RAS question
The Comptroller and Auditor General is the head of the:
Correct answer: (B) Indian Audit and Accounts Department.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is the head of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department.
Explanation
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is a constitutional authority under Article 148, and the CAG page explains that the organisation headed by the CAG is the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, or IA&AD. This matters because IA&AD is not a separate policy body; it is the CAG's institutional arm for carrying out the duties and responsibilities entrusted to the office. Those duties include auditing government receipts and expenditure, and the CAG's reports are placed before Parliament or State Legislatures under Article 151. So, when the question asks what the CAG heads, the institutional answer is IA&AD, not a ministry, regulator, or planning body.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) NITI Aayog is a policy and planning institution, while the cited CAG source identifies the CAG's own organisation as the Indian Audit and Accounts Department.
- (C) The Reserve Bank of India is outside the CAG's departmental structure; the source links the CAG to IA&AD, the organisation used to discharge audit responsibilities.
- (D) The Finance Ministry handles government finance administration, but the CAG is a constitutional audit authority whose headed organisation is IA&AD, not the ministry.
Concept
This tests constitutional bodies and financial accountability, especially the institutional role of the CAG under Articles 148 to 151. RAS repeats such questions because audit, legislative control over expenditure, and public accountability sit at the core of Indian polity.