RAS question
The Committee on Public Undertakings examines:
Correct answer: (A) Reports and accounts of public sector undertakings, including CAG's reports on them.
The Committee on Public Undertakings examines the reports and accounts of public sector undertakings, including the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's reports on them.
Explanation
The Committee on Public Undertakings is a parliamentary committee concerned with legislative oversight of public enterprises. It was constituted in 1964 on the Krishna Menon Committee's recommendation and has 22 members, with 15 from the Lok Sabha and 7 from the Rajya Sabha. The Sansad introduction confirms the functional core: the Committee examines the reports and accounts of public undertakings, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's reports on them, and whether their affairs are managed according to sound business principles and prudent commercial practices. That is why option A is the best answer: the Committee is not estimating future expenditure or auditing private companies, but scrutinising public undertakings and related CAG reports.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Estimates of future government expenditure fall outside this Committee's stated focus on reports, accounts, CAG reports and management of public undertakings.
- (C) The Committee deals with public undertakings, not only private companies' audits.
- (D) Its remit is not confined to defence-sector undertakings; the function refers to public undertakings covered under the Lok Sabha rules.
Concept
This tests parliamentary financial oversight, especially the distinction between committees that examine estimates, public accounts and public undertakings. It recurs in RAS because committee functions are a standard way to test how legislative control over the executive works in practice.