well as
collectively.

[edit] Individual responsibility

Every individual minister is in charge of a specific ministry or ministries (or specific
other portfolio). He is responsible for any act of failure in all the policies relating to
his department. In case of any lapse, he is individually responsible to the Parliament.
If a vote of no confidence is passed against the individual minister, he has to resign.

Individual responsibility can amount to collective responsibility. Therefore, the Prime

Minister, in order to save his government, can ask for the resignation of such a
minister and the people have a say.

[edit] Collective responsibility

The Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers are jointly accountable to the Lok
Sabha. If there is a policy failure or lapse on the part of the government, all the
members of the council are jointly responsible. If a vote of no confidence is passed
against the government, then all the ministers headed by the Prime Minister have to
resign.

[edit] Executive Branch

Executive branch of government is the part of government that has sole authority and
responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of
power into separate branches of government is central to the republican idea of the
separation of powers. The separation of powers system is designed to distribute
authority away from the executive branch an attempt to preserve individual liberty
in response to tyrannical leadership throughout history.

[edit] President

The Rashtrapati Bhawan, residence of the President Of India.

The executive power is vested on mainly the President of India by Article 53(1) of the
constitution. The President enjoys all constitutional powers and exercises them
directly or through officers subordinate to him as per the aforesaid Article 53(1).The
President is to act in accordance with aid and advise tendered by the head of
government (Prime Minister of India) and his or her Council of Ministers (the
cabinet) as described in Article 74 (Constitution of India).
The Constitution vests in the President of India all the executive powers of the Central
Government. The President appoints the Prime Minister the person most likely to
command the support of the majority in the Lok Sabha (usually the leader of the
majority party or coalition). The President then appoints the other members of the
Council of Ministers, distributing portfolios to them on the advice of the Prime
Minister.

The Council of Ministers remains in power during the 'pleasure' of the President. In
practice, however, the Council of Ministers must retain the support of the Lok Sabha.
If a President were to dismiss the Council of Ministers on his or her own initiative, it
might trigger a constitutional crisis. Thus, in practice, the Council of Ministers cannot
be dismissed as long as it commands the support of a majority in the Lok Sabha.
The President is responsible for making a wide variety of appointments. These
include:

Governors of States
The Chief Justice, other judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts of
India.
The Attorney General
The President's Officer
The Comptroller and Auditor General
The Chief Election Commissioner and Cabinet Secretary

The Chairman and other Members of the Union Public Service

CommissionCabinet Secretary

The Cabinet Secretariat of India.

The head of executive officers is Cabinet Secretary after President of India.The
Cabinet Secretary is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister. The administrative
head of the Cabinet Secretariat is the Cabinet Secretary who is also the ex-officio
Chairman of the Civil Services Board, and thus the head of the Indian Administrative
Service.
As a matter of convention the senior most civil servant is appointed as a Cabinet
Secretary. He belongs to the Indian Administrative Service. The incumbent has a fixed
tenure of 4 years.
The Cabinet Secretary is the head of all of the All India civil services under the
constitution. Thus, he is the head of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian
Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Revenue Service (IRS), and
the Indian Forest Service (IFS). He ranks eleventh in the Indian order of precedence.
The current Cabinet Secretary is A. K. Seth.

The following are the functions of a Cabinet Secretary:

Provide assistance to the Council of Ministers Act as advisor and conscience keeper
of the civil services Handle senior appointments Prepare of the agenda of the Cabinet
Attend the meetings of the Cabinet Ensure that the Cabinet decisions are implemented
Advise the Prime Minister Act as the Chairman of the Committee of Secretaries on
Administration Act as the Chairman of the Chief Secretaries Committee Provide an
element of continuity and stability to administration during crises In the Government
of India Allocation of Business Rules, 1961 "Cabinet Secretariat" finds a place in the
First Schedule to the Rules. The subjects allotted to this Secretariat are, firstly,
secretarial assistance to Cabinet and Cabinet Committees, and secondly, the
administration of the Rules of Business.
The Cabinet Secretariat is responsible for the administration of the Government of
India Transaction of Business Rules, 1961 and the Government of India Allocation of
Business Rules 1961, facilitating smooth transaction of business in
Ministries/Departments of the Government by ensuring adherence to these rules. The
Secretariat assists in decision-making in Government by ensuring Inter-Ministerial
coordination, ironing out differences amongst Ministries/Departments and evolving
consensus through the instrumentality of the standing/adhoc Committees of
Secretaries. Through this mechanism new policy initiatives are also promoted.
The Cabinet Secretariat ensures that the President of India, the Vice-President and
Ministers are kept informed of the major activities of all Departments by means of a
monthly summary of their activities. Management of major crisis situations in the
country and coordinating activities of the various Ministries in such a situation is also
one of the functions of the Cabinet Secretariat.
The Cabinet Secretariat has 3 wings: Civil, Military and Intelligence. The Civil wing
is the main wing and provides aid, advise and assistance to the Union Cabinet. The
Military wing provides secretarial assistance to the Defence Committee of the
Cabinet, the Military Affairs Committee, the National Defence Council and other
committees dealing with defence matters. The Intelligence wing deals with matters
pertaining to the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Union Cabinet. The chief of
Research and Analysis Wing R&AW also officially first reports to the Cabinet
Secretary, and is officially designated Secretary R in the Cabinet Secretariat. The
Cabinet Secretary is arguably India's most powerful bureaucrat and right hand of
Prime Minister of India.

[edit] Judicial branch

Supreme Court of India.

India's independent judicial system began under the British, and its concepts and
procedures resemble those of Anglo-Saxon countries. The Supreme Court of India
consists of a Chief Justice and 30 associate justices, all appointed by the President on
the advice of the Chief Justice of India. The jury trials were abolished in India in early
1960s, after the famous case KM Nanavati v State of Maharashtra, for reasons of
being vulnerable to media and public pressure, as well as to being misled
Unlike its US counterpart, the Indian justice system consists of a unitary system at
both state and federal level. The judiciary consists of the Supreme Court of India,
High Courts of India at the state level, and District Courts and Sessions Courts at the
district level.

[edit] National judiciary

Main article: Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India has original jurisdiction, appellate jurisdiction and
advisory jurisdiction. Its exclusive original jurisdiction extends to any dispute
between the Government of India and one or more states, or between the Government
of India and any state or states on one side and one or more states on the other, or
between two or more states, if and insofar as the dispute involves any question
(whether of law or of fact) on which the existence or extent of a legal right depends.
In addition, Article 32 of the Indian Constitution gives an extensive original
jurisdiction to the Supreme Court in regard to enforcement of Fundamental Rights. It
is empowered to issue directions, orders or writs, including writs in the nature of
habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari to enforce them.
The Supreme Court has been conferred with power to direct transfer of any civil or
criminal case from one State High Court to another State High Court, or from a court
subordinate to another State High Court.
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) : Although the proceedings in the Supreme Court
arise out of the judgments or orders made by the Subordinate Courts, of late the
Supreme Court has started entertaining matters in which interest of the public at large
is involved, and the Court may be moved by any individual or group of persons either
by filing a Writ Petition at the Filing Counter of the Court, or by addressing a letter to
Hon'ble The Chief Justice of India highlighting the question of public importance for
invoking this jurisdiction.

[edit] Reform
[edit] Corruption
Main article: Corruption in India

Overview of the index of perception of corruption, 2007

In 2009, nearly a quarter of the 543 elected members of parliament had been charged
with crimes, including rape or murder.[3]
There are many institutional efforts such as the Right to Information Act,
computerization/e-Governance, the establishment of Lokayukta who can be Cabinet
Secretary to check corruption.

[edit] Inefficiency
Currently, most spending fails to reach its intended recipients.[4] Lant Pritchett calls
India's public sector "one of the world's top ten biggest problems - of the order of
AIDS and climate change".[4] The Economist article about Indian civil service (2008)
said that Indian central government employs around 3 million people and states
another 7 million, including "vast armies of paper-shuffling peons".[4] The Economist
states that "India has some of the hardest-working bureaucrats in the world, but its
administration has an abysmal record of serving the public".[5]
Unannounced visits by government inspectors showed that 25% of public sector
teachers and 40% of public sector medical workers could not be found at the
workplace. Teacher absence rates ranged from 15% in Maharashtra to 71% in Bihar.
Despite worse absence rates, public sector teachers enjoy salaries at least five times
higher than private sector teachers. India's absence rates are among the worst in the
world.[6][7][8][9]
Many experiments with computerization have failed due to corruption and other
factors.[10][11] In 2008, Tanmoy Chakrabarty noted that "There are vested interests
everywhere, politicians fear that they will lose control with e-government, and this is
coming in the way of successful implementation of e-government projects in India.
[...] Out of the 27 projects under the NEGP, only one (the MCA21 program) has been
completed. There is tremendous gap between conceptualization and implementation".
[11]

[edit] Spending priorities

See also: Subsidies in India
The government subsidizes everything from gasoline to food.[12][dead link] Loss-making
state-owned enterprises are supported by the government.[12][dead link] Farmers are given
electricity for free.[12][dead link] Overall, a 2005 article by International Herald Tribune
stated that subsidies amounted to 14% of GDP.[12][dead link] As much as 39 percent of

subsidized kerosene is stolen.[12][dead link] Moreover, these subsidies cause economic

distortions.[12][dead link]
On the other hand, India spends relatively little on education, health, or infrastructure.
Urgently needed infrastructure investment has been much lower than in China.
According to the UNESCO, India has the lowest public expenditure on higher
education per student among developing and developed countries.[13]

[edit] Deficits
As per the CIA World Factbook, India ranks 23rd in the world, with respect to the
Public Debt, with a total of 61.30% of GDP, just before United States, which ranks
24th (2008 estimated).[14]

[edit] Finance
[edit] Taxation
Main article: Taxation in India

Regional office of the State Bank of India (SBI), India's largest bank, in Mumbai. The
government of India is the largest shareholder in SBI.
It is headed by the finance ministry of the government of india. India has a three-tier
tax structure, wherein the constitution empowers the union government to levy
income tax, tax on capital transactions (wealth tax, inheritance tax), sales tax, service
tax, customs and excise duties and the state governments to levy sales tax on intrastate
sale of goods, tax on entertainment and professions, excise duties on manufacture of
alcohol, stamp duties on transfer of property and collect land revenue (levy on land
owned). The local governments are empowered by the state government to levy
property tax and charge users for public utilities like water supply, sewage etc.[15][16]
More than half of the revenues of the union and state governments come from taxes,
of which 3/4th come from direct taxes. More than a quarter of the union government's
tax revenues is shared with the state governments.[17]
The tax reforms, initiated in 1991, have sought to rationalise the tax structure and
increase compliance by taking steps in the following directions:

Reducing the rates of individual and corporate income taxes, excises, customs
and making it more progressive

Reducing exemptions and concessions

Simplification of laws and procedures
Introduction of permanent account number (PAN) to track monetary
transactions
21 of the 28 states introduced value added tax (VAT) on 1 April 2005 to
replace the complex and multiple sales tax system[16][18]

The non-tax revenues of the central government come from fiscal services, interest
receipts, public sector dividends, etc., while the non-tax revenues of the States are
grants from the central government, interest receipts, dividends and income from
general, economic and social services.[19]
Inter-state share in the federal tax pool is decided by the recommendations of the
Finance Commission to the President.
Total tax receipts of Centre and State amount to approximately 18% of national GDP.
This compares to a figure of 3745% in the OECD.

[edit] General budget

The Finance minister of India presents the annual union budget in the Parliament on
the last working day of February. The budget has to be passed by the Lok Sabha
before it can come into effect on 1 April, the start of India's fiscal year. The Union
budget is preceded by an economic survey which outlines the broad direction of the
budget and the economic performance of the country for the outgoing financial year.
This economic survey involves all the various NGOs, women organizations, business
people, old people associations etc.
The 2009 Union budget of India had a total estimated expenditure for 2009-10 was
1,020,838 crore (US$227.6 billion), of which 695,689 crore (US$155.1 billion) was
towards Non Plan and 325,149 crore (US$72.5 billion) towards Plan expenditure.
Total estimated revenue was 619,842 crore (US$138.2 billion), including revenue
receipts of 614,497 crore (US$137 billion) and capital receipts of 5,345 crore
(US$1.2 billion), excluding borrowings. The resulting fiscal deficit was 400,996
crore (US$89.4 billion) while revenue deficit was 282,735 crore (US$63 billion).The
gross tax receipts were budgeted at 641,079 crore (US$143 billion) and non-tax
revenue receipts at 140,279 crore (US$31.3 billion).
India's non-development revenue expenditure has increased nearly fivefold in 2003
04 since 199091 and more than tenfold since 19851986. Interest payments are the
single largest item of expenditure and accounted for more than 40% of the total non
development expenditure in the 200304 budget. Defence expenditure increased
fourfold during the same period and has been increasing due to India's desire to
project its military prowess beyond South Asia. In 2007, India's defence spending
stood at US$26.5 billion.[20

Ambassadors and High Commissioners to other countries.

The President also receives the credentials of Ambassadors and High Commissioners
from other countries. The President is the de jure Commander in Chief of the Indian
Armed Forces. The President of India can grant a pardon to or reduce the sentence of
a convicted person for one time, particularly in cases involving punishment of death.
The decisions involving pardoning and other rights by the president are independent
of the opinion of the Prime Minister or the Lok Sabha majority. In most other cases,
however, the President exercises his or her executive powers on the advice of the
Prime Minister.