CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 73 of 120

Correct — C, The National Authority Chemical Weapons Convention. The other three are genuine Departments of the Ministry of Home Affairs; this one is not a Department at all, and it does not sit under Home Affairs. The National Authority Chemical Weapons Convention is an office of the Cabinet Secretariat, set up to discharge India's obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and to act as the national focal point for dealings with the OPCW at The Hague. Its own website says so in as many words — that it is an office in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India. The Second Schedule to the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 lists the Ministry of Home Affairs with the Department of Internal Security, the Department of States, the Department of Official Language, the Department of Home and the Department of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh Affairs — and the chemical-weapons authority appears nowhere in that entry.

• (a)The Department of States — This is an MHA Department. The Department of States handles Centre-State and Inter-State relations, Union Territories, freedom-fighter pensions and the administration of the States' side of Home Ministry business.
• (b)The Department of Official Language — Also an MHA Department. Raj Bhasha Vibhag implements Article 343 and the Official Languages Act, 1963 — progressive use of Hindi in Union business, Hindi teaching schemes and the Kendriya Hindi Samiti.
• (d)The Department of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh Affairs — Also an MHA Department. It was created after the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 and handles constitutional and administrative matters relating to the two Union Territories carved out of the former State.

The Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, made by the President under Article 77(3), decide which Ministry does what. Their Second Schedule lists every Ministry with its Departments and the subjects each handles. A body can be attached to the Government without being a Department of any Ministry — several sit directly under the Cabinet Secretariat, which is the Prime Minister's own secretariat for inter-ministerial coordination and which also houses the Research and Analysis Wing and the Directorate of Public Grievances.

Three of the four options are names an aspirant will have met on the Home Ministry's own organisation chart, so the item really tests whether you can place the fourth. The chemical-weapons authority sounds like a security body, and 'internal security' is Home Ministry territory, which is what makes the trap work. The giveaway is the word 'Convention' — India's compliance machinery for a disarmament treaty is a cross-ministry job, drawing officers from Environment, Commerce, Defence and Home, and a body that has to coordinate across ministries is usually parked in the Cabinet Secretariat rather than inside any one Ministry. One nuance worth carrying: the Department of Border Management was created as a sixth MHA Department in January 2004 and UPSC has asked about it, but it no longer appears as a separate Department in the current Allocation of Business Rules, its work having been folded back into the Ministry's border-management wing.

• The Second Schedule to the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 lists the Ministry of Home Affairs with five Departments — Internal Security, States, Official Language, Home, and Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh Affairs.
• The National Authority Chemical Weapons Convention is an office of the Cabinet Secretariat and is India's national focal point for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
• It is headed by a Chairperson and has Directors drawn from several Ministries, including a Joint Secretary from the Ministry of Home Affairs — which is why it is easy to mistake for a Home Ministry body.
• The Allocation of Business Rules are made by the President under Article 77(3) of the Constitution.

• Assuming that anything with 'security' or 'weapons' in its name belongs to Home Affairs or Defence.
• Treating the Department of Border Management as a current MHA Department; it was created in 2004 but no longer stands separately in the Allocation of Business Rules.
• Confusing the Department of States, which handles Centre-State relations, with the Ministry of External Affairs.

Almost always as a which-ministry-does-this-body-sit-under item, sometimes inverted into 'which of these is NOT a Department of X'.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The National Authority Chemical Weapons Convention functions under which one of the following?

  • (a)Ministry of Defence
  • (b)Cabinet Secretariat
  • (c)Ministry of Home Affairs
  • (d)Ministry of External Affairs

  Answer(b) Cabinet Secretariat — it is an office of the Cabinet Secretariat and is India's focal point for dealings with the OPCW.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules are made under which Article of the Constitution?

  • (a)Article 74
  • (b)Article 75
  • (c)Article 77
  • (d)Article 78

  Answer(c) Article 77 — clause (3) empowers the President to make rules for the more convenient transaction of Government business and for its allocation among Ministers.