RAS question
The concept of 'Zero-Based Budgeting' was first applied in India during which Prime Minister's tenure?
Correct answer: (C) Rajiv Gandhi.
Zero-Based Budgeting was first applied in India during Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's tenure, in the 1986-87 budget period.
Explanation
Zero-Based Budgeting in India is linked to Rajiv Gandhi's tenure because it was introduced in 1986-87, when each budget item had to be justified from scratch rather than carried forward from the previous year's allocation. The Union Budget 1987-88 Budget Speech, Government of India confirms the Rajiv Gandhi budget context: it is the speech of Shri Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and it stresses that expenditure policy needed a thorough review rather than ad hoc, across-the-board cuts. That fits the logic of ZBB: departments cannot assume last year's spending base is automatically valid; they must defend the need and value of expenditure afresh.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Jawaharlal Nehru's period is associated in the question record with Five Year Plans, while ZBB's Indian introduction came much later, in 1986-87.
- (B) Morarji Desai's tenure does not match the 1986-87 timing given for the first application of ZBB in India.
- (D) Indira Gandhi's government is not the period identified for ZBB; it is placed during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure in 1986-87.
Concept
This tests public finance reform, especially the difference between incremental budgeting and Zero-Based Budgeting. It recurs in RAS because budgeting methods connect fiscal discipline, expenditure review and administrative accountability.