Match List – I with List – II and choose the correct answer using the code given below the lists.
List – I (Finance Commission)
A. Eleventh
B. Twelfth
C. Thirteenth
D. Fourteenth
List – II (Chairman)

Question

Match List – I with List – II and choose the correct answer using the code given below the lists.
List – I (Finance Commission)
A. Eleventh
B. Twelfth
C. Thirteenth
D. Fourteenth
List – II (Chairman)
1. Dr. C. Rangarajan
2. Dr. Y. V. Reddy
3. Prof. A. M. Khusro
4. Dr. Vijay L. Kelkar
Code :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — A, A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2: Eleventh — Prof. A. M. Khusro; Twelfth — Dr C. Rangarajan; Thirteenth — Dr Vijay L. Kelkar; Fourteenth — Dr Y. V. Reddy.

Taking the four Commissions in turn. The Eleventh Finance Commission, whose award covered 2000-05, was chaired by the economist Professor A. M. Khusro; its award was the first to work with the single divisible pool of all Union taxes created by the Eightieth Constitutional Amendment, 2000, and it set the States' share at 29.5 per cent. The Twelfth, for 2005-10, was chaired by Dr C. Rangarajan, a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India; it is remembered for the Debt Consolidation and Relief Facility offered to States that enacted fiscal responsibility legislation, and for telling States to borrow directly from the market rather than through the Centre. The Thirteenth, for 2010-15, was chaired by Dr Vijay L. Kelkar, a former Union Finance Secretary; it drafted a model Goods and Services Tax with a compensation package tied to adherence to that design, and recommended devolving a share of central taxes to local bodies as grants. The Fourteenth, for 2015-20, was chaired by Dr Y. V. Reddy, also a former RBI Governor; it made the single largest change in the history of Indian fiscal federalism by raising the States' share of the divisible pool from 32 to 42 per cent.

Only option (a) produces that set. The paper's trap is that two of the four chairmen — Rangarajan and Reddy — were Governors of the Reserve Bank, so the names sit together in memory and the wrong options simply rotate them. Anchoring on Khusro is the cheapest route: he is the odd one out, an academic economist rather than a central banker or a finance secretary, and he chaired the Eleventh. Fixing A-3 alone eliminates options (c) and (d) at once.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) The hardest of the three to reject, because it opens correctly with A-3, Khusro at the Eleventh Commission — and then rotates the remaining three names by one place. It puts Y. V. Reddy at the Twelfth (he chaired the Fourteenth), C. Rangarajan at the Thirteenth (he chaired the Twelfth) and Vijay Kelkar at the Fourteenth (he chaired the Thirteenth). Every pair after the first is wrong.  (c) Gets only the Thirteenth right. It swaps the first two — Y. V. Reddy at the Eleventh and Khusro at the Twelfth, whereas Khusro chaired the Eleventh and Reddy the Fourteenth — and then hands the Fourteenth to Rangarajan, who chaired the Twelfth.  (d) Every one of the four pairs is wrong. Rangarajan is placed at the Eleventh (he chaired the Twelfth), Khusro at the Twelfth (he chaired the Eleventh), Reddy at the Thirteenth (he chaired the Fourteenth) and Kelkar at the Fourteenth (he chaired the Thirteenth). It is the option produced by assuming the chairmen appear in List-II in the same order as the Commissions in List-I.

Concept: The Finance Commission is a constitutional body under Article 280. The President must constitute one every fifth year, or earlier if he considers it necessary, and it consists of a Chairman and four other members whose qualifications Parliament has prescribed by law. Its core task is to recommend how the net proceeds of shareable central taxes are divided between the Union and the States — vertical devolution — and how the States' portion is distributed among them — horizontal devolution; it also recommends the principles governing grants-in-aid to States out of the Consolidated Fund of India under Article 275, and, since the 73rd and 74th Amendments, measures to augment State funds to supplement the resources of panchayats and municipalities. The report goes to the President, who causes it to be laid before each House of Parliament with an explanatory memorandum on the action taken (Article 281). Its recommendations are advisory, not binding, though the devolution formula is in practice always accepted.

State PCS 2025 Q123 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q123 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer